High Sierra (1941)
by Raoul Walsh
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Product details
Actor: Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy, Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Joan LeslieDirector: Raoul Walsh
Cinematographer: Tony Gaudio
Editor: Jack Killifer
Producer: Hal B. Wallis
Producer: Mark Hellinger
Writer: John Huston
Writer: W.R. Burnett
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, NTSC, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
Running Time: 100 minutes
Release Date: 2000-03-07
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Studio: Warner Home Video
VHS Movie Reviews of High Sierra (1941)
Movie Review: Life on the edge
Summary: 3 Stars
This famous 1941 film not only cemented Humphrey Bogart's superstar status (after spending most of his earlier years playing only supporting heavy roles), but it also signaled the end of the long run of Warner's gangster movies since the early Thirties and the beginning of the studios' move to film noir. Unfortunately, without much of a knowledge of its revolutionary status today it does not play either as one of the better gangster films or one of the better noirs; the director, Raoul Walsh, does not seem fully in control of the material. The central plot involving a recently released convict (Bogart) and his small gang stationed up high in the Sierras to rob the safes of a luxury lodge is terrific, but all of this is intercut with kinds of bizarre other elements: a comic lodge employee (Willie Best), a monkey-faced dog with a curse, a screaming hotel guest wearing what looks like taffeta wings, and, worst of all, a subplot involving a poor family of Ohio farmers traveling westward whose lives keep intertwining with Bogart's. Bogart idealizes the disabled granddaughter in the family, Joan Leslie, as the very repository of all that is good and sweet in the world, and pays for her leg to be operated upon; once she's healed, he discovers she doesn't want to marry him but rather hook up with some sort of lounge lizard from back in Ohio. Neither the lounge lizard nor his pals seem all that bad; they're just really annoying, but Bogart takes their presence as a terrible betrayal, just as he does Leslie's desire to dance all over the place now that her leg is better. So instead he turns to the nervy gun moll in his gang Marie (Ida Lupino, as intense and riveting as ever).
All this plays as if it were far too scrupulously adapted from a much longer and more comprehensive novel, which is exactly the case: the ever-faithful John Huston keeps far too much from the W. R. Burnett novel published the year before. (This film marked the first collaboration between Bogart and Huston.) What redeems everything is the great acting work by Lupino and, especially, Humphrey Bogart in the central role: much leaner than he has ever elsewhere seemed and able to bring all kinds of warm shading to his aging gangster, Bogart makes you genuinely like this dangerous murderer. The final section where Bogart is actually cornered by police for hours up in the craggy otherworldly high Sierras is genuinely thrilling, and the location shooting was extremely rare for the time.
Movie Review: High Sierra
Summary: 5 Stars
ESSENTIAL MOVIE!!! High Sierra was the movie that finally catapulted Bogey into a major star. The role of Roy Earle was one he had campaigned to get but almost didn't. Bogey recognized the role as being one that was complex & challenging. Yhis was also the last film that Bogey didn't get top billing, Warner Bros. had decided to give Ida Lupino that distinction though her role was subordinate to Bogey's.
Roy Earle is a bank robber that has done several years incarcerated. at the opening of the film we see Earle being released on a pardon. A friend, Big Mac (Donald MacBride) has worked hard behind the scenes to secure his release. But it's not just generosity, Big Mac wants Earle to go to California for a sure-thing heist. From the very beginning we see the complexities of the Earle character. Immediately upon his release he wants to "see if the grass is still green & if the trees are still growing."
Earle meets up with an ex-cop, Jake Kranmer (Barton MacLane), who has the information, cash & car for Earle to get to California. Earle instantly dislikes & distrusts Kranmer & slaps him around. Here, we see the other side of the Earle character, the one who can be violent & vicious.
On the journey across the country he happens to meet a family heading the same way & more than broke. Pa (Henry Travers) & Earle take an instant liking to one another, Pa even thinks he's one of the best men alive though he doesn't realize who Earle is. There's also Pa's wife, Ma (Elizabeth Risdon) & Pa's daughter by a previous marriage, Velma (Joan Leslie). The family is going to California because Pa's ex-wife & mother of Velma has invited them to live with her. Velma is a beautiful young lady but she has one problem: She has a club foot. Earle falls for her immediately though there's a big age difference. Once again, we see the good & caring side of the Earle character.
When Earle arrives at his destination he finds the two men, Red (Arthur Kennedy) & Babe (Alan Curtis), at a cabin with a dime-a-dance woman with them, Marie (Ida Lupino). Earle doesn't want the woman there becuause he senses trouble. He tells Red to get rid of her. Later, Marie goes to Earle's cabin & convinces him to let her stay. Red & Babe are inexperienced, Red's in awe of him but Babe sees him as being over the hill. It's here at the dog, Pard, is introduced. He's a lovable & intelligent mutt that has taken up with other people previously. Algernon (Willie Best) informs Earle that Pard is bad luck, every person the mutt has stayed with has died. Now we have the harbinger of death. But Pard really takes a liking to Earle & it's mutual. We see the good side of Earle again; you can't be all bad if a lovable mutt takes a shine to you, can you?
The heist has an inside man, Louis Mendoza (Cornel Wilde - in only his second movie), who works the counter at the rich resort Earle has been hired to rob. Once again, Earle suspects Mendoza as a snitch & sees him as being a weak link in the plan. Earle subtly threatens Mendoza with a story about another snitch who was killed with a machine gun which Earle has just produced in a musical case.
Earle falls in love with Velma & feels that Velma should have an operation on her foot. He brings along Doc (Henry Hull) to examine her. Though Doc can't do the operation himself, he tells Earle it can be done & he knows the right doctor who can do it for $500! To complicate this Marie has fallen in love with Earle. When Earle confesses to Marie he'd like to marry her she rejects him but not without some regret. Earle rejects Marie, likewise, being honest with her about his feelings for Marie. After the heist Earle pays one more visit to the family & Velma because he had promised to see Velma after the operation. Velma is now happy & appears to be headed toward a life of partying. It appears that she's ungrateful & gets ugly with Earle.
The heist goes terribly wrong; Earle shoots a night watchman, Red & Babe are killed during the escape but Mendoza survives the car crash That killed Red & Babe. Later, while in custody of the police, Mendoza fingers Earle as the escaped robber.
The final scenes include an exciting car chase & Earle's demise at Mount Whitney.
Bogart's interpretation of the Earle character is dynamic. He's able to play both sides of the character convincingly. Lupino is excellent as is Leslie. It's unfortunate that the movie didn't receive any Academy nominations though it did receive three nominations from the National Board of Review winning two; Bogart for best actor & Lupino for best actress, the other nomination was for best movie. The screenplay was by John Huston & W. R. Burnett, author of the novel. It was a rather faithful adaptation of the book which Huston had a reputation for. High Sierra was directed by the great Raoul Walsh, one of Hollywood's best.
The disc has a bonus feature, "Roy Earle: The Story of High Sierra" that's a little less than fifteen minutes. In this feature we learn about the odds that Bogey had to overcome to secure the role of Roy Earle. The role was offered to every tough guy at Warner Bros., George Raft, Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney & Paul Muni. Raft came the closest to gaining the role but balked at some points in the script. This event, & the later one where Raft turned down the role of Rick in Casablanca, led to Bogey becoming one of Hollywood's most loved & sought after actors. Thank you, George Raft!
Movie Review: "CLASSIC CRIME DRAMA"
Summary: 5 Stars
Roy Earle is released from prison and is preparing for his final heist. Screenplay by,W.R.Bernett&
John Houston. Directer;Raoul Walch. Lupino&bogart with a great cast. I call this movie;Sympathy
for the criminal film. (You're brought into their world.) This is a well crafted movie from the
40's.
The most subtle scene is,Bogart at the cigaret counter.
Check my review of;"I died a 1000 times."(remake.)
Extra's:Interviews,which includes Joan Leslie. Trailers,etc.
Movie Review: The film that made a star out of Bogart...and his dog, too!
Summary: 5 Stars
"High Sierra" is an important film in many ways. It was the bridge between 1930's gangster movies and 1940's film noir. It was the first instance of the romantic, sympathetic criminal. It was also the pivotal movie of Bogart's career. It was the first time the studio's publicity department promoted him as a "star" and the last time he didn't receive top billing in a film. He deserved the attention he received for pulling off the character of Roy "Mad Dog" Earle; he was able to make this Dillinger-with-a-heart-of-gold believable.
The film benefits from a lot of top drawer talent; directed by Raoul Walsh from a screen play adaptation by John Houston. Bogart and Ida Lupino were reunited from their previous successful teaming in "They Drive by Night." The strong supporting cast includes Joan Leslie as the girl Bogart wanted to marry, and Cornel Wilde as the "inside man" on the planned heist. Even the dog is wonderful! (The role of "Pard" is played by Bogart's own pet mutt, Zero.)
Walsh fought for and won the right to film on location at Mount Whitney. We're used to location shooting now, but if you watch many films contemporary to "High Sierra" you can't help but notice the artificial "filmed" background screens.
Warner Brothers does their usual nice job with the DVD package. The print has been cleaned up significantly; the video is very good quality and the sound is crisp and clean.
Special features include an original trailer for "High Sierra" and an interesting documentary about Bogart's career and the making of this film. Already somewhat familiar with Bogart's biography the narrative didn't have any big surprises, but there are a couple of amazing photos of Bogart in his early 20's. One shot of him at about age 22 in a top hat and tails, sporting an ear to ear grin, doesn't bear any resemblance to the Bogart we all know and love.
"High Sierra" is a significant film that belongs in any serious film buff's collection.
Highly recommended!
Movie Review: One of Bogarts best.
Summary: 5 Stars
I had seen this movie on TV enough, that I decided to go ahead and buy this DVD. It's a wonderful addition to my movie collection.
The DVD is beautiful, very nice transfer. Movie itself is wonderful, full of intrigue and the last few minutes of the movie are wonderful.
All the preformances are spectacular. This is one of Bogart's best movies, Dark Passage is another wonderful Bogart film. Ida Lupino, Arthur Kennedy add to the richness of the picture. I recommend buying this DVD.
Summary of High Sierra (1941)
This 1941 melodrama is memorable for both its strong central performances and their intimations of how the previous decade's crime dramas would evolve into film noir--no accident, given the solid direction of veteran Raoul Walsh and the hand of screenwriter John Huston, who teamed with the author of its novelistic source, W.R. Burnett (Little Caesar). In the central character of Roy "Mad Dog" Earle, a fictional peer to John Dillinger, Humphrey Bogart finds a defining role that anticipates the underlying fatalism and moral ambiguity visible in the career-making roles soon to follow, including Sam Spade in Huston's directorial debut, The Maltese Falcon.Earle suggests a prescient variation on the enraged sociopaths that were fixtures of the gangster melodramas that shaped Bogart's early screen image. Pardoned from a long prison stretch, the weary robber is clearly more eager to savor his new freedom than immediately swing back into action. But his early release has been engineered by a mobster who wants Earle to pull off a high-stakes burglary, setting in motion a plot that is a prototype for doomed-heist capers--a small, yet potent subgenre that would later include Huston's The Asphalt Jungle and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing.
What gives High Sierra its power, however, isn't the crime itself but Earle's collision with the younger, brasher confederates picked to help him, and the hard-edged but vulnerable taxi dancer they're competing for, played forcefully by Ida Lupino, who actually received top billing. Her attraction to the reluctant Earle is complicated by a convoluted subplot designed to showcase then starlet Joan Leslie, but the movie finally moves into its most gripping moments when the wounded Earle, pursued by police, flees ever higher toward the mountains. His final, suicidal showdown would become a clich? of sorts in lesser films, but here it provides a wrenching climax sealed by Lupino's vivid final scene. --Sam Sutherland
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