22 May 2012

Great performances hampered by a silly storyline

Reading the editorial review as well as the customer reviews, I didn't realize the context the movie had when it came out in its day. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold up too well today. The plotting is its ultimate failure, as Bogie's Roy Earle lets his guard down all too often in the silliest of ways. This directly contradicts with Bogie's portrayal of a streetwise seasoned con who appears to know all the tricks in the book as well as the downsides to a life of crime, fitting in line with his greatest gangster roles like Glenn Griffin and Duke Mantee. The "big" heist plays off as such a small affair where the criminals spend much of their time waiting for the green light by twiddling their thumbs, fighting with each other, and taking side trips that have nothing to do with the heist itself. The heist itself is pulled off in the open, with the criminals baring their faces to several witnesses. Earle himself stays in the clear far too long for even the police work of the time and the scale of the heist as portrayed in the film, given the fact that he doesn't lie low like he should and is aided by a few lucky breaks that would most likely never happen in real life. Worth a look but definitely not a keeper.

Rajiv

22 May 2012

A Touching Gangster Tale

The movie follows the life of 'Mad Dog' Earle over after his release from prison through as heist and ultimately to his death. The movie is touching as it shows the human side of the gangster through his dissappointments in love, his tenderness and his humaneness. Humphrey Bogart stars as a weathered old robber and Ida Lupino as a ex-bar girl. Both performances are understated and impressive. Perhaps this is the movie that brought Humphrey Bogart critical acclaim and further roles as a leading man.A very good film - a compelling watch. Most recommended.

pitsburghfuzz

20 May 2012

Manhunt for Maddog!

Although many credit Casablanca to be his first sympatheticperformance, this was actually his first. The film is about RoyEarle(Bogart), a gangster just released out of prison and is sent to doa job. He meets with Babe and Red(Curtis and Kennedy) and a girl namedMarie(Lupino). As he traveled to meet them he met a nice family and wasattracted to Velma(Leslie) who has a clubfoot and Earle decides to payfor her surgery hoping to make her fall in love with him. The film endswith a great manhunt for Earle in the mountains, one of the mostintense scenes ever. Lupino and Bogarts' chemistry is fantastic. Eventhough Lupino is given top billing, you obviously know Bogart is themain character in the film. Its a film about dreams and how they candrastically clash with reality and the people living in it.

Boba_Fett1138

19 May 2012

The movie that made Bogart a top-billing star.

It's hard to imaging these days but there was a time when HumphreyBogart was nothing more than an actor who always played secondarycharacter roles, in the shadow of the movie its main character. Forinstance behind George Raft, who was a much bigger star at the time butalso female leads such as Ida Lupino, who also stars in this movie. ButRaft then turned down roles for movies such as this movie "HighSierra", "The Maltese Falcon" and "Casablanca". All roles that werethen past on to Bogart instead. Roles that truly launched his career toan amazing height, surpassing George Raft by far. Still, he didn'treceived top-billing for this movie yet. That honor once more went toIda Lupino, even though Bogart's role is much bigger and isunquestionably the main character of the movie. Ida Lupino was just abetter selling name, which says something of the time period and pointof Bogart's career this movie got made in. This movie really marked hisbig breakthrough and after this he would mostly only land roles as atop-billing actor, in movies such as "Casablanca", "The Treasure of theSierra Madre" and "The Maltese Falcon".But what makes this movie so great is not just Bogart but also reallythe movie its story and directing from Raoul Walsh.The story is written by John Huston, who is better known as an actorand director than a writer, even though he wrote the screenplay formany fine movies. This is also truly one of those movies. It's reallyno formulaic story and truly highly original and therefor alsocompelling. The main character is in love with a girl who isn't in lovewith him, while there is another girl who is in love with him, thoughhis heart is still with this other girl. Sounds melodramatic andperhaps confusing but it's something really refreshing to see and makesthe story and character developments progress in a way you wouldn'talways expect it to. On top of that there is a main plot-line involvinga robbery but really the movie is mostly about its central character.This movie just has basically everything in its story that is needed tomake a great movie with. Add to that the performance from Bogart andthe fantastic directing from Raoul Walsh and you have a great, tense,entertaining, fast going and original classic movie.It's not really fully a film-noir, since that genre was still prettymuch non-existent at that time and was still a work in progress. Thismovie does show some noir tendencies, mostly with its lead character,female roles and the main plot line involving a robbery but it's notquite noir enough in its style to fully consider this a pure film-noir.It's the other Humphrey Bogart from later in the same year, "TheMaltese Falcon" that is widely considered to be one of the first realfilm-noir's. Ironicly it was a movie directed by John Huston, the manwho wrote the screenplay for this movie.The movie also features some surprising good action sequences. You haveto remember that this is an 1941, when the action genre was stillsomething non-existent but director Raoul Walsh knows to create acouple of good looking action sequences with camera-positions andediting you would expect from an action movie that is being made thispresent day. Especially the car chases within this movie are memorable.Interestingly enough director Raoul Walsh himself remade this movie 8years later into a western movie "Colorado Territory", that might notbe as good as this original but it's just as good, intriguing andentertaining on its own and remains an under-appreciated movie.A real perfect classic and still an unique movie to watch.10/10

telegonus

17 May 2012

Mountain Greenery

W.R. Burnett's novel High Sierra is maybe his best book; it's certainly aclassic of its type, and very readable and moving even today. The movieversion of the book isn't quite as good, but it does something fewadaptations do: it captures the spirit of the original.The story is about a John Dillinger-like criminal, Roy Earle, just releasedfrom prison, and his planning of his last 'heist', as he moves from theMidwest to California. It's as much a character study as anything else, andhere the book is better, as Burnett seems to get inside the heart and soulof Roy Earle in ways that screenwriter John Huston and director Raoul Walshcan't. This isn't their fault. Burnett gives us Earle's inner life ininterior monologues, and movies simply can't do this. Nevertheless, we get afeeling for Earle, a lonely, extremely sentimental and romantic man,essentially a frontier type, or with more brains an artist, who cannot fitinto modern life. The reason is simple: he doesn't understand it. He isdriven by two things, strong emotions and extreme professionalism. Theproblem is that his profession is crime. Between these two extremes he isunsocialized, or rather doesn't understand the subtlety of contemporarylife. To put it in current parlance, he's not hip, which is to say he has nodetachment, no capacity for pulling back and reflecting, unless, that is, heis in love, and even then he gets it wrong by misunderstanding anattractive, crippled girl's reliance on him for love, and taking her countrygirl disposition for naivite (i.e. like him), which isn't true. This tragicaspect of Roy Earle is beautifully and perceptively described by Burnett,and while it's present in the film, it makes Roy seem obtuse, while thetruth is his emotions run deep, and are sincere. He wants to give up crimeand marry a small-town girl so that he can go back and get it right again.In the lead role Humphrey Bogart gives a major performance. Superficiallyhe's wrong for Roy Earle: too urban, flip, smart and clever. But he tradesin his natural big city persona for a moony, brooding romanticism, and itworks. He doesn't seem the least bit sophisticated, and in his quietermoments he comes off like a man who can kill the way other men write checksHe has a true girl-friend in Ida Lupino, but he doesn't realize that she'smore his type: life-weary, straightforward, deep and caring. He prefers theone he can't get, and this gets him in trouble, as his commitment to herputs him in a dreamy, dissociative state that is dangerous for a man in hisline of work. The story builds on little things, and the bucolic mountainand small-town setting of the film is terra incognita for Roy, and we sensethis even if he doesn't. He is, for all his professionalism, way out of hisleague, and is looking back to his idealized, romanticized early life, andlonging for an ideal girl that he can 'fix', rather than doing the rightthing and going off with Lupino and stating anew, which is his only chancefor happiness.Roy is a man who lives in two parallel worlds, the real, vicious one he mustcope with, and the fantasy one he longs for and sees in the crippled girl heso tenderly loves. There is no in-between for him, as his head is in theclouds much of the time. It is therefore fitting that the movie ends upliterally in the clouds, or so it seems, atop a mountain, as Roy shoots itout with reality one last time.

Bolesroor

17 May 2012

I Know Why Its Great

"High Sierra" is a movie that everyone sees and loves but no one seemsto understand why... at least I have yet to see anyone else speak towhat I feel is the heart of the picture. I've read all 57 reviewsposted on the IMDb and I can honestly say I've got a different take onwhat makes the movie such a classic.On the surface the movie seems like a fairly straightforward crimefilm- Humphrey Bogart is Roy Earle, a tough guy criminal trying to pullone last job. But in actuality it is about a man's failure to redeemhimself and his eventual acceptance of his own tragic destiny. To me,this is the quintessential Bogart film, as he SEEMS to be thehard-boiled heavy of the film, when in actuality it is life and societythat are much more cruel and unforgiving; Bogart is actually the victimhere.The tough-guy façade is something Roy Earle develops because of theharsh conditions around him, and in this way he represents many, maybeall American men, who are forced to provide a cold and leatheryexterior to shield themselves from the pain and heartbreak of everydaylife. The robbery plot line is a red herring on which a much deeperstory is hung. Roy's weakness here is the weakness of all men, and itis so obvious, so clunky, so perfectly plain that it transcends thetragic flaw and becomes a badge of honor, the face of every Americanman who has come before or since. His weakness is the desire to loveand be loved.Sure, he has the sharp and sultry Ida Lupino but what Bogey reallywants is Velma, the child, the virgin, the innocent, with whom he cantruly start anew and reinvent himself, achieving an immortality bybecoming her father/husband and raising his own daughter/lover. Sherepresents to him everything that is pure and innocent and good in thislife, everything he has lost out on. And yet what is brilliant aboutBogart's performance is that he knows full well that this fantasy willnever become real, yet he cannot help but go through the ritual: themeeting of Velma, the holding of her hand... it's as hardwired into thepsyche of every American male as breathing in and breathing out.Velma's revulsion at the thought of marrying Earle can be symbolic ofmany things: a wife unable to accept her veteran husband after hisreturn, the inability of the cosmos to forgive him for past sins, theirreversible loss of innocence, or the sad fact that for whateverreason Roy was just not destined for any of the good that life has tooffer... he is cursed. Who hasn't felt that way at one time or another?The movie has a wonderful feel to it... we all seem to know that Roy isheaded for emotional- if not literal- death, and the joy is in watchinghim play the fool, trying in vain to change his fortune. The secret of"High Sierra" is that we enjoy watching lemmings march to theirinevitable deaths... we get off on watching this tragedy unfold.Everyone loves to play God for a day, shaking our heads and laughing atthe futility of a man who thinks he can change his Fate. According tothis movie, that is impossible."High Sierra" is a slow-motion practical joke on its main character. Heenters the world- and the picture- with Original Sin and finds itimpossible to redeem himself or his name. The heart-pounding finale isas obvious as it is compelling... Bogart has reached the end of theline- emotionally, spiritually, romantically, and that his why RoyEarle's story is so memorable and relatable. He is backed up againstthe wall, and his weakness for love- for Velma, for Marie, for Pard-prove to be his undoing. A forsaken man in a cruel world... a classic.GRADE: A-

15 May 2012

High Sierra DVD Review

This review is from: High Sierra (Keepcase) (DVD) A good old movie. This film was remade in the 1950s as "I Died a Thousand Times" with Jack Palance. The 1.33:1 black-and-white picture is of average quality.

Darth Sidious

14 May 2012

Good but not great

Bogart is very good in this picture which has an interesting premise. It'smore about finding love amongst crime, but the one you love slaps you intheface. You can't buy love!All performances are terrific!The direction is good but the picture is let down by a disappointing finalewhich is pretty predictable.Overall, it's good but not great.

CoolBrz

12 May 2012

A classic - one of Bogies finer Moments.

This film has always been one of my favorites. Bogart hit his prime here andnot coincidently received top billing ever after.If you like Bogart this is a must-see.

brocksilvey

12 May 2012

Bogie Heads to the Hills

The majority of this Raoul Walsh crime thriller is standard issue, butit does boast a knockout finale set in the gorges of the Sierra Nevadamountains.Bogart plays a brooding thug "rushin' toward death," who's hitchedhimself to one last scheme -- knocking off a ritzy hotel -- that willallow him to rest easy for a while. But this is a film noir, and thelife of relative normalcy that Bogie's character chases remains justoutside of his grasp, and fate has other plans for him. Onecircumstance after another intervenes to prevent his having a happyending, and he meets his tragic fate in a climactic shoot out while hisgirlfriend (Ida Lupino) looks on.A good part of the film's narrative concerns a rural family who Bogartbefriends, and in particular the young woman (an annoying Joan Leslie)who Bogie sees as a path to domestic happiness. I understand thesignificance of this plot line, but it slows the film downconsiderably, and makes it feel longer than it even is. On the otherhand, there's an inventive and memorable subplot about a dog who may bea harbinger of doom.The mountains themselves are used to tremendous effect, representingboth figuratively and literally the insurmountable environmentalfactors that will always hold Bogie down.Grade: A-

dbdumonteil

08 May 2012

Ida Lupino easily equals Lauren Bacall.

The first thing to bear in mind is that there are actually TWOmovies."High sierra" and its western remake "Colorado territory"(1949),both Walsh 's works.The latter is probably superior to theformer,since the final is more impressive,but you should notunderestimate it though;Humphrey Bogart is much better than Joel McCreaand Ida Lupino is at least as good as Virginia Mayo:actually,except forLauren Bacall,Ingrid Bergman and Katherine Hepburn,rarely a Bogart'sfemale partner had such an intensity,such a presence :sometimes sheeven steals the show,particularly in the last scenes.There are two female parts in Walsh's movie -as in the remake,in whichthe second one is played by none other than Dorothy Malone- Lupino'sbad gal with a strong heart,whose stature keeps on growing during thewhole movie:a gangster's moll at the beginning of the story,she becomesa tragic character whose pursuit of happiness is moving at the end.Onthe other hand the crippled girl,who seems a sweet ,romantic (check thescene of the stars),and touching heroine,becomes an hateful silly goosewhen she's had the operation.And she 's changed physically as well:shegrew into a sophisticated girl,we hardly know her in her last scene.The car chases are masterfully filmed ,the grandiose landscapeslovingly filmed as if they were seen through Bogart's eye ,this man whohad been in jail for a long time and who longed for freedom...thisfreedom he would earn anyway.Ida Lupino's last words will move you totears.

nora_nettlerash

08 May 2012

When a man crashes out

Back in the golden days of Hollywood they had an establishedstar-making process. A promising youngster would be plucked, often fromthe stage or sometimes the ranks of extras, groomed, maybe tried out insome smaller roles, but more often than not would have a picturecommissioned for them and become a lead player in their very firstrole. The trouble is it didn't always work. Who now has heard ofsomeone like Anna Sten, one-time golden girl at Samuel Goldwyn'sstudio? Even Tyrone Power, one of the star-making racket's biggestsuccesses, is hardly of legendary status and was never an amazingactor. However many of the brightest stars of this period are ones whoemerged gradually, working their way up from bit parts, throughsupporting roles over a period of years before they hit the big time.This is how it was for John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracey and, ofcourse, Humphrey Bogart.Bogart had been around for over a decade before this, his first leadingrole, and was even fairly well-known. His parts in the late 30s tendedto be, not primary bad guy, but some despicable demi-villain. If he wasa good guy, it was normally something like the hero's brother, as hewas to George Raft in They Drive By Night. High Sierra has a similarcast and crew to They Drive By Night, and Raft was set to star but forsome reason turned it down. Bogart stepped in, but made it immediatelyclear he was no sloppy second. Finally allowed to take centre-stage,and break away from characters you are supposed to either despise ordisregard, he exudes an effortless, laid-back charisma – that extrasomething that separates a star from a mere actor. Of particulareffectiveness however is the way he is able to believably portray theconflicting parts of Roy Earle's nature, crucially the fact that he isa nice guy, someone we would feel we could hang out with. Raft couldcertainly do a mean gangster act, but if we saw him put an arm roundHenry Travers and say "You're alright Paw", the moment wouldn't havethat same genuine warmth that Bogart gives it.High Sierra is also the perfect starting point for Bogie because thereis no-one else around who is really able to upstage him. A young ArthurKennedy, who plays one of the gang members, was very good, but in aquiet kind of way. Kennedy even at this early stage in his career wasgreat at smoothly and professionally plugging up gaps in the cast,playing his part to perfection but never demanding the attention beupon him. Joan Leslie is the closest we come to a distractingly poorperformance, but luckily her part is smaller than we think it's goingto be, and in any case her character is more supposed to representsomething than be a fully fleshed-out individual. Finally there isleading lady Ida Lupino. Lupino is constantly doing stuff with herhands and eyes, and gives the impression of someone who has studied theacting manuals, worked really hard at being an actress, and yetultimately has no natural flow, her performances looking toothought-out. No wonder she became a director. Still, she is nowherenear as hammy as she was in They Drive By Night, and her reasonablyrestrained turn here is a good compliment for Bogart's easy-goingpresence.Bogart is also lucky to have a very fine director in Raoul Walsh, a manwho certainly knew he had a star on his hands. As much as the rolesuits Bogart, this also happens to be perfect material for Walsh'ssomewhat romantic take on the outlaw life. High Sierra takes thegangster movie away from the streets and speakeasies and into territorymore reminiscent of a Western, and this sense of open space isimportant to Walsh. Look at how Walsh handles that early sequence afterBogart gets out of jail – a potentially throwaway moment with nodialogue, but Walsh builds up its significance. A truly idyllic sceneof kids playing in the park, with point-of-view shots looking up atthose tall trees, giving a real sense of physical freedom and unlimitedpossibility. That feeling is echoed in the frequent shots of mountainsand plains, in which the emphasis is on vast, inviting emptiness andthe breathtaking magnificence of the land. The point Walsh is drawingout here, is that when Roy Earle is fleeing for his life into thedistant peaks, he is closer to freedom than he would be in any cosyhomestead. This is by the way one of Walsh's finest jobs, and if therewas ever a year he deserved an Oscar-nomination this was it.And so, with this fast-paced and fascinating gangster fable, Bogartannounces his arrival. A piece of good timing perhaps, or perhaps notseeing as Bogart had waited so long for such a break. Still,Hollywood's next decade, where pictures so often bridged the gapbetween grittiness and touching humanity, needed a Bogart far more thanthe thirties. Take Bogie out of Casablanca, The Big Sleep, The AfricanQueen or High Sierra itself, and they wouldn't be half the classicsthey have become. That is what star quality means.

Perception_de_Ambiguity

06 May 2012

What works best about this film is the drama.

Without Bogart's romantic aspirations the film would have been dreadfuland empty. Also good: Bogie's hair and him showing a warmer side thanin many other roles in which he played gangsters. The film's problem isthat many of the dramatic turns and conflicts are too obviouslyconstructed and unnatural. Whenever they want to get the plot moving orit is time for some unexcitingly staged action they make one characterdo something unmotivated not to even say something out of character.Either that the next scene just comes out of nowhere. The big heistthat we see the characters setting up every once in a while throughoutthe movie until they execute it at the end of the 2/3 never isintelligibly communicated to the viewer and once we see it happen weunderstand that there really isn't much to it. Not much preparation hadto go into this heist and even less preparation went into it given theoutcome. The finale didn't do much for me either. A car chase with spedup film (you really shouldn't pan the camera uncontrollably if youintend to speed up the film later, but OK, it's 1941) in which the copsnever even come near Bogart's car and a trapped on a mountain situationwithout much pep, character insights,... All in all a film that makesme wonder why this script was picked up in the first place.ONE scene in the movie I was impressed by, though, was very early intothe movie. After Bogie comes out of jail he goes to the apartment ofthis guy he's never seen before to talk business. At the end of theconversation the guy makes a snarky comment about Bogie and what doesBogie do? Without even thinking about it he gives the guy a relativelylight slap in the face and leaves. The guy was just standing therehumiliated not knowing what to do or say. That's the kind of thing I'llhave to incorporate into my everyday life.

seymourblack-1

06 May 2012

A Mad Dog With An Achilles Heel

In "High Sierra" Humphrey Bogart plays an ageing gangster who'sseriously conflicted. On one hand he's a career criminal who's utterlyruthless and readily kills people who get in his way but on the otherhe's also a rather nostalgic, sentimental and compassionate person whohankers after a calmer and more decent lifestyle. The fact that he'srather old for the crime business and that he's surrounded by youngerpeople, contributes to his feelings of alienation which are alsoreinforced by the difficulties he experiences in adjusting to everydaylife, after having spent many years in prison.Bogart's gangster also recognises that his life of crime has put him ona course from which he is unable to escape and that he has noalternative but to follow where fate takes him. This man's Achillesheel is his tendency to be soft hearted and this is, unquestionably, afatal flaw for anyone who pursues a life of crime.Crime boss Big Mac (Donald MacBride) pays for Roy "Mad Dog" Earle(Humphrey Bogart) to be released from prison on parole because he wantsthe experienced bank robber to lead a gang who are planning to carryout a hotel robbery at a Californian resort. When Roy arrives at thegang's cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, he meets Red (ArthurKennedy), Babe (Alan Curtis) and Babe's girlfriend, Marie Garson (IdaLupino). Roy soon recognises that the two young men are inexperiencedand unpredictable and also that there'll be problems if Marie staysinvolved.Roy decides that Marie should be sent back to L.A. but becomes morecontent for her to stay after she tells him that Louis Mendoza (CornelWilde) who works at the hotel and is the gang's "inside man" has atendency to be indiscreet and loose tongued in the wrong places.On his way to L.A. to visit Big Mac, Roy calls on the Goodhue family,Ma (Elisabeth Risdon), Pa (Henry Travers) and their granddaughter Velma(Joan Leslie). Velma is an attractive young lady with a deformed footand Roy pays for her to have surgery to correct the deformity. Later,Roy proposes to Velma but she rejects him for a man closer to her ownage. When he meets Big Mac, Roy discovers that his boss is very ill andas a consequence, the money that he'll earn from the robbery will bevery important to him.When Roy's driving away from the cabin on the night of the robbery,he's followed by a mongrel dog called "Pard" who has a reputation forbringing trouble to his owners. Although he doesn't want to take thedog with him, Roy allows himself to be persuaded to do so. The robberygoes badly and Roy shoots a security guard before escaping. Red andBabe are killed when their car crashes and Louis tells everything heknows when he's questioned by the police.From that point on, all Roy's plans unravel spectacularly, as he andMarie become fugitives and fail to capitalise on the jewels they stolefrom the hotel. Roy decides soon after that it would be too dangerousfor him and Marie to remain together and so they separate. The policethen continue their relentless pursuit until the story eventuallyreaches its extremely dramatic climax.Ida Lupino is excellent as the tough, streetwise Marie whose affectionfor Roy remains strong even after he tells her that he wants to marryVelma. Her devotion to him is unswerving and she continues to remainundaunted throughout all the dangers and setbacks that they experiencetogether.Bogart's exceptional performance in this movie conveys veryconvincingly the complex nature of Roy "Mad Dog" Earle. He talks toughthrough clenched teeth in some scenes but also shows genuine kindnessin others without ever losing any credibility. It's this ability whichis so impressive and no doubt, was a major reason why this role was theone which elevated Bogart to the star status that he justifiablyenjoyed for the rest of his career.

05 May 2012

High Sierra DVD Review

This review is from: High Sierra (Keep Case Packaging) (DVD) A good old movie. This film was remade in the 1950s as "I Died a Thousand Times" with Jack Palance. The 1.33:1 black-and-white picture is of average quality.

Snow Leopard

05 May 2012

Bogart Stands Out In An Interesting Well-Crafted Story

Even aside from its impact on Humphrey Bogart's career and on the noirgenre, "High Sierra" is an entertaining and interesting movie that isworth seeing in its own right. Bogart's portrayal of Roy Earle, alongwith Ida Lupino, a talented supporting cast, and some well-chosensettings, are all fit together nicely to tell an interesting story.Though it's hard now to experience Bogart's gangster roles as theywould have appeared to their original audiences, it's still easy to seewhy this and similar roles attracted so much attention at the time. Thecharacter is interesting to begin with, and Bogart makes him even moreso. The tension between Earle's ruthlessness and his sense of fairness,and between his desires and his practicality, makes for someinteresting possibilities.Bogart makes good use of these opportunities with his distinctivestyle. The other characters and the plot developments furnish plenty ofmaterial that develop Earle's character and give Bogart lots to workwith. Even the sequences that might seem unlikely or out of place areused to add depth to the character and the story.The climactic sequence in the mountains ties everything togethernicely, in a very appropriate setting. "High Sierra" is the kind ofmovie that classic movie fans can enjoy both for the chance to see itsinfluence on later movies and for its own interesting and well-craftedstory.

Frapples

05 May 2012

Not a classic

Just saw this on Turner Classic Movie fest tribute to Humphrey Bogart. I have to say I was not all that impressed. They were claiming this was the movie that launched him in to stardom but I just didn't see it.

Werner

04 May 2012

Bogart shaping up for the Cult movies

This movie was, as it is well known now, a starting point for H.B. tostep out from supporting roles behind Cagney and E.G. Robinson, butalso depending on a then bigger name, G. Raft, to turn it down. He usedthe chance to the max, playing it as cool as can be, befriending a dogand a gangster moll well played by Ida Lupino and helping a cripplegirl back to health and self-confidence and in turning him down.However, the whole thing has a feeling of doom over it : The big shot,who organizes the big heist, is deadly sick, his middleman a deceivingex-cop and his supporting guys at the robbery are 2 gangster rookiesburnt in a car accident on the escape. He makes it to the top at theend, but doesn't enjoy that very long. Good movie at the edge of kitschand sentimental overdose, but fast paced and very entertaining. 8 of10.

03 May 2012

The rise and fall of Roy Mad Dog Earle

Humphrey Bogart is typically superb in Raoul Walsh's HIGH SIERRA, but Ida Lupino easily tops him in her last heartrending scene.John Huston scripted this story of a pardoned Indiana bank robber who goes west to pull off a jewel heist at a mountain resort. Along the way, Roy Earle (Bogart) pays for a crippled young woman's surgery and takes up with an ex-dance hall girl (Lupino).HIGH SIERRA is also available on DVD.Later that same year, Bogart starred as private eye Samuel Spade in the film noir classic THE MALTESE FALCON. (VHS edition) (DVD edition)Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.(7.6) High Sierra (1941) - Ida Lupino/Humphrey Bogart/Alan Curtis/Arthur Kennedy/Joan Leslie/Henry Hull/Henry Travers/Barton MacLane/Elisabeth Risdon/Cornel Wilde/Donald MacBrideTRIVIANA--Paul Muni turned down portraying Roy Earle after he read the script's first draft. WARNER BROS. next tried to cast George Raft, but he refused "another" gangster role. Bogart, who'd been lobbying for the part for some time, was their third choice.The gray and white pooch, Pard was played by Bogart's pet, Zero.Ida Lupino was English. Her second film appearance was as star of the British-made "Her First Affaire" (1932). Lupino moved to Hollywood in 1934. In 1949, she began a long and successful movie and TV career -behind- the camera, including on several popular television series, directing one episode of "Twilight Zone," three of "The Untouchables" and four of "Gilligan's Island," for example.Henry Travers ("Pa") who was also from Britain, is best remembered for his portrayal of "Harold," Jimmy Stewart's guardian angel in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946).Young "Red" was Arthur Kennedy's second screen role.Joan Leslie, who plays the club-footed girl Bogart helps, is mentioned in an Andrews Sisters lyric: "We're not petite like Joan Leslie."This was the last picture where Bogie didn't receive top billing.

Claudio Carvalho

02 May 2012

A Divisor Between the Traditional Gangster Movies to Film Noir

After eight years in prison, the gangster Roy Earle (Humphrey Bogart) is setfree, helped by an old and unhealthy bandit, who wants Earle to participatein the robbery of jewels and money in the safe deposit box of a hotel. Whiletravelling to meet the gang formed by his old friend, he meets a family onthe road and has a crush on Velma Baughmam (Joan Leslie), a handicap twentyyears old woman with problem in one of her feet. Earl help the family with adoctor and money for a surgery of Velma's foot. Meanwhile, he meets the twosmall-time bandits that will help him in the heist, and Louis Mendoza(Cornel Wilde), the manager of the hotel who gave the information about thejewels. With them, Earle meets also the strip dancer Marie Garson (IdaLupino), and a funny dog, `adopted' by them. While robbing the hotel andduring their escape, some incidents happen and Earle ends without money,escaping from the police to High Sierra, where his adventure ends. This filmis a divisor between the traditional gangster movies to film noir. HumphreyBogart plays a tough, but romantic gangster. In accordance with a specialmatter in the DVD, this was the first important role of Humphrey Bogart, andthe last time his name was not the first in the credits. The moral andsociety values of 1941sounds very interesting in the presents days. The carchase scene is amazingly well done. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): `O Último Refúgio' (`The Last Refuge')