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High Sierra (Snap Case)

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High Sierra (1941) is considered by most to be Humphrey Bogart's first real, breakout role, playing a part that wasn't initially offered to him. Bogart, the fifth member of Warner Brothers famous 'Murderers Row', came into the role of Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle only after fellow 'Row' members Paul Muni and George Raft didn't accept the part, one disagreeing on the script and subsequent changes, and the other being talked out of taking the part by Bogart, respectively. Bogart, who hadn't quite reached the level of big name star by this point, as evident to second billing to costar Ida Lupino, wanted the role badly, as he knew the character of Earle was something he could really sink his teeth into, and showcase his talent to the world.

As I said, Bogart plays Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle, a convicted bank robber serving a lengthy prison term, a life sentence, if I'm not mistaken, who has just been released. We soon find that Roy's early release isn't due to parole for good behavior, but strings pulled by his old boss, Big Mac (Donald MacBride). Seems Big Mac has a score in California that he wants Roy in on, so Roy leaves the Midwest to make the connection. Along the way, Roy has a chance meeting with Pa Goodhue (Henry Travers), a farmer who lost his farm, and is now traveling west with his wife and his clubfooted granddaughter Velma (Joan Leslie), who we will see again later. On reaching the Sierra mountains, Roy meets with the other members of the criminal enterprise Big Mac has arranged, two younger, hot-tempered men, Babe and Red, who have a have a female companion, Marie, played by Ida Lupino. Roy objects to having a woman around, as it's just an unnecessary complication. Marie manages to get Roy to change his mind, as she despises the thought of having to return to her previous career of dancing in a two-bit hall with men for a quarter a dance. Soon Roy learns of the score, and things seem easy enough, but even the simplest plans can go awry.

Directed by actor/writer/director/producer Raoul Walsh, High Sierra is a rich, tense noir crime drama based on a novel by W.R. Burnett and adapted for the screen by Burnett and legendary director/actor/writer/producer John Huston. Bogart really adds depth to his character of Roy, presenting the duality of a seemingly cold-blooded killer who has a soft side. That certainly doesn't mean he's soft, especially when someone gets in the way of his plans. Presented is a character who knows his time is past, and is looking to make his way out, and having thoughts of a future that will never be...and then settling for less than he hoped for, not realizing that maybe that was even too much to hope for...the supporting cast was wonderful, but I found the sort of pseudo comic relief of the character Algernon, a black worker at the fishing camp Roy and his small gang hole up before the score, played by Willie Best, a bit awkward. At the time, it was probably more acceptable, but the stereotyping may chaff contemporary audiences. A minor point, but one I hope wouldn't sour potential viewers from seeking out this film. I just try to understand it for what it was and is, a form of ignorance that has, hopefully, long since past. Best to acknowledge it happened and move on. What I found really interesting was how the noir concept was flawlessly transplanted from dark city streets to the majestic Sierra mountains on the Neveda /California border. Another thing I really loved was the snappy exchanges and use of gangster colloquialisms. The dialogue zings along, just adding a real element of fun to the movie, despite the drama nature of the material.

The picture quality here is beautiful, and the audio sounds wonderful. I was also pleased to see an excellent featurette called "Curtains for Roy Earle", which talks about how Bogart got the role in the movie, his minor skirmish with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and the film in general. Also included is a theatrical trailer for the film. If you're a fan of Humphrey Bogart, High Sierra is a must see film. If you like good movies in general, you won't be disappointed here. While the role of Roy `Mad Dog' Earle may not be the one most remember Bogart for, it certainly confirmed his status as an actor in every sense of the word, and served well to showcase his talent and made him a star. Another film soon to follow, The Maltese Falcon (1941) took the star and made him a legend.

Cookieman108

This film in many ways is the culmination of the Golden Age of the gangster film. At the same time it is the true beginning of Humphrey Bogart's star career. After a string of gangster films in the thirties, all demonstrating graphically that crime really didn't pay, we get this great film, in which it not only doesn't pay, but doesn't lead to happiness, either. Unlike most of the great gangster characters of the 1930s, Roy "Mad Dog" Earle has an atypical degree of complexity and depth. He is tired of his life, and would like to very much live a different one. He meets two women, one who is a product of the kind of life he would like to escape, and another, who is young, innocent, beautiful, and a symbol of everything he would love to rediscover. Much of the movie's power and poignancy derives from these dual relationships, as he realizes the life he would like to have is denied him, while at the same time not valuing the love of a woman who doesn't represent a new way of life, but who nonetheless truly and genuinely cares for him. It ends a tragic love triangle.

The movie features a host of superb actors from Warner Brothers stable of contract players. The always-underrated Ida Lupino (who was also an accomplished director of "B" pictures) excells as Marie Garson, while 16-year-old Joan Leslie is perfect as the young, innocent girl Roy Earle wants to help. The rest of the cast is filled by such superb character talents as Henry Travers, Arthur Kennedy, Jerome Cowan, Henry Hull, Barton MacLane, and a very young Cornel Wilde.

The other thing that really makes this film stand out is the remarkable on location scenes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Almost all gangster films of the thirties were shot entirely on movie sets, and very, very few were shot outdoors. In this one, numerous scenes were shot in various locations in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and elsewhere, and this lends an atmosphere unique to the era. Also, setting it in California rather than New York or Chicago enhances the story. The final, climatic scenes with Bogart trying to escape from the police by heading into the mountains is a classic.

Bogart went on to make more gangster films in his career, most notably THE DESPERATE HOURS, but in many ways this film signaled the end of the Golden Age of the genre. Although up to this point his career had primarily consisted of portraying gangsers, henceforward he would more often be associated with detectives or men of action. A great film in every way.

this is one of Bogart's earlier great performances which aided in launching his career to the legendary performances he became most renowned for. this is the classic 'gangster with a heart' Bogart. it is an absolute must for any Bogart fan.

as for the DVD,excellent picture and sound. also included is a short duocumentary entitled "Curtains For Roy Earle".

t's hard to imagine Humphrey DeForest Bogart as something other than a movie star. Yet for ten years, he treaded water in supporting roles, spending much of that time doing imitations (albeit good ones) of his memorable Duke Mantee performance from The Petrified Forest.

And then came High Sierra and everything changed.

Before America had other things to worry about (ie: Adolf Hitler), it was still working out its love/hate relationship with pseudo-Robin Hood, depression-era hoodlums (John Dillinger and the like). By 1941, Warner Brothers had practically cornered the market deifying and demonizing these "angels with dirty faces." Raoul Walsh had humbly served the cause in his previous The Roaring Twenties; here, he directs Bogie in the role of existential anti-hero Roy "Mad Dog" Earle. It would be a defining film in the transition from the James Cagney-style gagster pictures to the dawning era of film noir (which Bogart would come to define).

Newly-released from prison, Roy has a debt to settle with the crime boss to whom he now owes his freedom - payment, as it so often does, comes in the form of one last score. There's apparently thousands of dollars of jewelry in need of stealing and no one but Roy qualified to make sure it gets done right. Per custom, things do not go according to plan as Bogie falls in love (twice), people get shot, and our Mad Dog faces destiny on the doomed high sierra from which the film takes its title.

It's not a great film. Bogart talks in his sleep during a crucial scene, which is probably the most overused narrative cheat in the history of celluloid. Man's best friend figures much too prominently and awkwardly in the plot as a literal harbinger of doom (both the film's "dogs" are cursed); additionally, there some "I'se be catchin' ma feets nah, Boss" style racial stereotyping that is just plain embarrassing.

There are some great moments, though. Earle's emotional castration at the hands of the formerly club-footed Velma (Joan Leslie) is painful to watch (an aside: Bogie would later revisit this device - the transformative power of miracle surgeries - in Dark Passage; it's worth rememberinh that Bogie's father was a successful surgeon and rumor has it Bogart himself had botched surgery on his lip after an incident in the navy). Bogart, consistently sympathetic notwithstanding some unsavory violent acts (no easy feat) is always a pleasure to watch - it's easy to forget how ground-breaking his naturalistic performances were at the time...until you watch some of his co-stars ham it up with the overly-theatrical line delivery popular at the time.

Thankfully, they're not the show - Bogart is, despite getting second billing under co-star Ida Lupino. In the same year, Bogie would re-team with the writer of this film - John Huston - for the iconic director's first feature, the noir classic The Maltese Falcon. A year later, Bogart and Michael Curtiz got together in Casablanca, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Interesting footnote: Walsh, Bogart, and Lupino previously collaborated on the schizophrenic They Drive By Night, probably best known for Lupino's bizarre courtroom outburst "the doors made me do it." Incidentally, Ida Lupino was somewhat of a trailblazer for female directors. Only the second woman to be admitted into the DGA, her 1953 film The Hitch-Hiker is considered a minor classic of film noir. It has been chosen for preservation by the National Film Registry.

Others have written how this movie was a 'breakout' movie for Bogart. Others have analyzed the complex character he plays, a hardened criminal who nonetheless has a compassionate side. I found the heart- wrenching part of the movie its final scene , one of death and separation and grief presented in a truly desolating way. In my mind is the image of Ida Lupino, the little dog after the Earle- Bogart main character has been killed.
What struck me forcibly when I watched this as a very young person was that it did not have a 'happy ending' and the thought that life might not , deeply disturbed at the time.

The formula Warner crime dramas of the thirties and forties are many in number --- those that rose above the formula are few, but remarkable --- "High Sierra" is one of these --- truly a rose among a lot of thorns. Bogart himself had been pricked by a number of those --- "King Of The Underworld", "Invisible Stripes", many others --- he would even draw short straws again with "The Big Shot" (hard to believe Warner's would squander him in something like that AFTER "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon"). In fact, Bogart's work load was so heavy at this time, it's doubtful anyone within the studio took notice of his great Roy Earle performance until "High Sierra's" release and the resulting laudatory reviews for the (co)star. The fact that he was assigned to (and refused) "Badmen Of Missouri" just after completing "High Sierra" demonstrates just how obtuse Warner's could be in failing to recognize a maturing talent they'd so far taken for granted. Bogart's Roy Earle is, in fact, one of the most sympathetic badmen ever brought to the screen --- his interpretation so affecting that at least one patron complained that the film was a glorification of crime and criminals (which it certainly is not). This is the emergance of the Bogart persona as we know it --- and it's no coincidance to find John Huston's name among the writing credits. Considering this and Huston's later-in-the-same-year "Maltese Falcon", we can pretty much pinpoint the arrival of Humphrey Bogart as a major acting figure and mythic star. A script this good would have enhanced the career of any actor on the lot --- Muni, Raft, Robinson, any of these would have triumphed with such a part --- but none would have played it as movingly as Bogart --- he's just a revelation here --- nothing he'd done before approached this. The Warner production machinery was never more efficient --- Raoul Walsh's up-tempo direction sqeezes an amazing lot of narrative into a taut 100 minutes --- Hal Wallis, that most underappreciated of genius producers, can be credited with much of the picture's success (read Rudy Behlmer's great "Inside Warner Bros." and you'll see the extent of Wallis' contribution to WB's house-style) --- that a film could still have such vitality nearly sixty years after it's initial release is a tribute to the extraordinary talents that created it --- "High Sierra" is an absolute video must.

In High Sierra, Humphrey Bogart plays one of those characters that we shouldn't admire because he has led a "bad" life of crime, yet somehow we find ourselves rooting for him to get what he wants, because we suspect he's a decent guy at heart that didn't get the right breaks. In other words, he's a complicated character, and in the hands of Bogart, he's well played and very compelling. Ida Lupino gives another one of her intense performances as the girl who loves him and who herself is in need of a break. Joan Leslie plays a teenage girl that Bogart helps out and falls in love with. Leslie seems like an unlikely choice for Bogart to love. She's too young and there isn't any chemistry between them at all. But for me, that's about the only real flaw in this film. Director Raoul Walsh blends a lot of elements together: gangsters, bank caper, chase scenes, love story, and drama at a very human level. And he blends those elements into an excellent movie.

"High Sierra" is the story of an convict who is makes parol only to find himself thrown back into the hopper of organized crime. Bogie is the bad guy, tough as nails and raw as meat in a butcher's window. He's got a soft side though, and in this movie it's for Ida Lupino - a largely forgotten but extremely talented actress who's hooked up with two small time operators who are planning a hotel robbery job in the Sierra mountains. Great action and suspense!
TRANSFER: VERY NICE! Warner's usual sterling quality is at work here. The credit sequence is a bit rough and there is a bit of instability in the original camera negative but over all this is one fine looking transfer. The gray scale is impeccably rendered. Blacks are black. Contrast and shadows are well balanced. There appears to be very little in the way of age related artifacts. There are NO signs of digital compression. The audio is MONO but nicely rendered.
EXTRAS: A featurette that manages to cover a lot of ground in a very short time and provides a succinct look at the film's backstory.
BOTTOM LINE: This Bogart classic is an absolute must for anyone who appreciates great performances and wonderful story telling. Ah yes, I remember why it is that I fell in love with the movies!

"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!

HIGH SIERRA is a gangster film, but it is also much more than that. Prior to HIGH SIERRA'S release in 1941, star Humphrey Bogart, who plays Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle, had played a host of snarling hoodlums, most of whom were one-dimensional, but in Bogart's hands, he still managed to infuse each with a level of complexity that only he could deliver. But it took his Roy Earle role to finally establish what has since been copied many times by future cinema criminals, the man on the run who, despite his willingness to kill, still maintains a Hemingwayesque code of conduct that allows him to function as the moral center of the film.

Roy Earle is a life-long criminal, one who has spent years in prison, seeing up close the results of what happens to inmates who lack self-discipline and a moral code of conduct. For him, crime is not an end, nor are the ill-gotten gains. For him crime is the only response to a life that has denied him any other avenue. For life to have any meaning, he must adhere to a rigid code of conduct that is as every bit as moral (at least to him) as that which drives the very policemen who seek to apprehend him. Those who know him immediately recognize that in Earle, beats the heart and soul of a near-extinct species, one who is paradoxically a fearlessly moral gunman who will risk his own life for a cause or for a trusted friend. When Earle is released from prison, he is talking to a seriously ill cohort, Mac, who is planning one more high profile crime before he dies. Mac, who bemoans the lack of old style gangsters with class, tells Earle, "You know Roy, it is good to even talk to a guy like you." Mac has hired a pair of inexperienced thugs to help Earle, but Earle sees that they do not have what it takes to succeed in a life of crime. He expects them to screw up, and when they do, he shows no remorse at their demise. There are two subplots that suggest that Earle's code of conduct, while admirable in the larger sense, can sometimes cause him intense emotional pain when he feels betrayed by one whom he has allowed himself to grow close to. Ida Lupino is Marie, a female counterpart to Earle. She has had a rough adolescence, but sees in him her soulmate. She could be good for Roy, if only he would let her. Joan Leslie is Velma, a twenty-year old seemingly innocent girl-child, who represents everything that Roy thinks would elevate him from thug to respectability. Velma has a club-foot but is young and pretty, so Roy lends her the money for an operation. She repays him in a manner that surely ranks with the very worst sort of cinematic ingrates. It is painful to watch Velma show her true colors and see the crushing result on a man who thought that nothing could hurt him like that.

And in the background lie the high Sierras, a vast set of peaks that act as metaphorical magnets, attracting the interplay between decent but misguided types like Roy and Marie and the truly inhuman types like Velma and Roy's hapless colleagues. The clashing between Roy and the police is not just the literal gunplay between the forces of law and order and those of crime, but, in the film's final scenes of Roy at bay, suggest that a style of life and a code of conduct have been judged and found wanting. HIGH SIERRA is an unforgettable classic that makes us remember that morality and decency can be found even in the most unlikely of settings.