The Petrified Forest
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Movie Reviews of The Petrified Forest
Movie Review: a true classic
Summary: 4 Stars
The very entertaining noir-melodrama THE PETRIFIED FOREST comes to DVD with a generous array of bonus material. Based on the Broadway play by Robert Sherwood, the story is about a group of innocent people taken hostage in a diner by a small gang of wanted criminals. Leslie Howard plays disillusioned writer Alan Squier, with Bette Davis as wisecracking counter-clerk Gabby Maple and Humphrey Bogart (in his breakthrough Hollywood performance) as criminal Duke Mantee.
Leslie Howard starred in the Broadway production with Bogart, and also controlled the movie rights to the project. When the time came for Warners to make PETRIFIED FOREST into a movie, Howard made sure his Broadway co-star Humphrey Bogart was retained to play Mantee. He also recruited his OF HUMAN BONDAGE leading lady Bette Davis for the role of Gabby. The trio all give superlative performances. The entire film is a real masterpiece.
Warner has issued this as part of the `Gangster Collection' though the movie isn't so much a gangster film as it is a noir-melodrama. When you select the "Warner Night at the Movies" option you can watch the film with several era-specific shorts, cartoon and newsreel. A very fun way of revisiting this all-time Hollywood classic.
Movie Review: "Let there be killing. All this evening I've had a feeling of destiny closing in."
Summary: 4 Stars
I received this film when I purchased the The Warner Gangsters Collection (The Public Enemy / White Heat / Angels with Dirty Faces / Little Caesar / The Petrified Forest / The Roaring Twenties), which I'd recommend if you're a fan of excellent, old timey movies. Of the six films in that set, this was the one I watched first...why? I was pondering my `to be watched' shelf, and decided on this one as the prominent visage of a stubbly faced Humphrey Bogart was staring me right in the mug, practically daring me to watch this film...that and the fact I had reached my weekly allotment of schlock, and I needed something decent to cleanse my cinematic palette (how can one truly appreciate the best without experiencing the worst? Just my opinion...). Based on a play by Robert E. Sherwood (The Best Years of Our Lives) and adapted for the screen by Charles Kenyon (Think Fast, Mr. Moto) and Delmer Daves (Dark Passage), The Petrified Forest (1936) was directed by Archie Mayo (The Man with Two Faces). Starring is Leslie Howard (The Scarlet Pimpernel, Gone with the Wind), Bette Davis (Of Human Bondage, Jezebel), and, through the sinewy toughness of his performance (I'll speak more on this later), Humphrey Bogart (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre). Also appearing is Genevieve Tobin (The Great Gambini), B movie matinee idol Dick Foran (Ride 'Em Cowboy, Donovan's Reef), Joe Sawyer (Two Knights from Brooklyn), Porter Hall (Miracle on 34th Street), Paul Harvey (Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm), Slim Thompson (Moon Over Harlem), and Charley Grapewin, whom would forever cement his name in the annals of cinematic codgerdom with his role as Grandpa Joad in the 1940 film The Grapes of Wrath, with all his crazy talk of oranges....
The film begins as we see a lone figure walking a dusty, unpaved desert road...oh wait, here comes a car (quick, throw that stubby flange out there and you might catch a ride, but remember, cash, grass or ash, no one rides for free)...from there we cut to a `miserable, little service station on the edge of nowhere', owned and operated by a man named Maple (Hall), with his daughter Gabrielle `Gabby' (Davis), who handles the café end of things, taking the orders, serving the food, etc, but has far flung dreams of escaping to exotic locales, pursuing artistic endeavors, and living a life of interest. Also hanging about is Grandpa (Grapewin), apparently riding out what little time he has left in his near toothless existence, haranguing with tales of infinite pointlessness just about any poor sap unfortunate to walk through the door, that is when he's not pillaging the stores of distilled spirits from behind the counter. And then there's Boze (Foran), once promising collegiate football player now filling station attendant and fulltime lug who's got the eyes for Gabby, but to her, he's just as much of what she's trying to get away from, only exacerbated by the appearance of a philosophical (with minors in whimsy and cynicism) European expatriate named Alan Squier (Howard), wandering the sun baked plains, looking to make karmic amends for past spent squandering his inherent gifts. But wait, the real party begins when the notorious Duke Manatee (Bogart), and his gang of fugitives shows up, perhaps looking for a place to lay low from the extensive, trigger-happy manhunt under way to find them (they recently pulled off a job in the area). Personalities clash, threats bandied about, and propositions are made during the tense siege, all under the backdrop of the Petrified Forest.
I enjoyed this film, although it wasn't what I expected. Given Humphrey Bogart's grizzled and prominent stature on the DVD artwork (along with the fact it was in a Gangsters DVD set), I assumed this was going to be a straight up gangster crime drama, but it was really a drama with a gangster element in it...perhaps my meaning isn't quite clear, so I'll put it this way, Humphrey Bogart's character is not the main character in the story. His is essentially a secondary character, one played so well by Bogart that he actually elevated the role to a level that would make it appear to be a primary character. The first half of the film is basically the set up, as we delve deep into the characterizations, particularly those of Gabby and Alan. A great deal of time is spent discussing backgrounds, desires, dreams, among other things, to the point where one has a sense of an intimate understanding of the characters. The whole affair felt very much like the play from whence it came, for better or worse. Many people credit this Humphrey Bogart's breakthrough film (after the fact, of course), as he, himself, saw it (at the time) as his last shot at a career in the cinema. He enjoyed some earlier successes, but fell into a cycle of unfulfilling character roles. Some say Bogart infused/channeled this real life sense of desperation into the character of Duke Mantee (which Bogart modeled after real life American gangster John Dillinger). But that's not to say Leslie Howard was a slouch by any means (Howard, who owned the rights to the story, wouldn't proceed unless Warner Brothers agreed to retain Bogart in his role from the stage production). I was really amazed looking back how much I was willing to accept his character as a real, flesh and blood individual. Perhaps it was that damnable charm he seemed to ooze so very naturally from his every pore, the kind of English charm that makes even the smarmiest of insults sound like a compliment...of course, this is shored up considerably by his self-effacing nature (another English quality, to be sure), you know, the whole bit about `I'm going to say something bad about you, but don't be offended as it will be followed by something much worse about myself'. Davis also does very well as a beautiful dreamer stuck in a meaningless existence...yes, on the highway of life, she's got four flats and no spare, but finds the last thing she expected to find so far out in the middle of nowhere, that being hope...and love...but more importantly hope, and the clarity of vision to see one does not always have to settle for what is presented. Sometimes the things most worthy of living are the things that must be sought out.
The fullscreen, original aspect ratio picture on this DVD looks very good, despite some very minor flaws. Given the film is nearly 60 years old, I can certainly accept, even expect, a certain amount of wear. The Dolby Digital Mono audio came though extremely well and clear. There are a whole mess o' special features, including a commentary by Bogart biographer Eric Lax, a newly made featurette titled The Petrified Forest: Menace in the Desert (16 mins), a Gulf Screen Theater radio broadcast (1/7/1940), and an original theatrical trailer. Also, there is a set up, titled `Warner Night at the Movies' that allows you to experience what it was like to go to the movies at the time when this film came out (it was a lot different than it was now. Remember, there was no television, radio the primary form of home entertainment, so going to the movies was a really big deal. There's an introduction with Leonard Maltin, followed by a trailer for Bullets or Ballots (1936), a newsreel, a musical short titled Rhythmitis (1936), a cartoon titled The Coo Coo Nut Grove (1936), and then the actual film itself...all in all a stellar presentation of a great film.
Cookieman108
By the way, when first seeing Dick Foran's character of Boze playing football with himself, did anyone else, besides myself, think he was seriously touched in the head? Also, did you know at one time it was considered un-American to tip? What happen to those days?
Movie Review: Dead trees in the desert that have turned to stone.
Summary: 4 Stars
What a difference 70 years make. In 1936 THE PETRIFIED FOREST offered theater goes the exciting prospect of the re-teaming of IN HUMAN BONDAGE'S costars Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. Today Howard is practically forgotten and Davis moved on to much more memorable roles. The reason eternity pays heed to this movie is because of the breakthrough performance of the actor who shows up fifth on the cast credits, after not only Howard and Davis but Genevieve Tobin and Dick Foran as well. Although the term is overused, Humphrey Bogart is electrifying as criminal Duke Mantee, and he steals the show and wrestles a movie career in the process. Howard was a world class actor, and I can't remember another instance where Davis wasn't the most interesting character on the screen. For a 30-something stage actor, and a more or less failed film star, to steal a film from these two heavyweights is a staggering achievement. For my money, Duke Mantee stands as one of Bogart's best film performances ever.
The movie is based on Robert Sherwood's hit Broadway play of the same name. Howard plays gentle roustabout Alan Squier, an esthete young man hitchhiking across America, `looking for something to believe in.' The wind shakes him out of the even present dust and deposits him at the isolated Arizona diner young Gabrielle Maple (Bette Davis) runs with her father and grandfather. Davis plays the naïve and romantic and `gabby' young girl stuck in the middle of nowhere who paints and dreams of reuniting with her mother in France and reads the poems of Francois Villon to take the stink of the hamburger and gasoline out of her system. The first act, and much of the second, is used to bud the romance between Alan and Gabby, all the while reminding us that brutal criminal Nick Mantee is on the loose and in the area.
Of course, Mantee finally arrives and Alan presciently announces that `carnage is imminent and I'm due to be among the fallen.' Bogart, who modeled Mantee on real life criminal John Dillinger, then proceeds to lay claim to Hollywood immortality. With his heavy stubble and dark and haunted eyes and stooped shoulders Bogart looks like a hunted beast of a man. More a mono-syllabic killer than `the last great apostle of rugged individualism,' as Alan puts it. Or, as Mantee would say, `Maybe you're right, pal. I couldn't say.'
THE PETRIFIED FOREST never quite shakes it stage heritage. Although commentator Eric Lax (Bogart biographer) tells us in his fact filled and entertaining commentary the tons of dust used on the soundstage, the film spends almost all of its time on one set - the interior of the diner - and the movie has a pretty static feeling to it as a result.
The print looks and sounds great, by the way. The dvd also has a 15- minute feature "Menace in the Desert", in which film historian Alain Silver and others discuss the Robert Sherwood stage play, its conversion to the screen, and the role that set Humphrey Bogart's star. Also included on the disk is the delightful and always welcome Warners Night at the Movie. It opens with a trailer for Bullets or Ballots, an Edgar G. Robinson crime thriller where he plays the good guy. That's followed by "Rhymitis", a dancing short with Hal LeRoy and Toby Wing. It doesn't have much of a plot but it's fun. A modern day alchemist comes up with a pill that makes you want to dance dance dance whenever you hear a beat that can't be beat. Night at the Movies concludes with the color cartoon "The Coo Coo Nut Grove," a take-off on the Coconut Grove nightclub and a lampoon of contemporary Hollywood stars - i.e., W.C. Fields as a pig, Katharine Hepburn a horse, etc.
Movie Review: Maudlin Melodrama with A Bogie of a Finish
Summary: 4 Stars
Based on Robert E. Sherwood's Broadway blockbuster, "The Petrified Forest" (1936) is basically two acts of melodrama with a crime thriller finish. It stars Leslie Howard as cockeyed idealist, Alan Squier. Alan arrives at the ramshacked oasis of Maple Service Station - a little bit of nothin' presided over by Jason Maple (Porter Hall) and his drunken Grampa (Charles Grapewin). Fat Paula (Nina Campana) rounds out the motely crew in charge of eats and gas at this filling station in the middle of nowhere. The one jewel sparkling amidst the dessert heat is waitress, Gabby Maple (Betty Davis). She's just as cockeyed as Alan, aspiring to study art in Paris. After much lamentation - most of it needless, Gabby persuades a visiting couple, the Chisholms (Paul Harvey and Genevieve Tobin) to give Alan a ride to California. However, plans take a turn for the worst when everyone is forced to spend the night hold up inside the diner at the hands of ruthless prison escapee, Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart). After some high stakes threats and more than a bit of action Alan creates the circumstances by which Gabby's aspirations for a better life will flourish.What elevates this minor bit of tripe from its humble roots are the brilliant performances by Davis and Bogart. Bogart, in particular, is menacing in a reserved sort of restraint. Although he rarely becomes animated or excited he always seems capable of becoming completely unhinged.
Years of viewing this film on late night television in less than stellar prints didn't have me holding out for much on this outing. I am pleased to report that Warner's newly mastered DVD is a quiet vision of beauty. The gray scale has been impeccibly rendered. Though blacks are soft and somewhat more deep gray than black, overall the contrast levels are superb. Whites are clean. Occasionally there is a bit more film grain present than one would like but the image quality is a definite improvement over what I have been used to seeing. The audio is mono but nicely represented with minimal background distortion and hiss. A competent commentary by Bogie biographer, Eric Lax, newly produced featurette and audio only bonus of the original radio broadcast of the film are nice extras worthy of this classy classic. Highly recommended!
Movie Review: Don't Bogart That Joint
Summary: 3 Stars
It's obvious that "The Petrified Forest" is a stage play translated to film. In many instances in the course of this film staginess translates into stagnant. Set in a diner in the Arizona desert, the first thirty minutes or so are devoted to Leslie Howard's writer and Bette Davis' waitress waxing melodramatic to each other about their artistic frustrations and other matters of the heart. The tedium is relieved intermittently by the comic musings of the old coot played by Charlie Grapewin. Fortunately for the viewer, escaped gangster Duke Mantee(Humphrey Bogart) comes on the scene to let the air out of the lead balloon. Bogart's character is given an economy of words, usually consisting of telling his accomplices to cover the hostages in the diner, but what Bogart does with a glare lesser actors couldn't do with a hundred pages of dialogue. In the long run this film is of interest primarily because it is Bogart's break-out role. That does not stop one from longing for "Key Largo". The extras on this disc include an amusing short subject "Rhythmitis", a cartoon that caricatures the Hollywood stars of the day, and a documentary on "The Petrified Forest" that is almost wholly devoted to the importance of Bogart to the film(even though he get's billed behind Grapewin in the credits?!).