The Petrified Forest (1936)

And here I thought the movie was a classic. Well, it is, sort of. That is, a classic of endless talk, talk, talk. That might not be so bad if the dialogue went somewhere. It doesn't. Instead we're treated to 80-minutes of Squier's (Howard) existential crisis. There's hardly a sentence that doesn't drip his maundering meaning-of-life quandary. About half way through I hoped Mantee (Bogart) would do us both a favor: that is, put Johnny-one-note and me out of our misery. But it's not just Squier's caricature. The cast's full of exaggeration, from Grapewin's mercurial grandpa to Foran's muscle-headed footballer. Even Davis's coquette is unlike her usual tough broad-- vulnerable, and dare I say it, almost sexy. At the same time Bogart gets to practice his scowling growl in a one-note that also landed him on Warner's A-list. Now, there may be some profundities lurking somewhere in the endless gab, but why bother searching. It's a little like picking through a pile of coal for a hoped-for pearl. If nothing else, the movie's an object lesson in why some stage plays should remain just that, stage plays. No need to go on, except to say in my many years of movie viewing rarely have I been so disappointed by a supposed classic. What I really wonder is why the impish Carol Burnette Show bothered to lampoon a movie that's already a lampoon.

As far from the big city as you can get, this film version of a practically forgotten Broadway play is the reason for that legend film audiences still talk about named Bogie. Indeed, it was the transition in the career of Humphrey Bogart who had left the lights of Hollywood two years before and scored big on Broadway. The claustrophobic feel of Black Mesa in the middle of nowhere is equally as much a character as Bogart's killer, Leslie Howard's suicidal drifter and Bette Davis's tired waitress.A profound script shows that the lowest of low lives can become art when written with heart. Howard visits Davis's restaurant in the middle of nowhere, an oasis destroyed over the sands of time that has become as dead as Howard seems to long to be. For a film with a ton of chit chat, this is never boring, with a variety of visitors questioning their own mortality while being held hostage by Bogart.Davis is sweet yet alluring, with Howard facing his maker with the determination of Sydney Carton. Also excellent amongst the supporting players is Charley Grapewin as Davis's grandfather who interjects his own diluted vision of a long ago world as he allows his possible senility to escape out of him. This is a film that you could watch over and over again.

PETRIFIED FOREST is a bit strange version of gangster drama. It was created based on the homonymous theater play by Robert E. Sherwood. Similarly evoked. Dramaturgy is good and all the characters are in some way dissatisfied with their lives. They are constrained to make a key step towards a goal.This version is a really good combination of forms of theater and film media. The entire drama takes place in an imaginary indoors. The concentration of people in general is shown as being slaves and closed, conditioned by the achievements of money, power and security. In one night the whole drama played out with two characteristic of men (Alan - L.Howard, and Duke - H.Bogart), which seems to have been the cornerstone orbiting ellipse society that is built on democratic foundations, the traces of legendary heroes and war triumph. The two outlaws in different roles, one is actually a poet, the other a criminal. Deep within the society is well camouflaged, tinted and prohibited frustration that we call humanity. The margins and marginal aspects are also thematic coverage. The story is interesting. It rises and falls in the dialogue.Leslie Howard as Alan Squier is a young passerby, traveler and writer who wanders aimlessly. Depressed at odds with the whole world looks for meaning that can be among other things, love and death.Bette Davis as Gabrielle Maple is a girl who dreams of romantic dreams and read poetry. Falls in love with a man who tells her exactly what she wants to hear. With him, she can escape from reality. Bette Davis is terribly charismatic.Humphrey Bogart as Duke Mantee is a gangster and a murderer on the run. In his story the women and around her all spinning. Duke has resigned. This is crucial Bogart role in his early career.Characters are in a particular vortex of frustration and self-pity. The troubles are becoming aware of each other. Seen from a philosophical point of view this is a good movie. Acting suffer a little, while Cinematography is suffering far more.

An incredibly intriguing character-driven drama.The Petrified Forest tells the story of three disparate characters, whose lives cross paths for a brief time at a diner in the middle of the Arizona desert: a wandering philosopher, of sorts (played by Leslie Howard), a waitress (played by Bette Davis) and a gangster (played by Humphrey Bogart). There are other characters, of varying importance, but these three are a microcosm of society: the jaded pessimist, the idealist and the pragmatist, respectively.The interactions between these three are incredibly interesting, and symbolic. There is also a fair amount of action and intrigue: what will happen to all of them?Very thought-provoking.On the negative side, Leslie Howard's jaded philosopher can get overly pretentious, to the point of annoyance. He skirts the line between profundity and pretentiousness throughout the movie. His lines also make you think you're watching a play, rather than a movie.Bette Davis is delightful as the waitress: the wide-eyed zeal of her character is apparent throughout. An early-career role for Bogart - at the time he wasn't the big star he would later become - but already he shows all the traits we would know and love. Solid, swaggering, menacing performance by him.