Heat Lightning (1934)

In many ways, this film reminds me of another Warner Brothers film made just a few years later, "The Petrified Forest". Both are set at isolated gas stations in the desert and both involve gangsters who come there to seek shelter. However, the films are certainly different enough to make it worth seeing them both.Olga (Aline MacMahon) is a world-weary soul who has chosen to move into the middle of nowhere because she's tired of people. Her sister, Myrna (Ann Dvorak), however, isn't tired of people and yearns for excitement and men-- and the pair couldn't be more different. Into their very dull and predictable lives come an assortment of folks to stay at their gas station/motor court. One pair are a couple of divorcées on their way from Reno after their latest conquest. Another are a pair of crooks on the run from the law. In a coincidence you'll only see in a play or movie, it turns out the boss (Preston Foster) was once Olga's lover! What's next? See the film.There are two main things going for this film--Foster and MacMahon. Their characters are interesting and the final scene between them is something to see! Unfortunately, Dvorak's role is very whiny and annoying--and the character significantly impairs the film with her overwrought performance. Overall, it is worth seeing but is far from brilliant work from the studio.

...the answer is NO!! There wasn't much heat lightning going on in this movie either!! Ann Dvorak had been one of the most exciting new talents to emerge in the early thirties but her rebellious attitude with studio heads made sure her talent was kept under a rock and her role as Myra in this film was a part any contract actress could have played. It was just another nail in the coffin of Ann's once promising career. It was up to good old Aline MacMahon to give some vitality to her role as Olga, the older sister, who has managed to keep her passions hidden for many years.This movie appears more like a very watered down version of "The Petrified Forest" without the psychological undertones and the powerhouse performance of Humphrey Bogart. Preston Foster had shown he could give dynamic performances (his Killer Meares in "The Last Mile") but unfortunately not in this movie. Olga and Myra run a road side diner 1,000 miles from anywhere, smart and efficient Olga servicing the cars, Myra yearning to get away. Poor Ann spends most of the movie with her head in her arms. For a service station, stuck in the middle of nowhere, it does a brisk trade, there is a bickering older couple, two would be starlets (lively Muriel Evans is billed as a blonde cutie), two freshly divorced gals on their way back from Reno (Glenda Farrell and Ruth Donnelly) and Jerry (Preston Foster) and his jittery sidekick (Lyle Talbot) on the run from a bank holdup. Jerry knows Olga from years before, he is the man she is trying to forget. When he overhears Mrs. Tifton (Farrell) discussing her jewelry he decides to play on Olga's pent up emotions - and have his friend rob the divorcée, but plans are changed when the women decide to put the jewelry in the safe. Not only does Olga realise she has been played for a fool but Myra comes home from the party that she had been forbidden to go to a bit the worse for wear.For all the "action" (and I use the term loosely) the movie doesn't seem to go anywhere but amazingly Aline MacMahon gets a part she can really sink her teeth into. Her Olga is no nonsense and all business but when her past catches up with her she displays vulnerability and longing in a very real way!!! There was no one like Aline!!!

A fine example of minimalist film-making, this Warners B-pic offers a proto-feminist scenario delivered with some swell precode attitude. Two sisters (one world-weary, the other innocent) run a service-station-cum-caravansary on an isolated desert highway. Every passerby kids them about how dull and lonely this existence must be, but in the space of one night they serve host to a pair of criminals on the run, a couple of gold-diggers on the way back from Reno with their swag (and with a wise-guy chauffeur), plus a large family of Mexicans on the way to a fiesta.The main thrust of the film is melodramatic, as even in their isolation the women cannot avoid mistreatment by treacherous men. However, it's also filled with neat little comic bits and clever wisecracks. Director Mervyn Le Roy creates plenty of atmosphere with few resources, and the cheap-jack desert-palms backdrop (with the Mexican father tenderly serenading his family in the background) sticks in the memory. Le Roy uses an almost slow-motion tracking shot to great effect to show the hallucinatory influence of an ex-lover on the older sister as he intrudes into this sweaty environment. And it's pretty clear that there's a lot of casual sleeping around going on -- a lot of the jokes and situations probably wouldn't have survived the censors if this were a more prominent picture (and definitely not a year later). But the picture never flaunts its raciness -- sex is just part of the fabric of life.Though consistently enjoyable, the movie never builds up enough intensity to be classed with the immortal second features like Detour (though the climax does pack a punch). Surprisingly, the two leads never really click. Aline MacMahon and Ann Dvorak were always marvelously idiosyncratic in supporting roles, but here the former's baroque style seems overdone for the milieu, and the latter doesn't have much opportunity to vent her repressed passion (maybe the censor trimmed that bit). Overall, though, the performances from the many familiar faces are excellent, my particular favorite occurring in the opening scene featuring Edgar Kennedy as the henpecked spouse of Jane Darwell.Definitely worth seeking out for aficionados (but hard to find). Some might compare it to The Petrified Forest, but it gives me a bit of an offbeat Shack Out on 101 vibe, too.

This predecessor of The Petrified Forest (criminals on the lam change the lives of assorted characters at an isolated lunchroom) shows its origin as a Broadway play, but it's faster moving, less pretentious, and a lot less talky than the better known movie. The large cast is wonderful, especially the great Aline MacMahon; their characters well defined; and the direction and cinematography are crisp and professional. It's well worth the hour it takes to watch it.