The Petrified Forest

Plot synopsis:
In the midst of the Great Depression, Alan Squier (Howard), once a respected British writer, now a disillusioned, penniless drifter, wanders into a roadside diner in the remote town of Black Mesa, Arizona, at the edge of the Petrified Forest. The diner is run by Jason Maple (Porter Hall), his daughter Gabrielle (Davis), and Gramp, Jason's father (Charley Grapewin), who regales anyone who will listen with stories of his adventures in the Old West with such characters as Billy the Kid.
Gabrielle's mother, a French war bride who fell in love with Jason when he was a young, handsome American serviceman, left her "dull defeated man" after the war and moved back to France when Gabrielle was a baby. She now sends poetry to Gabrielle, who dreams of moving to Bourges, where her parents first met, to become an artist. Alan tells his story—how he wrote one novel, then lived in France for eight years with his publisher's wife, trying to write another—and Gabrielle is instantly smitten with him.
Gabrielle shows Alan her paintings—the first time she has shown them to anyone—and reads him a favorite François Villon poem. Boze Hertzlinger (Dick Foran), a beefy diner employee who has wooed Gabrielle in vain, grows jealous of Alan, who decides to leave forthwith. He mooches a ride from wealthy tourists Mr. and Mrs. Chisholm (Paul Harvey and Genevieve Tobin); but after only a few minutes on the road they encounter Duke Mantee (Bogart), a notorious gangster fleeing a massive police pursuit, whose car has broken down. Duke and his gang seize the Chisholms' car and drive to the diner, where Duke has arranged to rendezvous with his girlfriend, Doris, on their way to Mexico. Alan, the Chisholms, and their chauffeur (John Alexander) soon make their way back to the diner as well.
Alan, indifferent to the hostage situation, engages Duke in lively conversation and toasts him as "the last great apostle of rugged individualism." Boze snatches a rifle and gets the drop on Duke, but during a momentary distraction Duke draws his pistol and shoots Boze in the hand, regaining control. Duke learns that Doris has been captured, and has revealed their rendezvous location to the police. As police and federal agents converge on the diner, Duke prepares to flee, announcing that he will take Mr. and Mrs. Chisholm with him.
Inspired by Boze's act of courage, Alan has an inspiration: While Gabrielle is in the back room bandaging Boze's hand, he produces a life insurance policy from his bag and amends it, making Gabrielle the beneficiary. Then he asks Duke to kill him ("It couldn't make any difference to you, Duke ... they can hang you only once ..."), so that Gabrielle can use the insurance money to realize her dream of moving to France. Duke obliges, then leaves with his human shields. Alan dies in Gabrielle's arms, secure in the knowledge that she, unlike the rest, will escape her dead-end existence to pursue her dreams.

Tags: depressing, murder

Review:
Here in a lonely desert tavern, faith draws together a strange company: Alan Squier (Leslie Howard), of Vagabond Adventure, running away from his past, Gabrielle Maple (Bette Davis), a beautiful girl, weary of the desert solitude, eager to escape with the first man who comes her way, Boze Hertzlinger (Dick Foran), an ex-football hero, down on his luck, Paul Chisholm (Paul Harvey), multimillionaire banker vacationing with his disillusioned young wife, Edith (Genevieve Tobin), Gramp Maple (Charley Grapewin), a sly old reprobate, and Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart), vicious leader of a notorious band of gunmen, hiding out after a gang massacre.In a short space of 24 eventful hours, these characters live a lifetime of romance, adventure, terror and tragedy.
Here is one of the reasons I love old movies so much - intriguing writing, great acting, and interesting characters hold our attention throughout the movie without needing to resort to desperate all-out action, explosions, and computer effects.Leslie Howard is a gentle intellectual roaming the Arizona desert who happens upon a quaint little cafe/gas station in the middle of nowhere, amidst sand and cactus.
Eventually, the infamous gangster shows up with some thugs and takes over the cafe, holding an array of wonderfully colorful characters hostage.This was originally a play with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart, and leading man Howard reportedly refused to do the picture without Bogie being in it.
Dick Foran, playing a strapping and comical football star who pumps gas while always trying to woo Gabby, was very good in this film and it's probably the best work I've seen him do in movies, before he wound up as a "B" player for Universal.
There, he acquired the role of Duke Mantee in the stage version of "The Petrified Forest" in which Leslie Howard was the star.When Warner Bros.
The film is essentially about a bunch of life's losers with no real future except for the young waitress Gabrielle Maples (Bette Davis) who dreams of leaving the dusty desert for the bright lights of Paris.A wandering intellectual/writer Alan Squier (Howard) comes to the cafe broke and hungry.
Inside the cafe we meet Gabrielle's father Jason (Porter Hall) who fancies himself as a war hero and Gramp Maples (Charlie Grapewin) a senile old timer who likes to tell stories of his encounter with Billy the Kid.Into this peaceful setting comes gangster Duke Mantee (Bogart) and his three pals Jackie (Joe Sawyer), Ruby (Adrian Morris) and Slim (Slim Thompson).
The rest of the film deals with the conflicts between the various characters and the growing love story between Alan and Gabrielle.Bogey reportedly patterned his Mantee after real life gangster John Dillinger right down to his speech and movements.
Based on the stunningly emotion play of the same title Petrified Forest is the tale that Acting great Leslie Howard will always be remembered for.He is at the heart of this film as a disillusioned intellectual whose personality never survived the war.
Bette also has to contend with former college football star Dick Foran and his clumsy efforts at courtship.Along comes Alan Squier played by Leslie Howard who's a blase world weary vagabond who's seen better days.
And what if we take this pretty and young Bette Davis (before she becomes the best villain in the story of cinema) and make her play a rebel girl that's longing for a new life far away from that dusty Arizona hole she lives in?
"The Petrified Forest" is also particularly notable for marking Humphrey Bogart's first major screen role as the nominal villain and escaped gangster Duke Mantee.
They are the men who obliquely brighten the hopeless despair and repressed frustrations of a trapped waitress who is secretly a talented painter (Gabby Maple, played by Bette Davis) and a fatalistically passionate French drifter-poet who is hitching his way to the Pacific Ocean (Alan Squier, played by Leslie Howard).
Leslie Howard, who was to die in World War II when the plane on which he was a passenger was shot down by the Luftwaffe (there's a strange story about THAT interception), relates his failed marital history with a genteel but real frankness not usually found in pre-war cinema.Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart shine in their roles.
The acting is good all around, although I don't think the football player was that good.I have to say that I find it interesting seeing the interaction between the black characters; it was very funny and also quite ahead of it's time.Although some of the references in this film are lost to younger viewers, I still think it has held up well and certainly is worth watching even if you are not a Davis or Bogart fan per se..
This is not a gangster film it's more of a thought provoking philosophical drama of real people looking for meaning & purpose & dreaming of something better.The story is essentially about a wandering poet Alan Squire (Leslie Howard) aimlessly gallivanting in the desert & eventually comes to a remote & desolate gas station/restaurant & diner named the BAR-B-Q in black mesa, Arizona.
Leslie Howard & Bette Davis are the stars but to modern audiences Bogarts philosophical gangster steals the picture.
Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart are all excellent, and the rest of the cast is very good, too.The first part of the film introduces the audience carefully to each character, mostly through their conversations.
All of the characters are part of a tense and interesting scene as they are all - including the gangsters - confronted with situations they cannot control.At times it gets rather melodramatic, at other times (early on) a bit talky, but always worth watching - "Petrified Forest" is a film to see if you appreciate good acting..
In this film, he is a lazy writer gone awry, trying to live out his dreams in Bette Davis' character (who is a painter).In a way, he's totally opposite of Humphrey Bogart's Duke Mantee character, and the dichotomy really is the justification of 'classic' given to this film.Bogart's and Davis' performances are just average in this film - although at the time of the release, this was Bogart's best film.
Although not as brutal and seemingly spontaneous as its later noir cousin, John Huston's Key Largo (1948), there's something romantic about a group of characters, plucked from the various facets of American society, who, by some inexplicable fate, come to meet in a greasy spoon in the middle of the Arizona desert where their destinies are played out.The diner is almost another dimension, separated from the America of the Great Depression.
Howard's intellectual pauper, Davis' waitress dreamer and Tobin's upper-crust snob are put on the same human level as Bogart's cold-blooded killer, and the result is the drawing out of the true personality of the individual, not the group whom the individual represents.Written for the stage, the material is naturally stagy, taking place, for the most part, in the eating area of the diner.
Humphrey Bogart, in his first good movie role, is appropriately menacing; he looks remarkably like John Dillinger, and shows even at this stage of his career much of the charm and charisma that later propelled him to superstardom.
The film is based on a play, and it is not surprising given that all but one scene is set at the diner.Bette Davis gives a fine performance as an idealist young waitress that is enchanted by a vagabond that happens upon the diner, Alan Squier.
It has some painted outdoor sets, a very young, pretty Bette Davis, with Humphrey Bogart and Leslie Howard repeating their stage roles as, respectively, a Dillinger type criminal and an idealistic dreamer.
There, Duke holds everyone hostage, including the returning Chisholms, during which time, Alan comes to an important decision about Gaby, himself, and what his life means.The film has two unusual aspects, the first being the surprising treatment of the black characters.
Nevertheless, it holds one's interest due to acting and wonderful atmosphere of this broken-down café with the wind whipping outside.With his finely drawn, handsome features and British accent, Leslie Howard excelled at playing dreamers and philosophers, culminating in his role as Ashley Wilkes in "Gone With the Wind." As Alan, he's above it all, speaking of poetry and art to the wide-eyed Gaby and throwing even Duke Mantee off-balance.
Mrs. Chisholm is stuck but vicariously roots not only for Gaby but Duke and Alan.Allegorical in its themes, with no special effects, "The Petrified Forest," its title referring to the nearby dead forest where several characters are figuratively heading, is a real treat for lovers of classic film, classic actors, and our country's history of depression and classism.
He starred in a lot of films after this one, but his performance as Duke Mantee was talked about long after his too-early death.Leslie Howard is the weak link in the movie.
The terrific cast includes Howard as a failed writer, Davis as a waitress with big dreams, Grapevine as Davis's sauce-loving grandfather, and Bogart in his breakthrough role of gangster Duke Mantee.
The Petrified Forest, starring Leslie Howard and Bette Davis reprising the roles they played so masterfully on stage remains one of my favorite Bogart movies.
Watching the lives of the vastly different personalities intertwine, makes The Petrified Forest a fun film to watch as a great character study of three classic greats.Humphrey Bogart plays a tired, haggard criminal who seems to long for a break from his criminal ways.
During the depression, British drifter Leslie Howard (as Alan Squier) is trapped in an Arizona desert diner with French-American poetry lover Bette Davis (as Gabrielle "Gabby" Maple), after notorious gangster Humphrey Bogart (as Duke Mantee) takes the small group of inhabitants hostage.
As always, Ms. Davis is at least entertaining, getting over her line "Did you ever been in love before?" Bogart's gangster persona is notably pure and unsympathetic in this early incarnation; after this, his stock rose considerably.******** The Petrified Forest (2/6/36) Archie Mayo ~ Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Genevieve Tobin.
Bogart is brilliant as the amoral gangster, and his character is brilliantly offset by the likes of Leslie Howard and Bette Davis.
Duke shoots the tourist at the end, escapes and is finally caught by the police just after.The Petrified Forest has very little, if any background music but it doesn't need it as it is gripping enough.Joning Bogie in the cast are Leslie Howard as the tourist, a young Bette Daivs as the waitress, Dick Foran and Joe Sawyer.
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).
Archie Mayo directed this fine adaptation of the famous stage play that stars Leslie Howard as Alan Squire, a philosophical hobo(and poet) on his way to the Pacific ocean, who stops in the desert diner of Gabrielle Maple(played by a young Bette Davis) and brightens her life with his philosophy and experience.
The other patrons think he is a joke, but Alan is just different, and their lives will take a dramatic turn when wanted gangster Duke Mantee(played by Humphrey Bogart) arrives with his men and holds them all hostage, leading to much discussion before the authorities close in...
Here we have three interesting famous artists of all-time cinema, charming Bette Davis, polite and educated Leslie Howard with his English accent, and a terrible Humphrey Bogart as the villain of the film.
It stars Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Genevieve Tobin and Dick Foran.
Two of the Broadway players reprise their roles, Leslie Howard as erudite ne'er-do-well 'Alan Squier' and Humphry Bogart as weary killer on the lam 'Duke Mantee', with a beautiful, young Bette Davis taking on the role of Gabrielle Maple, a dreamer who yearns to leave her isolated home for the glamor and promise of Paris.
Bette Davis and Leslie Howard give classic 30's performances while Humphrey Bogart gives one for all ages around the interior of a roadside dirty spoon and filling station in the American South West.
**SPOILER ALERT** Unusual and somewhat bizarre 1930's gangster flick involving this off the wall traveling philosopher Alan Squier, Leslie Howard, who's hiking across America to see the sights and find out with what it's, life I guess, really all about.Hiking through the Arizona Desert with his backpack Alan drops it at the out of the way, 200 miles from the nearest town, friendly Black Mesa Bar-B-Q Diner & Gas Station to get some grub to eat and finds pretty Gabrielle "Gabby" Maple, Bette Davis, behind the counter.
Enter Alan Squier (Leslie Howard) who has those "book-smarts" and has been around to places like Paris and wrote a book but is now at a crossroads in his life - just the moment to meet a very curious-minded girl like Gabrielle, who, as happens in movies of the period, gets smitten with the guy immediately.There's a snag when a notorious gangster, Duke Mantee (Bogart), has to hold up at the bar with his fellow gangsters and holds everybody hostage while they wait.
It turns into one of those interesting microcosms that we see sometimes in stage plays or in movies, where a group of people who usually would just say hello/goodbye and be on their way (if that) are thrown together: a smart guy like Alan who becomes heroic after imbibing a few dozen shots; a gruff gangster like Mantee who talks in a way (and by Bogart's performance) where you're not sure what's sarcastic or real; Gabrielle as the girl who two guys are pining for and is not sure what she'll do.Then there's the arrogant jock who ends up getting shot, and the rich couple who have their own sort of long-time-married camaraderie that's mildly amusing.
Considering this film was made just a few years after motion pictures started "talking", it's a great movie thanks to budding talents of Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart.
While it can be fun to watch Leslie Howard play this role occasionally, the character is just so unlikable, it's hard not to cheer for his eventual demise.Bette Davis looks nice, but she is obviously trying way too hard.
I will say one thing, she was pretty hot, better looking than Bette Davis.Probably the most interesting scene in the film was when the two black characters interact after the black member of Bogie's gang asks Chism's driver if he'd like a drink.
Bogie's mannerisms and facial quirks were deliberately copied from watching footage of Dillinger for an uncanny, almost mesmerizing persona.Alan, played to perfection by the great English actor Leslie Howard, who is better remembered as 'The Scarlet Pimpernel", represents the disillusioned post WWI idealist who perceives the rise of evil forces in Europe and has decided to end his life in the Petrified forest.
Yes, there is a gangster (Humphrey Bogart) involved in the story, but really this is just a play where all the action is in one room and it is talk, talk, talk with just a little action in the end.The best part of the film, to me, was Bette Davis, who I have found very alluring when she was young.
It's always interesting to watch pros like LESLIE HOWARD, BETTE DAVIS and HUMPHREY BOGART in their salad days playing roles that the two male stars originated on the stage.
Davis is lovelier than usual and photographs attractively as the waitress with dreams of a life beyond her narrow boundaries.But the dialog is pretentious stuff, particularly the lines given Leslie Howard, who finds the waitress a girl of great interest the moment he sets eyes on her and proceeds to spout the endless twaddle of a liberated intellectual while making no sense at all.DICK FORAN is effective as a football jock with feelings for Bette and CHARLEY GRAPEWIN is good as "pops," still living on his close encounter with Billy the Kid--or so he says.
Directed by Archie Mayo, "The Petrified Forest" gave a tremendous boost to Bogart's screen career by providing him with a ready-made showcase for his talent The movie was a very faithful adaptation of the play as it told of a group of diverse personalities who find themselves held at bay in a small service-station-restaurant by a ruthless gunman and his gang on the run from pursuing police There were heavily symbolic overtones involving the overrunning of the doomed intellectuals by corruptive brute force Into this truly fragile framework, the screenplay weaves a tapestry of penetrating character studies First there is Alan Squier (Leslie Howard), a disillusioned writer and intellectual who realizes he is a member of a vanishing breed of men whose visions of a Utopian existence have given way to the oppressive realities of a world that no longer has any room for his type of dreamer Frustrated and quietly despairing, he meets a dreamer of another type, Gabrielle Maple (Bette Davis).
Davis is attracted to Howard because he is an intellectual, and she wants a life beyond rural Arizona.Then a wanted murderer comes to the gas station/restaurant -- Duke Mantee -- a superb role for Humphrey Bogart, although afterwards he starred or co-starred in quite a few forgettable B movies before gaining more recognition and better parts.
Though set in the sparse, almost barren confines of Black Mesa, Arizona, the film comes to life with sparkling and intelligent dialog that underscores it's mission to give meaning to the lives of it's two protagonists - Allan Squier (Leslie Howard) and Gabrielle "Gabby" Maple (Bette Davis).
Bogie's character, "the last rugged apostle of individualism", as Alan puts it, was very believable as well.Bette Davis as Gabby Maple shined in her role, and her chemistry with Leslie Howard was great.