Review of High Sierra (1941) by Irvin C — 02 Apr 2009

The thing is, this is not actually a Action/Adventure movie. But it's not really any of the others, either. It's a Gangster Flick. Oh, it's not as good, not as hardcore, as a pre-Code Gangster Flick, but ye Gods, it's Bogie. Now, I've been hearing about this movie for a long time. Well, you do, if you're a film buff. It's in the list of Bogie Films You Should See and the list of Gangster Flicks You Should See. Obviously, the lists coincide in more than a few places. (Though I must say, I think my favourite is probably [i]The African Queen[/i], though [i]Casablanca[/i] is perhaps a better film.) Some of them have not aged terribly well, though there is always a great performance in the lead if nothing else. Bogie was from the era where you did your damndest on the set, no matter what you did off it. It's good stuff. However, not everyone in the films necessarily shared Bogart's ethos!

Roy Earle (Bogart) has gotten a pardon from a prison back East, and he is asked by Big Mac (Donald MacBride) to run a heist at a hotel. (I think it's a hotel.) They're to clear out the safe and steal the jewelry from the case, then bring the jewelry back to him. On his way to California to pull the job, Earle meets Pa (Henry Travers, best known as Clarence from [i]It's a Wonderful Life[/i]), Ma (Elisabeth Risdon), and their beautiful-though-clubfooted granddaughter, Velma (Joan Leslie). He falls, and falls hard, for Velma, but he continues to Los Angeles to do the job. There, he becomes reacquainted with Marie (top-billed Ida Lupino), who's plenty interested in him. The robbery does not quite go as planned, and the police go after Earle. He has paid for surgery to fix Velma's foot, and he goes back to her in the genuine belief that she will love him, that she does love him. Things do not quite go according to plan for him.

I have to say, the most dated aspect of the film for me is not the costumes, the slang, the attitudes, or anything else. It's a minor point of geography. Obviously, the movie has important scenes in the Sierra Nevadas of eastern California. Hence the name. There are various descriptions of the territory, including a lovely description of the night sky by Earle. The astronomy's even pretty good--a star is mentioned as blue, he points out Jupiter, and he tells her about the changing of the stars by the seasons! However, the most important point of geography in the film is the forbidding heights of Mount Whitney. Now, Mount Whitney's pretty tall--someone says it's 14,501 feet high, and he's undershot it by four feet. That is indeed pretty tall. We think of the Rockies as the highest mountains in the US, but Mount Whitney is mentioned several times in the movie as the tallest mountain in the country. Which it was then, but it isn't now. It's the tallest mountain in the [i]contiguous[/i] United States, but Mount McKinely (or Denali) in Alaska is 20,230 feet.

It's a minor point, of course, but it kind of bothered me every time someone brought it up. Anyway, I don't think the rest of the movie has aged that badly. In fact, I think the movie makes a bold departure from the average film under the Code. Earle is not redeemed by The Love of a Good Woman. Of course, things don't end happily for Earle; they can't, given that he is actually a criminal. The Code, after all--though I don't think it's actually a change from the book. Heck, I'm pretty sure Pard (Bogart's own dog, Zero) is in the book, even though he seems like a cinematic touch. Some of the acting is a bit overdone, but Gods know [i]that[/i] doesn't make a film dated. Believe me, I could give plenty of modern examples!

This is Bogart's first lead role, and pretty much the last one where he wasn't top-billed. He really wanted the role, and he campaigned pretty hard to get it. He knew that it was right for him, and he was tired of losing roles to Paul Muni and George Raft, the two who were ahead of him on the list of desirable actors for the film. Muni didn't like either John Huston's or (original book author) W. R. Burnett's drafts of a script, so he declined the role. However, Raft was seriously considering it. Bogart suggested that, if Raft was tired of being typecast as a gangster, perhaps he should turn down the role. After all, he said, they just wanted to get the big name on the poster. Raft thought that was a pretty good point.