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Rating:  -
Reprising his role from Robert E. Sherwood's smash Broadway play for this sterling adaptation, Howard plays the anguished intellectual to the hilt, especially in his scenes with the menacing, monotone Bogart, who modeled his Duke Mantee after celebrity criminal John Dillinger (on the run and "most wanted" at the time of filming). Jack Warner had no interest in casting Bogie in the role that would propel him from supporting roles to high-wattage fame, but was convinced--or perhaps blackmailed--by Howard, who owned the rights to the story. Davis positively glows in an early role as the chipper, wide-eyed dreamer longing for escape. Their spirited performances make this "Forest," a film about death-in-life, anything but wooden.
Rating:  -
Good performances and an unusual setting (a service station/watering hole in the middle of the desert) ultimately overcome the staginess and talkiness prevalent throughout, and the modest running time (about 83 minutes) doesn't hurt, either. Leslie Howard's character is sort of strange- he appreciates life's beauty and is suicidal at the same time- but that, too, adds an additional layer of interest.
The print of the movie is fine, and the DVD has an interesting bonus feature: if you select the "a night at the movies" option, you get to see a newsreel, cartoon, and a couple of other short treats prior to the start of the main feature.
Not quite a film noir, not quite a gangster movie, and not quite a romantic melodrama, "The Petrified Forest" nevertheless contain elements of all those genres, with a healthy dose of intellectual social commentary stirred into the mix, too. While not exactly firing on all cylinders as gripping entertainment, this unusual film is certainly worth a look.
Rating: -
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). She shares Squier's love of beauty and poetry and dreams of fleeing her repressing entrapment at the restaurant and traveling to France...
Into their world of fanciful idealism enters Humphrey Bogart--the reality, the brute force which threatens not only the dreamers but all of society... It is a finely truthful portrait of ultimate evil, magnificently played by Bogart with all the uncompromising ferocity the role demanded... It was one of Bogart's finest portrayals and it was the model, although considerably restrained, he would follow for the next years of his career...
Final note: Duke Mantee was a killer on the run... He was not a big-shot businessman... The assumption put into the audience's mind was that this mobster was a bank robber, a hold-up artist, an escaped convict... but never a wealthy criminal controlling an empire of corruption from plush offices on the 18th floor...
Approximately twenty years later, Bogart recreated his original role in a television production of "The Petrified Forest." Directed by Delbert Mann, the play featured Lauren Bacall in the Davis role and Henry Fonda in Howard's part... After all those years, Bogart still had the character down perfectly and received excellent notices...
Rating:  -
"The Petrified Forest" is a filmed version of the 1935 Broadway smash. The play starred Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart and their stage performances were preserved when Warner Brothers bought the play to the screen in late 1935. The addition of Bette Davis made good box office sense as she was beginning to hit her stride and was reteamed with Howard after their earlier matching in "Of Human Bondage".
The film is set in the Arizona desert. A killer on the run holds up in a road house taking hostage a group of people there. The play has a few things to say about "the meaning of life" with the juxtaposition of outcast wanderer and intellectual Alan Squier (Howard) and vicious gangster Duke Mantee (Bogart). The morality still resonates because it is contained in Howard's dialogue which he delivers superbly. Genevieve Tobin has a supporting part as a rich wife and makes a terrific impact with her revelations. The film was a breakthrough for Bogart. Davis, as the waitress who yearns for a better life, is a revelation, acting with simplicity and freshness. She is also very well photographed by Sol Polito and her big eyes glow.
The print is excellent and a lot of extras are included. Eric Lax, a Bogart biographer, provides an expert and very detailed commentary about the film and the players but does not draw breath so it is hard to keep up. The short documentary about the film covers much of the same ground and is more precise. The Warner's "Night at the Movies" includes a terrible Vitaphone short with the absurd Toby Wing, a chorus girl who could not sing or dance but grins incessantly, the gangly dancer Hal Leroy and a singer called Frances Hunt who seems to be imitating Frances Langford and delivers an awful song called "Weary". I would call it "Deadly". There is a delightful cartoon about the Cocoanut Grove with famous stars satired, the best of which is Katharine Hepburn as a horse. The newsreel shows 2 major events of the period - Roosevelt's re-election and the abdication of the throne in England by Edward for Mrs Simpson. The Lux radio performance of the play included in the package is almost unintelligible with a very poor Tyrone Power in Howard's role.
The DVD is excellent value especially if it is purchased as part of the Warners Gangster Collection.
Rating: -
Petrified Forest brought best friends Bogart and Howard together along with Davis to create an exceptional ensemble piece that told a grim story that also had heart.
A movie to own for those that love a good story and superb acting.
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