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Genres: CrimeThrillerRoma
Starring: Arthur Kennedy, Elisabeth Risdon, Henry Hull, Humphrey Bogart, Henry Travers, Donald MacBride, Jerome Cowan
Director(s): Raoul Walsh
Country: USA
Year: 1941
Available Quality: DivX, iPod
IMDB Rating: 7.6 out of 10 (6543 votes)
Roy Mad Dog Earle is broken out of prison by an old associate who wants him to help with an upcoming robbery. When the robbery goes wrong and a man is shot and killed Earle is forced to go on the run, and with the police and an angry press hot on his tail he eventually takes refuge among the peaks of the Sierra Nevadas, where a tense siege ensues. But will the Police make him regret the attachments he formed with two women during the brief planning of the robbery.
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Visitors Review
(24 May 2012)
High Sierra
The movie was of high quality and I received it in working order and was very pleased with product and the amount of time it took to received, thanks larry king
(24 May 2012)
Thirties style gangster epic and Bogie's big breakthrough.
This, along with The Maltese Falcon (both 1941 films) propelled Bogart to super stardom. Ironically both roles were turned down by George Raft. Bogart plays, with great sensitivity, Roy Earle--a tough, aging desperado who wants to settle down after one last caper. He is doomed, however, to meet a cruel fate amid the majestic and indifferent mountains of the high sierra. Earle, in his own way, has moments of compassion and basic decency which makes his tragic end all the more touching. Well directed by Raoul Walsh and an important film for Bogart. 3 1/2 stars.
(20 May 2012)
Good acting; weak plot
Humphrey Bogart is always a pleasure to watch. Here, he's the tough but sensitive guy who has just been issued a parole and returns for another jewel heist. Along the way he falls in love with a sweet farm girl with a club foot, pays for her operation and pals around with her old-timey family in between meeting mobsters to plan for the job. The yokels he's been assigned to work with him have picked up a dime-a-dance girl in LA. (Ida Lupino). He wants her to go home but somehow she convinces him to let her stick around. Then, a very cute, but allegedly bad-luck dog attaches himself to Earle(Bogart). Earle proposed marriage to Velma, the farm girl, after her foot is fixed but she is improbably attached to a slick guy with a pencil mustache (always a bad sign in these pictures) who drinks too much and she tearfully refuses Earle's proposal, much to the dismay of Pa who knows who's who. So Earle falls back on Marie, the dance hall girl and quickly falls in love with her. Well, he's been in prison for eight years so I guess he's sorta vulnerable in the romance department.Mixed in with this human-interest strain of the plot, is the actual crime. It goes from bad to worse, no doubt due to the presence of Pard, the bad-luck dog, and Earle finds himself stranded in a cranny of the highest peak in America, with an audience of hundreds, including Marie, awaiting the outcome at the bottom.It's a pretty bad story and the only reason I hung in there were the nice performances of both Bogart and Lupino. Lupino, especially, was very convincing as the tough but pathetic girl who had nothing in the world but this criminal she met up with in the motel in the Sierras. If you can stand the plot, or if you are a died-in-the wool Bogart fan, you will probably like this. He certainly made better films later.
(19 May 2012)
IN THE MOUNTAINS WITH BOGIE.
As gangster pictures go, this one has everything: speed, excitement, suspence and that ennobling suggestion of futility which makes for irony and pity. Bogie plays the leading role with a perfection of hard-boiled vitality, and Ida Lupino, Arthur Kennedy and Alan Curtis handle their lesser roles effectively. Lupino is outstanding as the adoring moll. I just viewed the colorized version of this film and it was very life-like. Although Joan Leslie and Bogie don't really click and their attraction for each other seems unlikely, this is one of Bogart's best performances. Ida Lupino and Bogart seemed a good match; they would have been great together in other films of the genre. As a greying criminal whose time is short, Humphrey pursues the final caper because that is the only thing he knows. This was Bogie's first solid role as a sympathethic lead & his career skyrocketed from here.
Snow Leopard (16 May 2012)
Bogart Stands Out In An Interesting & Well-Crafted Story
Even aside from its impact on Humphrey Bogart's career and on the noirgenre, "High Sierra" is an entertaining and interesting movie that isworth seeing in its own right. Bogart's portrayal of Roy Earle, alongwith Ida Lupino, a talented supporting cast, and some well-chosensettings, are all fit together nicely to tell an interesting story.Though it's hard now to experience Bogart's gangster roles as theywould have appeared to their original audiences, it's still easy to seewhy this and similar roles attracted so much attention at the time. Thecharacter is interesting to begin with, and Bogart makes him even moreso. The tension between Earle's ruthlessness and his sense of fairness,and between his desires and his practicality, makes for someinteresting possibilities.Bogart makes good use of these opportunities with his distinctivestyle. The other characters and the plot developments furnish plenty ofmaterial that develop Earle's character and give Bogart lots to workwith. Even the sequences that might seem unlikely or out of place areused to add depth to the character and the story.The climactic sequence in the mountains ties everything togethernicely, in a very appropriate setting. "High Sierra" is the kind ofmovie that classic movie fans can enjoy both for the chance to see itsinfluence on later movies and for its own interesting and well-craftedstory.
(16 May 2012)
Bogie near the peak of Super-Stardom!
"High Sierra" released in January of 1941,gives us Bogart after having climbed that acting mountain for many years,just in hairs reach of the peak of super stardom.A classy tale of a heist gone wrong with lots of action and good acting throughout.The story concerns one Roy Earle,a criminal who is sprung out of the pen by his old boss Big Mac(Don McBride).He has one last big job for him and wants him to take charge of a group of characters,none of which Roy really trusts.On the way out he meets up with a kindly family led by Pa(Henry Travers)and his granddaughter Velma(Joan Leslie).Roy falls for the granddaughter whom he later helps out by giving the funds necessary to correct her clubbed foot.But Roy's love in the end is unrequited and in the end chalks his good deed up to experience.He reaches a camp where the "gang" are holed up waiting for the job to begin.One of the two men Babe(Alan Curtis) has brought along a girlfriend by the name of Marie(Ida Lupino),whom he periodically roughs up,much to the chagrin of Roy.After one such incident Roy gets rough with Babe and puts him in his place.Roy has wanted Marie to leave but in the end recants and Marie starts to fall for him.Roy finally meets up with Big Mac who is in serious trouble,health wise.Big Mac gives Roy a letter to be opened if anything should happen to him.The day of the big job finally comes and Roy and company rob the safe of a very up-scale hotel.The front desk clerk Mendosa(Cornel Wilde) is their inside man who leaves the safe purposely unlocked.The job is taking a little longer than expected when a security guard making his rounds stumbles in on the heist and gets shot by Roy.While fleeing in seperate cars,Roy and Marie witness their three partners accidentally run off the road and seemingly killed.However Mendozza lives and eventually squeals on Earle.By this time Roy has reconnected to hand over the jewels that were heisted,only to find that Big Mac has died.As instructed in the envelope he goes to another fence who tells Roy to return for his cut when he hears from him.When he gets the word and tries to collect he is discovered and the chase is on.He ends up in the Sierra Mountains and in the end,with Marie watching,dies there.He is now "free",as Marie,teary-eyed but comforted that he's in a better place(her identity as Roy's moll now confirmed),is led away by the police.The screenplay was co-written by John Huston,the famous director to be of such super hits as "The African Queen","The Maltese Falcon" ,"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and so many more.The film was directed wonderfully by venerable director Raoul Walsh of "Sadie Thompson"(1928) fame and many other good pictures of the 20s and 30s.Bogie as mentioned was just near super stardom and after his next gig "The Maltese Falcon", would come "Casablanca" and the rest is history.Ida Lupino was a classy actress in these years and plied her trade skillfully.It wouldn't be until the late 40s that her star would rise to its' peak, but in the meantime she learned about directing and between that and acting would continue to work well into the 70s.Character actor Henry Travers("Ball of Fire",the angel in"It's a Wonderful Life",and so many more),is a welcome addition to the cast playing a very affable Pa.Also a welcome addition is Willie Best giving some comic relief as Algernon,the camp caretaker and keeper of a little dog by the name of Pard.Pard was in fact Zero,Bogie's OWN dog!Also here is a young 15 year old Joan Leslie in her first major movie role and the first time using that name(she was billed in bit parts at MGM using her real name of Joan Brodel!).Finally we see 25 year old Cornel Wilde,almost unrecognizable,at the start of his career in a bit part as the inside man at the hotel(Mendoza)who rats out Roy later in the picture.This DVD has been transferred very well and the print,while exhibiting some flaws in keeping with its' age and condition,is generally in pretty good shape.Extras here are slim with just the theatrical trailer and a featurette about the movie.Wonderfully acted and directed, with a good script with well fleshed out characters,"High Sierra" makes for very entertaining movie fare and has never failed to disappoint.A good addition for your DVD library.
gring0 (11 May 2012)
Ultimately unmemorable
Everyone loves "Mad Dog" Collins- a lovable dog, a crippled girl halfhis age who talks like an eight-year old, her grandpa (who played thedoctor in The Invisible Man), and the cynical Ida Lupino. But why?Bogart hardly shows any wit, humour or charisma towards any of thecharacters. Nor can it be understood why Bogart would choose thechildlike Velma over the jaw-dropping Lupina who oozes sex and ispractically begging it Bogie-style. "Don't talk like a sap" Bogarttells Lupina, but that would be characteristic of most of the dialoguedespite one reviewer's claims that it is "witty." The film seemsuncertain as to what direction it wants to take- either a Chaplinesquesyrupy romance demanding double-takes, gaping mouths and wide-eyes fromits actors and tears and vulnerable innocence from its actresses. Throwin a cross-eyed "coloured boy" who of course is always asleep and a fewbooks short of a library and invulnerable police and you have a filmthat seems dated even for 1941 standards. As a result the film, alreadylengthy at 100 minutes, drags until the obligatory final chase (which Imust say is creditable). This is not helped by the ultimately pointlessdiversion involving the doddering old man who is introduced to "MadDog" by a pseudonym and yet, the next meeting refers to him by his realname after a contrived coincidence which has Bogart fall in love with achild. www.tracesofevil.blogspot.com
(10 May 2012)
The rise and fall of Roy "Mad Dog" Earle
Humphrey Bogart is typically superb in Raoul Walsh's HIGH SIERRA, but Ida Lupino easily tops him in her last heartrending scene.John Huston scripted this story of a pardoned Indiana bank robber who goes west to pull off a jewel heist at a mountain resort. Along the way, Roy Earle (Bogart) pays for a crippled young woman's surgery and takes up with an ex-dance hall girl (Lupino).HIGH SIERRA is also available on DVD.Later that same year, Bogart starred as private eye Samuel Spade in the film noir classic THE MALTESE FALCON. (VHS edition) (DVD edition)Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.(7.6) High Sierra (1941) - Ida Lupino/Humphrey Bogart/Alan Curtis/Arthur Kennedy/Joan Leslie/Henry Hull/Henry Travers/Barton MacLane/Elisabeth Risdon/Cornel Wilde/Donald MacBrideTRIVIANA--Paul Muni turned down portraying Roy Earle after he read the script's first draft. WARNER BROS. next tried to cast George Raft, but he refused "another" gangster role. Bogart, who'd been lobbying for the part for some time, was their third choice.The gray and white pooch, Pard was played by Bogart's pet, Zero.Ida Lupino was English. Her second film appearance was as star of the British-made "Her First Affaire" (1932). Lupino moved to Hollywood in 1934. In 1949, she began a long and successful movie and TV career -behind- the camera, including on several popular television series, directing one episode of "Twilight Zone," three of "The Untouchables" and four of "Gilligan's Island," for example.Henry Travers ("Pa") who was also from Britain, is best remembered for his portrayal of "Harold," Jimmy Stewart's guardian angel in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946).Young "Red" was Arthur Kennedy's second screen role.Joan Leslie, who plays the club-footed girl Bogart helps, is mentioned in an Andrews Sisters lyric: "We're not petite like Joan Leslie."This was the last picture where Bogie didn't receive top billing.
ccthemovieman-1 (05 May 2012)
Bogie Goes From Bad To Good Guy
Aw, the film that launched stardom for Humphrey Bogart and changed himfrom the perpetual villain to the "good guy."The movie doesn't feature a lot of action but it keeps your interest.You have two women in here: the hard-boiled Ida Lupino and thesoft-and-sweet Joan Leslie. Both are entertaining to watch and bothdemonstrate a few surprises in the personalities of the characters theyare playing. Bogart does the same: goes back and forth between toughguy and softy.Another key member of this unusual crime story/film noir is "Pard:" alittle dog! Human supporting roles are supplied by some familiar andsolid actors such as Arthur Kennedy, Alan Curtis, Henry Hull, HenryTravers, Barton MacLane and Cornel Wilde. Most of the people in here,including "Pard," are that endearing but there are so many differentangles to this story, it's always interesting to see.
kmccalle (04 May 2012)
Sophomoric drivel with good performance by Ida Lupino
Bogart plays his usual tough-guy-with-soft-heart in this unlikely storyabout a robbery and it's (for the time) predictable consequences. The filmis riddled with jarring, corny, 40's-movie, gangster talk, like "take thatcopper". Then there's the old cliche where the girl can't afford theoperation -- blaach.A strikingly beautiful Ida Lupino plays the gun mole with elan. Even so, youshould skip this one unless you can't live without consuming every lastnanosecond of Humphrey Bogart's filmography.
lastliberal (28 April 2012)
'Ya always sorta hope 'ya can get out.
And get out he did. Sprung by a crooked Governor, Roy Earle (HumphreyBogart) is out to do one more job.What really caught my eye, however, was the fact that he went to thepark first, and was watching stars, and was amazed at the mountains. Aclue to those not in the know, that jail is the worst place to be.Bogey also got out in that this picture, probably the first film noir,sprung him into the spotlight and allowed him to go one and make thegreat Casablanca, as well as The African Queen, The Caine Muntiny, andmany more.Imagine getting second billing to Ida Lupino, who was really go in thisfilm, but not in Bogey's class. Even Pard (Zero the Dog) could notmatch Bogey, as cute as he was.This is a great caper film, with backstabbing and tons of action, and agreat car chase up the mountains. It should be seen by everyone wholoves film.
ebiros2 (28 April 2012)
Simple - but a great movie
The movie is about an ex-con who gets recruited for a casino heist.He's been identified, and is on the run again.Humphrey Bogart puts in a good show. This is the first time he'scollaborated with John Huston, that spawned series of great movies withhim. The story is simple, but the movie has a mood all its own. Is thisthe magic of Bogart ? Since nobody else's movie has this mood, I'd haveto put the credit where it's due. If it wasn't for him, this moviewould have been just another gangster movie, but you feel specialsympathy for Humphrey Bogart's character.Ida Lupino was great in this movie too.A classic in every sense of the word.
JohnRouseMerriottChard (26 April 2012)
Roy Earle, a man out of prison, and out of his time.
Roy Earle is released early from prison thanks to a rather shiftypardon. A job is there to be done, maybe Roy's last one before finallyfinding love and straightening out?, but Roy is finding out that thisis a different world to the one he left behind, the one before heentered the Big House for his stretch. Crooks he's not familiar withand women turning his head, hell even a canine has him at odds with hismachismo sensibility, but all of it will come crashing together amongstthe magnificent High Sierra!.It's a really funny thing now, you buy two DVDs and they both tell youthat the respective film from 1941 is the breakout role for HumphreyBogart. I am of course referring to both this fabulous film and theequally brilliant, Maltese Falcon, what a double that is eh!. Truth is,is that both films merely showcase what a talent the great man was, andcrucially, that he could imbue his characters with terrific results.Here as Roy Earle i personally feel Bogey gives one of his best 40sperformances, made to look far more aged than he was {well done PercWestmore}, he manages to make Earle a tough and gritty man, yet at thesame time he pulls the audience on side with a hardened professionalismthat has us admiring the obvious qualities that reside within him.Directed by the great Raoul Walsh, scripted by one John Huston, andstarring Humphrey Bogart, it's obvious that this take on W.R. Burnett'snovel is in safe hands, playing out as one of the gangster genre's lasthurrahs, it's clear to me that some future great Western directors wereclearly taking notes, for what drives High Sierra to being great isit's man out of his time pulse, sensitivity seams thru the picturewithout ever cloying the tension and feel of the picture, the bestAdult Westerns would theme this arc with considerably great results.Backing Bogart up is the top billed Ida Lupinio {strong and perfectfoil}, while the likes of Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy, Henry Hull,Cornel Wilde, Henry Travers and Joan Leslie {badly overacting withouthurting the production} help up to put High Sierra firmly in the drawerthat holds classic crime pictures from a golden age. Not just a closelook at deep and elegiac characters, High Sierra does not lack in theaction department either, in fact Walsh does an incredible job ofknitting together heart and gusto with intelligent results. Come thefinale at Mount Whitney {High Sierra a constant looming presence in thefilm}, the thrills have more than catered for the inclined seekers ofthat particular bent, but ultimately as the credits role, Walsh'scamera leaves us in no doubt as to what has driven Roy, and HighSierra, to it's point of meaning, a special and great movie indeed,9/10
(26 April 2012)
Bogie Goes From Bad To Good Guy
Here is the film that launched stardom for Humphrey Bogart and changed him from the perpetual villain to the "good guy."The movie doesn't feature a lot of action but it keeps your interest. You have two women in here: the hard-boiled Ida Lupino and the soft-and-sweet Joan Leslie. Both are entertaining to watch and both demonstrate a few surprises in the personalities of the characters they are playing. Bogart does the same: goes back and forth between tough guy and softie.Another key member of this unusual crime story/film noir is "Pard:" a little dog! Human supporting roles are supplied by some familiar and solid actors such as Arthur Kennedy, Alan Curtis, Henry Hull, Henry Travers, Barton MacLane and Cornel Wilde. There are so many different angles to this story, it's always interesting to see.
(25 April 2012)
A fitting end to the Golden Age of the gangster film
This film in many ways is the culmination of the Golden Age of the gangster film. At the same time it is the true beginning of Humphrey Bogart's star career. After a string of gangster films in the thirties, all demonstrating graphically that crime really didn't pay, we get this great film, in which it not only doesn't pay, but doesn't lead to happiness, either. Unlike most of the great gangster characters of the 1930s, Roy "Mad Dog" Earle has an atypical degree of complexity and depth. He is tired of his life, and would like to very much live a different one. He meets two women, one who is a product of the kind of life he would like to escape, and another, who is young, innocent, beautiful, and a symbol of everything he would love to rediscover. Much of the movie's power and poignancy derives from these dual relationships, as he realizes the life he would like to have is denied him, while at the same time not valuing the love of a woman who doesn't represent a new way of life, but who nonetheless truly and genuinely cares for him. It ends a tragic love triangle.The movie features a host of superb actors from Warner Brothers stable of contract players. The always-underrated Ida Lupino (who was also an accomplished director of "B" pictures) excells as Marie Garson, while 16-year-old Joan Leslie is perfect as the young, innocent girl Roy Earle wants to help. The rest of the cast is filled by such superb character talents as Henry Travers, Arthur Kennedy, Jerome Cowan, Henry Hull, Barton MacLane, and a very young Cornel Wilde.The other thing that really makes this film stand out is the remarkable on location scenes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Almost all gangster films of the thirties were shot entirely on movie sets, and very, very few were shot outdoors. In this one, numerous scenes were shot in various locations in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and elsewhere, and this lends an atmosphere unique to the era. Also, setting it in California rather than New York or Chicago enhances the story. The final, climatic scenes with Bogart trying to escape from the police by heading into the mountains is a classic.Bogart went on to make more gangster films in his career, most notably THE DESPERATE HOURS, but in many ways this film signaled the end of the Golden Age of the genre. Although up to this point his career had primarily consisted of portraying gangsers, henceforward he would more often be associated with detectives or men of action. A great film in every way.
(24 April 2012)
For the final scene alone
Others have written how this movie was a 'breakout' movie for Bogart. Others have analyzed the complex character he plays, a hardened criminal who nonetheless has a compassionate side. I found the heart- wrenching part of the movie its final scene , one of death and separation and grief presented in a truly desolating way. In my mind is the image of Ida Lupino, the little dog after the Earle- Bogart main character has been killed. What struck me forcibly when I watched this as a very young person was that it did not have a 'happy ending' and the thought that life might not , deeply disturbed at the time.
Bolesroor (23 April 2012)
I Know Why It's Great
"High Sierra" is a movie that everyone sees and loves but no one seemsto understand why... at least I have yet to see anyone else speak towhat I feel is the heart of the picture. I've read all 57 reviewsposted on the IMDb and I can honestly say I've got a different take onwhat makes the movie such a classic.On the surface the movie seems like a fairly straightforward crimefilm- Humphrey Bogart is Roy Earle, a tough guy criminal trying to pullone last job. But in actuality it is about a man's failure to redeemhimself and his eventual acceptance of his own tragic destiny. To me,this is the quintessential Bogart film, as he SEEMS to be thehard-boiled heavy of the film, when in actuality it is life and societythat are much more cruel and unforgiving; Bogart is actually the victimhere.The tough-guy façade is something Roy Earle develops because of theharsh conditions around him, and in this way he represents many, maybeall American men, who are forced to provide a cold and leatheryexterior to shield themselves from the pain and heartbreak of everydaylife. The robbery plot line is a red herring on which a much deeperstory is hung. Roy's weakness here is the weakness of all men, and itis so obvious, so clunky, so perfectly plain that it transcends thetragic flaw and becomes a badge of honor, the face of every Americanman who has come before or since. His weakness is the desire to loveand be loved.Sure, he has the sharp and sultry Ida Lupino but what Bogey reallywants is Velma, the child, the virgin, the innocent, with whom he cantruly start anew and reinvent himself, achieving an immortality bybecoming her father/husband and raising his own daughter/lover. Sherepresents to him everything that is pure and innocent and good in thislife, everything he has lost out on. And yet what is brilliant aboutBogart's performance is that he knows full well that this fantasy willnever become real, yet he cannot help but go through the ritual: themeeting of Velma, the holding of her hand... it's as hardwired into thepsyche of every American male as breathing in and breathing out.Velma's revulsion at the thought of marrying Earle can be symbolic ofmany things: a wife unable to accept her veteran husband after hisreturn, the inability of the cosmos to forgive him for past sins, theirreversible loss of innocence, or the sad fact that for whateverreason Roy was just not destined for any of the good that life has tooffer... he is cursed. Who hasn't felt that way at one time or another?The movie has a wonderful feel to it... we all seem to know that Roy isheaded for emotional- if not literal- death, and the joy is in watchinghim play the fool, trying in vain to change his fortune. The secret of"High Sierra" is that we enjoy watching lemmings march to theirinevitable deaths... we get off on watching this tragedy unfold.Everyone loves to play God for a day, shaking our heads and laughing atthe futility of a man who thinks he can change his Fate. According tothis movie, that is impossible."High Sierra" is a slow-motion practical joke on its main character. Heenters the world- and the picture- with Original Sin and finds itimpossible to redeem himself or his name. The heart-pounding finale isas obvious as it is compelling... Bogart has reached the end of theline- emotionally, spiritually, romantically, and that his why RoyEarle's story is so memorable and relatable. He is backed up againstthe wall, and his weakness for love- for Velma, for Marie, for Pard-prove to be his undoing. A forsaken man in a cruel world... a classic.GRADE: A-
brocksilvey (23 April 2012)
Bogie Heads to the Hills
The majority of this Raoul Walsh crime thriller is standard issue, butit does boast a knockout finale set in the gorges of the Sierra Nevadamountains.Bogart plays a brooding thug "rushin' toward death," who's hitchedhimself to one last scheme -- knocking off a ritzy hotel -- that willallow him to rest easy for a while. But this is a film noir, and thelife of relative normalcy that Bogie's character chases remains justoutside of his grasp, and fate has other plans for him. Onecircumstance after another intervenes to prevent his having a happyending, and he meets his tragic fate in a climactic shoot out while hisgirlfriend (Ida Lupino) looks on.A good part of the film's narrative concerns a rural family who Bogartbefriends, and in particular the young woman (an annoying Joan Leslie)who Bogie sees as a path to domestic happiness. I understand thesignificance of this plot line, but it slows the film downconsiderably, and makes it feel longer than it even is. On the otherhand, there's an inventive and memorable subplot about a dog who may bea harbinger of doom.The mountains themselves are used to tremendous effect, representingboth figuratively and literally the insurmountable environmentalfactors that will always hold Bogie down.Grade: A-
(19 April 2012)
The Peaks of High Sierra Attract Clashing Personalities
HIGH SIERRA is a gangster film, but it is also much more than that. Prior to HIGH SIERRA'S release in 1941, star Humphrey Bogart, who plays Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle, had played a host of snarling hoodlums, most of whom were one-dimensional, but in Bogart's hands, he still managed to infuse each with a level of complexity that only he could deliver. But it took his Roy Earle role to finally establish what has since been copied many times by future cinema criminals, the man on the run who, despite his willingness to kill, still maintains a Hemingwayesque code of conduct that allows him to function as the moral center of the film. Roy Earle is a life-long criminal, one who has spent years in prison, seeing up close the results of what happens to inmates who lack self-discipline and a moral code of conduct. For him, crime is not an end, nor are the ill-gotten gains. For him crime is the only response to a life that has denied him any other avenue. For life to have any meaning, he must adhere to a rigid code of conduct that is as every bit as moral (at least to him) as that which drives the very policemen who seek to apprehend him. Those who know him immediately recognize that in Earle, beats the heart and soul of a near-extinct species, one who is paradoxically a fearlessly moral gunman who will risk his own life for a cause or for a trusted friend. When Earle is released from prison, he is talking to a seriously ill cohort, Mac, who is planning one more high profile crime before he dies. Mac, who bemoans the lack of old style gangsters with class, tells Earle, "You know Roy, it is good to even talk to a guy like you." Mac has hired a pair of inexperienced thugs to help Earle, but Earle sees that they do not have what it takes to succeed in a life of crime. He expects them to screw up, and when they do, he shows no remorse at their demise. There are two subplots that suggest that Earle's code of conduct, while admirable in the larger sense, can sometimes cause him intense emotional pain when he feels betrayed by one whom he has allowed himself to grow close to. Ida Lupino is Marie, a female counterpart to Earle. She has had a rough adolescence, but sees in him her soulmate. She could be good for Roy, if only he would let her. Joan Leslie is Velma, a twenty-year old seemingly innocent girl-child, who represents everything that Roy thinks would elevate him from thug to respectability. Velma has a club-foot but is young and pretty, so Roy lends her the money for an operation. She repays him in a manner that surely ranks with the very worst sort of cinematic ingrates. It is painful to watch Velma show her true colors and see the crushing result on a man who thought that nothing could hurt him like that. And in the background lie the high Sierras, a vast set of peaks that act as metaphorical magnets, attracting the interplay between decent but misguided types like Roy and Marie and the truly inhuman types like Velma and Roy's hapless colleagues. The clashing between Roy and the police is not just the literal gunplay between the forces of law and order and those of crime, but, in the film's final scenes of Roy at bay, suggest that a style of life and a code of conduct have been judged and found wanting. HIGH SIERRA is an unforgettable classic that makes us remember that morality and decency can be found even in the most unlikely of settings.
pitsburghfuzz (18 April 2012)
Manhunt for "Maddog"!
Although many credit Casablanca to be his first sympatheticperformance, this was actually his first. The film is about RoyEarle(Bogart), a gangster just released out of prison and is sent to doa job. He meets with Babe and Red(Curtis and Kennedy) and a girl namedMarie(Lupino). As he traveled to meet them he met a nice family and wasattracted to Velma(Leslie) who has a clubfoot and Earle decides to payfor her surgery hoping to make her fall in love with him. The film endswith a great manhunt for Earle in the mountains, one of the mostintense scenes ever. Lupino and Bogarts' chemistry is fantastic. Eventhough Lupino is given top billing, you obviously know Bogart is themain character in the film. Its a film about dreams and how they candrastically clash with reality and the people living in it.
Review total: 20, showing from 1 to 20