High Sierra (1941)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

John Huston (screenplay) and
W.R. Burnett (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

25 January 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

The Blazing Mountain Manhunt for Killer 'Mad-Dog' Earle!

Plot:

Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle is broken out of prison by an old associate who wants him to help with an upcoming robbery...

Plot Keywords:

Robbery | Police | Dog | Prison | Murder

Cast

Ida Lupino	...	Marie
Humphrey Bogart	...	Roy Earle
Alan Curtis	...	'Babe'
Arthur Kennedy	...	'Red'
Joan Leslie	...	Velma
Henry Hull	...	'Doc' Banton
Henry Travers	...	Pa
Jerome Cowan	...	Healy
Minna Gombell	...	Mrs. Baughmam
Barton MacLane	...	Jake Kranmer
Elisabeth Risdon	...	Ma (as Elizabeth Risdon)
Cornel Wilde	...	Louis Mendoza
Donald MacBride	...	Big Mac
Paul Harvey	...	Mr. Baughmam
Isabel Jewell	...	Blonde
Willie Best	...	Algernon
Spencer Charters	...	Ed
George Meeker	...	Pfiffer
Robert Strange	...	Art
John Eldredge	...	Lon Preiser (as John Elredge)
Sam Hayes	...	Announcer
Zero the Dog	...	Pard (as Zero)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William Hopper	...	Man (scenes deleted)
Charles Anthony Hughes	...	Man (scenes deleted)
Frank Mayo	...	Man (scenes deleted)
Cliff Saum	...	Shaw (scenes deleted)
Eddie Acuff	...	Bus driver (uncredited)
Erville Alderson	...	Farmer at the Earle homestead (uncredited)
Dorothy Appleby	...	Margie (Joe's girlfriend) (uncredited)
Peter Ashley	...	Young man at the auto accident (uncredited)
Arthur Aylesworth	...	Circle Auto Court owner (uncredited)
James Blaine	...	Deputy (uncredited)
Wade Boteler	...	Sheriff (uncredited)
Lucia Carroll	...	Brunette woman with Bob (uncredited)
Eddy Chandler	...	Policeman at auto accident (uncredited)
Davison Clark	...	Deputy (uncredited)
Richard Clayton	...	Bellboy at the robbery (uncredited)
Clancy Cooper	...	Policeman George asking for ID (uncredited)
Frank Cordell	...	Slim (Marksman) (uncredited)
James Flavin	...	Policeman (uncredited)
William Gould	...	Hotel watchman (uncredited)
Carl Harbaugh	...	Fisherman (uncredited)
Harry Hayden	...	John (Druggist) (uncredited)
Louis Jean Heydt	...	Bob (Tourist at robbery) (uncredited)
Robert Emmett Keane	...	Man with glasses at the auto accident (uncredited)
Al Lloyd	...	Man in auto court office (uncredited)
George Lloyd	...	Gangster greeting Earle at prison (uncredited)
Gerald Mackey	...	Boy going fishing (uncredited)
Frank Moran	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Jack Mower	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Garry Owen	...	Joe (Velma's guest) (uncredited)
Lee Phelps	...	Policeman Henry Holden at drugstore (uncredited)
Jack Rutherford	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Ralph Sanford	...	Tom the fat man at drugstore (uncredited)
Buster Wiles	...	Marksman who shoots Roy Earle (uncredited)
Maris Wrixon	...	Blonde woman at the auto accident (uncredited)
Charlotte Wynters	...	Woman behind counter (uncredited)

Directed by
Raoul Walsh

Writing credits
John Huston		(screenplay) and
W.R. Burnett		(screenplay)
W.R. Burnett		(novel)

Produced by
Mark Hellinger	....	associate producer
Hal B. Wallis	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Adolph Deutsch

Cinematography by
Tony Gaudio		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Jack Killifer

Art Direction by
Ted Smith

Costume Design by
Milo Anderson		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Perc Westmore	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Jack L. Warner	....	in charge of production

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Russell Saunders	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Dolph Thomas	....	sound

Special Effects by
Byron Haskin	....	special effects
Hans F. Koenekamp	....	special effects (as H.F. Koenekamp)

Stunts
Roydon Clark	....	stunts (uncredited)
Harvey Parry	....	stunts (uncredited)
Waldo	....	stunts: base jump (uncredited)
Buster Wiles	....	stunt double: Humphrey Bogart (uncredited)

Music Department
Leo F. Forbstein	....	musical director
Arthur Lange	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Irving Rapper	....	dialogue director

Production Companies

• Warner Bros. Pictures

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1941) (USA) (theatrical) (as Warner Bros. Pictures Inc.)
• Warner Bros. Pictures (1952) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Dominant Pictures Corporation (1956) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• CBS/Fox (198?) (USA) (VHS)
• Key Video (198?) (USA) (VHS)
• Turner Entertainment (1988) (USA) (VHS) (colorized)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1990) (USA) (VHS)
• Turner Entertainment (1990) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (2004) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (2004) (Argentina) (VHS) (re-release)
• Warner Bros. (2004) (Argentina) (all media) (re-release)
• Living Colour Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (Netherlands) (DVD)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G (TV rating) | Argentina:Atp | Finland:(Banned) (1942) | Finland:K-8 (1990) | USA:Approved (certificate #6563) | Australia:PG | Germany:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Humphrey Bogart''s part in this movie was originally intended for Paul Muni. Muni did not like the first draft of the screenplay which was authored solely by John Huston and given to him by Hal B. Wallis, so Wallis got the book's author W.R. Burnett to assist John Huston in a second rewrite. This rewrite was presented to Paul Muni who still disliked it and turned the movie and the role down completely. In the meantime, On May 4th, 1940, Humphrey Bogart sent a telegram to Hal B. Wallis reiterating his continuing desire, which he had mentioned several months earlier, to play the part of Roy Earle. After Muni turned down the script the next person on the list for Warner Brothers was George Raft. Bogart, knowing that Raft was trying to change his image and move away from gangster roles, found out about this and mentioned to Raft when he saw him next that the studio was trying to get him do another gangster movie where the gangster gets shot at the end. Raft marched into Hal B. Wallis office and flatly refused to do the movie. Bogart finally ended up with the role he wanted all along by default.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Roy Earle leaves Indiana, he's driving a 1937 Plymouth coupe. As he's approaching California, the car is a 1938 (similar to the '37 but shorter, wider grille). Later, it changes back to the '37, then to the '38 again.

Quotes:

Marie Garson: Yeah, I get it, 'ya always sorta hope 'ya can get out, it keeps 'ya going.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Bullets Over Hollywood (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

I Get a Kick out of You (1934)

A highly important movie.

*High Sierra* is almost excruciatingly important in the development of cinema, laying to bed the "gangster picture" of the 1930's while simultaneously giving birth to American film noir. Oh, and it made Humphrey Bogart a major star while it was at it. Therefore, I'm not entirely sure that your film collection, if you have one, can survive without it.

Based on a pulpy novel, it chronicles the story of Roy Earle, sprung from a life sentence in prison so that he can knock over a casino along the California-Nevada border. It's easy to miss, but notice the first minute of this picture closely: it's of course the Governor -- bought off by a mobster -- who gets Roy released from his life sentence, indicating that the corruption has finely infested the top of the social order. This is the usual tough-minded, whistle-blowing gangster-picture stuff that Warner Bros. specialized in. But there's also something else at work here, perhaps something new: one gets the sense that what happens to Roy in this movie has been engineered from On High, in advance . . . in other words, he's in the Jaws of Fate. And thus we're in the unforgiving world of Film Noir.

More than the opening scene, it's Bogart who almost single-handedly invents film noir with his groundbreaking work in *High Sierra*. Not cocky like Cagney and Muni, not psychopathic like the early Edward G. Robinson, not as smooth as Raft, Bogart is a ruthless professional with a wide stripe of sentimentality. His Roy never shirks from killing, but he doesn't get off on it. He's more a rebel than a gangster, a poetic soul denied respectability, a man longing for the innocence of his youth. Unfortunately, he thinks he finds in the personage of a transplanted Okie farm-girl (Joan Leslie) a reasonable facsimile of that innocence. Competing for his affections is Ida Lupino, a sour "dime-a-dance girl" who's been up, down, and around the block a time or three. She's the baggage that comes with the two new-generation hoods whom Bogart is assigned to babysit for the casino heist. Not until later in the picture does Bogart recognize Lupino's better suitability to his own temperament and experience. (They share in common, among other things, suicidal impulses, a desire to escape a corrupted world.)

Roy Earle was a new type of character -- the truly romantic criminal. Bogart would play variations on Earle throughout his career, though he rarely exceeded his triumph here. And while I've given the actor much of the credit, some more credit must be extended to the screenwriter, John Huston. *High Sierra* was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Oh, and did I mention that the movie -- aside from its importance in American film history, yadda yadda -- is quite simply a good time? Witty dialogue, great on-location direction by Raoul Walsh, a cute dog, and a climactic car chase that wouldn't be equaled until 1968's *Bullitt*, are just some of this movie's other virtues.