Overview
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Release Date:
25 January 1941 (USA)
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Tagline:
The Blazing Mountain Manhunt for Killer 'Mad-Dog' Earle!
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Plot:
Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle is broken out of prison by an old associate who wants him to help with an upcoming robbery...
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full synopsis
Crew verified as complete
Additional Details
Runtime:
100 min
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1
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Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Fun Stuff
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.
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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.
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Quotes:
Marie Garson:
Yeah, I get it, 'ya always sorta hope 'ya can get out, it keeps 'ya going.
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Soundtrack:
I Get a Kick out of You (1934)
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*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.