The Petrified Forest

If there’s one film which seems a little out of place in the Warner Gangsters Collection, it’s The Petrified Forest. A talky, static adaptation of Robert Sherwood’s hugely successful Broadway production, it is a very different animal to Little Caesar or The Public Enemy. But in a way, it’s just as important as either of those films because it’s the movie which finally kicked off the Hollywood career of Humphrey Bogart and his character of Duke Mantee is as indelible a creation as Rico or Tom Powers. The film surrounding him is somewhat rickety and dated but Bogart leaps off the screen with an immediacy that clearly marks him out as a star on the rise.

The film retains much of the one-room setting of the play. At a remote cafe, the Black Mesa in Arizona, the regulars sit around waiting for nothing to happen as usual. But one afternoon, they are surprised by a strange turn of events. A strange drifter, Alan Squier (Howard) arrives with abstract, ironic talk about poetry and European attitudes, charming Gabrielle (Davis), the waitress daughter of the cafe’s owner. Squier leaves in the company of a couple of rich patrons but soon returns with less welcome company – mobster Duke Mantee (Bogart) and his henchmen, on the run from a murder rap. Duke holds the cafe’s inhabitants hostage, leading Alan, who has fallen in love with Gabrielle, to make an important decision about the direction of his life.

For modern viewers, long stretches of The Petrified Forest can be something of an endurance test. The screenplay, written by Charles Kenyon and the future director Delmer Daves, is talky to put it mildly and it takes quite a leap of faith to get oneself back into the period from which the film comes. But it’s worth it because this kind of movie has become a delightful piece of history. All the characters are well defined, as is fitting in a film which celebrates the precious individualism which is at stake in the modern world. The supporting cast provide much of the comic relief, particularly the wonderful Charley Grapewin as the garrulous Gramp Maple who is willing to tell anyone prepared to listen about his own meeting with a crime legend, the outlaw Billy The Kid. There are lovely bits of business from Porter Hall and the always amusing Dick Foran and even the secondary gangsters Jackie and Ruby have their moments. Admittedly, the Chisholms are aristocratic nobodies straight from summer stock but that’s also very typical of the time the film was made and, like so much in this inevitably dated film, it’s more charming than annoying. The moment when Mr Chisholm tries to buy his way out of the diner only to come up against Duke’s own criminal principles is a small treasure. The director, Archie Mayo, isn’t likely to go down in history as a careful craftsman but he knows when to get out of the way of his actors and let them do their stuff.

The film sets up a number of direct contrasts. There are the two black characters, one happy to serve and the other proud and stern about that subservient mentality. There are divisions between those who watch and those who act and between patriot and liberal – an attitude already labelled Communist by some more zealous lovers of Uncle Sam. The contrast between Nature and human free will, and a sense that Nature will always fight what it regards as against its long-term interest. Principally, the contrast is between Leslie Howard’s intellectual, poetic aesthete Alan and Humphrey Bogart’s impulsive, desperate killer Duke Mantee. In essence, it’s not dissimilar to the contest between Bogart uncommitted good guy and Edward G. Robinson’s expansively obscene mobster in John Huston’s considerably superior Key Largo, itself based on a rather wordy play by Maxwell Anderson. On that occasion, of course, Bogart was the good guy and the contest between him and Robinson struck more than a few cinematic sparks. In The Petrified Forest, the competition isn’t quite as exciting. Leslie Howard was a fine actor but he’s a lightweight and his English stiffness (no matter that Squier claims not to be English) never quite works in this very American environment. In a sense, that’s quite appropriate for the character but it’s not easy to believe that Gabrielle would find him such a European sophisticate as to fall head-over-heels for him in so short a time. Howard’s clipped, assiduously RP delivery doesn’t help matters either. When you watch one of his great performances, as the Scarlet Pimpernel or Henry Higgins, he’s among the finest film actors that Britain ever produced. Here, he seems uncomfortably out of place for much of the time. Nor does he strike many sparks with Bette Davis – also somewhat miscast, not for the last time in her lengthy career. When Howard goes up against Bogart, there’s no question as to which one of them dominates the screen.

For this film, with all its intellectual concerns about conviction and freedom, belongs to Bogart’s Duke Mantee. It’s one of the great star-making performances of American cinema and what’s remarkable is how restrained he is. Duke watches and waits, intimidating his hostages through his presence and the ever-present threat of violent reprisal. When he says he’ll kill all the hostages, you never doubt that he is more than willing to do so. The bursts of action are played in a kind of desperate frenzy, as if Bogart knows all too well what’s at stake for him as an actor just as he knows what’s at stake for Duke. If one’s sympathies remain stubbornly with the bad guy, that’s maybe because we’re willing for Bogart to move out of supporting status and into the limelight. There’s no doubt that this role got Bogart his Warners contract, something for which Leslie Howard can claim the credit since he refused to appear in the film unless Bogart was cast opposite him. After this, it took four years and a lot of second-leads before Bogie made High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon then found himself at the top of his game. If The Petrified Forest is remembered for nothing else, it earns a place in cinematic immortality for giving a leg-up to the actor who became one of the two greatest screen stars of the 20th Century. The other was also Duke of course, but that’s a story for another box set entirely.

The Disc

Warner’s release of The Petrified Forest is yet another winner. It sports a typically impressive transfer, much cleaned up from the horrible sludge of the VHS release. There’s some print damage and a certain amount of shimmering but the contrast is impressive and there’s plenty of detail. This is another honourable effort by Warners. The mono soundtrack is a little crackly but that adds to the period charm and the dialogue is always clear.

As usual, there’s a generous selection of extras. My pick of these is the commentary track by Eric Lax, a biographer of Bogart. Lax is eloquent and engaging with an impressively wide knowledge of both the film and its stars. To be honest, I think he overrates the movie but his arguments are hard to fault. This is just as good as his commentary track on Warners’ 2003 release of Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Mr Lax also appears in the 20 minute featurette about the film. This is another very enjoyable piece, with the usual suspects dispensing numerous nuggets of information. We also get the 1940 Gulf Screen Radio Broadcast adaptation of the movie in which Bogart stars with Tyrone Power and Joan Bennett. Also present is a surprisingly lengthy theatrical trailer.

Leonard Maltin shows up once again with a Warner Night At The Movies feature for 1936. I want to make a point of saying how impressed I am with these compilations of delightfully nostalgic material, some of it rarely seen in the UK. This time, we are offered a cracking trailer for the marvellous Bullets Or Ballots, a teaming of Bogart with Eddie Robinson that would make a good choice for a second Gangsters box set in the future. The newsreel extracts are particularly interesting for UK viewers since one of them concerns the abdication of Edward VIII. The other features the re-election of Roosevelt. Musical fans will enjoy “Rhythmitis” which is a 20 minute Vitaphone short and the cartoon this time is “The Coo Coo Nut Grove” which has some funny celebrity caricatures. All of these features look incredibly good for their age and we can presumably thank both Warners and the UCLA Film and Television Archive for this.

The film is subtitled but the extra features, sadly, are not.

The Petrified Forest isn’t a great film but it’s entertaining and quite tense. It’s worth seeing simply to watch Bogart making the most of his big chance. The DVD looks very nice indeed and the extras are impeccable.

As this is the last review in my series on the Warner Gangsters Collection, I just want to say what a pleasure it has been to review this set. The amount of loving care and attention bestowed on these wonderful films is simply staggering and the presentation is beyond great. I don't think I've ever seen such an essential purchase as this box set and I can't imagine a better way to persuade anyone that old movies have pleasures all of their own. Buy it, watch it, watch it again and then thank your lucky stars that one studio at least cares so much about its history that it can deliver something like this.