High Sierra

A film about a man on the run. Roy Earle comes out of prison. It is not a favour; an old boss has paid for his release and expects a job in return. The job is a robbery at a mountain hotel. Roy goes to California and meets the crew he has been given: two young men, inexperienced and nervous. The world Roy worked in is gone; this job does not run the way the old ones did. Two lines open on the way. One is a farming family; Roy wants to help a young woman with a lame foot, and carries it like a way of being forgiven. The other is a woman who came with the crew; Marie wants to stay, and does not leave. After the robbery the film turns into a chase and goes up into the mountains. The last section takes place entirely in the open. What the narrative is interested in is not crime but being out of time: Roy is a gangster of the 1930s, the 1940s have begun, and everyone around him sees him as a leftover. Humphrey Bogart plays Roy. The part changed his career; until then he had mostly played the second villain. His name was billed below Ida Lupino's. W. R. Burnett wrote the screenplay from his own novel, together with John Huston. The mountain scenes were shot in the Sierra Nevada. Raoul Walsh directed. Who it is for: anyone interested in classic gangster pictures and the beginning of noir. Who it is not for: anyone expecting fast action; the film is built more on waiting and character.