Rating: 
Summary: The First Great Bogart Performance
Review: The formula Warner crime dramas of the thirties and forties are many in number --- those that rose above the formula are few, but remarkable --- "High Sierra" is one of these --- truly a rose among a lot of thorns. Bogart himself had been pricked by a number of those --- "King Of The Underworld", "Invisible Stripes", many others --- he would even draw short straws again with "The Big Shot" (hard to believe Warner's would squander him in something like that AFTER "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon"). In fact, Bogart's work load was so heavy at this time, it's doubtful anyone within the studio took notice of his great Roy Earle performance until "High Sierra's" release and the resulting laudatory reviews for the (co)star. The fact that he was assigned to (and refused) "Badmen Of Missouri" just after completing "High Sierra" demonstrates just how obtuse Warner's could be in failing to recognize a maturing talent they'd so far taken for granted. Bogart's Roy Earle is, in fact, one of the most sympathetic badmen ever brought to the screen --- his interpretation so affecting that at least one patron complained that the film was a glorification of crime and criminals (which it certainly is not). This is the emergance of the Bogart persona as we know it --- and it's no coincidance to find John Huston's name among the writing credits. Considering this and Huston's later-in-the-same-year "Maltese Falcon", we can pretty much pinpoint the arrival of Humphrey Bogart as a major acting figure and mythic star. A script this good would have enhanced the career of any actor on the lot --- Muni, Raft, Robinson, any of these would have triumphed with such a part --- but none would have played it as movingly as Bogart --- he's just a revelation here --- nothing he'd done before approached this. The Warner production machinery was never more efficient --- Raoul Walsh's up-tempo direction sqeezes an amazing lot of narrative into a taut 100 minutes --- Hal Wallis, that most underappreciated of genius producers, can be credited with much of the picture's success (read Rudy Behlmer's great "Inside Warner Bros." and you'll see the extent of Wallis' contribution to WB's house-style) --- that a film could still have such vitality nearly sixty years after it's initial release is a tribute to the extraordinary talents that created it --- "High Sierra" is an absolute video must.
Rating: 
Summary: Crime Doesn't Pay - Again!
Review: The movie starts by showing how a lifer convict can be pardoned to allow him to continue crime in another state, but provides no other details. It is part of a plan designed by a master criminal who has connections in that state. The plan is to knockover a resort hotel for the rich during the season; they have an inside man who will tip them off.The gang is staying at a rural resort before the crime. A small dog enters the cabin and is adopted as a pet. But all of its previous owners died in accidents - symbolism for this story! Ida Lupino's acting reflects her star billing. There is a side story where Roy Earle helps a migrating family he met on the road. He donates a large sum of money for an operation for their granddaughter. To show there's some good in even the worst? But once the operation succeeds, her personality changes from humility to pride! This seems like a cynical view of the common people. The other operation goes as planned, but an unforeseen event occurs to botch the operation. As in other stories, the real problem results when trying to split the loot. When the master criminal dies, he is replaced by another. A wrinkle develops when a criminal gets greedy, but is soon ironed out by the usual means. The movie says the old gangs are dying out. (They were being replaced by nationally organized crime.) Just like small owner-operated businesses were losing out to corporate chains? This was Humphrey Bogart's last movie as a villain. After "The Maltese Falcon" he played heros, and received top billing. This movie shows the economic direction of John Huston, which is repeated in "The Maltese Falcon". Watch them in historical order.
Rating:
Summary: A fitting end to the Golden Age of the gangster film
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Lupino and Bogart are Excellent
Review: This is a crisp and clear DVD and it makes you wonder how they can produce such clear digital pictures from 60 plus year old movie film. Technically it is a perfect DVD. The extras bits of history and trailer after the main movie on the DVD are enlightening and very well done. It contains a number of historical tidbits and the process that led to Bogart finally landed the part. That is all great stuff and entertaining and informative.
This is a good movie and in many ways it is an acting challenge for Bogart. As most Bogart fans know, this movie was the beginning of Bogart's transition from a gangster. With his success 5 years earlier with the Petrified Forest, he was type cast as a gangster when gangster movies were popular, and then repeated that role in a number of movies through the late 1930's. He plays a pardoned criminal here, just out of jail with mission to rob some jewels so he is still playing a gangster here. He finally will shed this role in his next movie the Maltese Falcon, and for which he received the top billing. Management at Warner Brothers is still hedging their bets in High Sierra and Ida Lupino is actually the top name on the credits. She is very good in this movie, but still this is a Bogart movie.
The movie is good and Bogart is challenged to play both a tough guy while managing to convince us that he is someone with a more sensitive side. The latter is a person that loves dogs, helps women, and gives fishing tips to small boys. Yet he looks tough in the movie, very thin and greying about the temples, just as we would expect that a guy just out of a prison might appear.
Having said all of that, there is something about the movie that is slightly lacking. It is hard to put one's finger on it precisely but for some of the other films such as Casablanca and African Queen one can see the films again and again and never be bored. This movie does not have that same level appeal that motivates you to see it again. But to be fair Casablanca and some of his other films are probably the best movies ever made. So this is interesting movie but probably not his best. But having said that we see glimpses of the side of Bogart that come through in latter movies where he is often a tough guy with a soft spot.
It is a must see and both Bogart and Lupino are superb. It has - perhaps surprisingly - many funny parts with Bogart going on a robbery with a barking dog. It must rate at least 4 or 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Bogart Breakout
Review: This was the first of the George Raft reject parts that transformed Humphrey Bogart from James Cagney's second banana into...Bogart. The next two were "The Maltese Falcon" and "Casablanca". In "High Sierra" Bogart plays a sociopath bank heister who still has a shred of humanity left, something like Frankenstein's monster but not as bulky. The character originally was stitched together from a number of Public Enemies by novelist W. R. Burnett. Bogart's performance is completely un-maudlin and genuine and like all his best work continues to last as the modern touchstone of American film acting. Another great directing job by Raoul Walsh as well, a man who could handle about anything the studio threw his way.
Rating:
Summary: "yeah...the gun just went (knock-knock-knock)"
Review: This was the very first Bogart film I ever saw, and it remains my favorite to this day. The above is an excerpt from a speech made by Bogart's character early on, in which he raps on a table to pantomime a short machine gun burst. That soliloquy is a direct and quite worthy ancestor to Eastwood's "44 Magnum Speech" from the first "Dirty Harry" film, and we see here who was probably Eastwood's chief role model in any crime drama he has done. Bogart plays a veteran holdup man sprung from prison to knock over a resort hotel. Ida Lupino plays a standard gun moll picked up by one of two green punks assigned to help Bogart in the holdup--a woman who turns out to be more of an asset to the team than either of the younger men. It's all too easy to write this film off as a cookie-cutter gangster flick--because what it is instead is a Bogart Flick. With a capital "B". And a capital "F".
Rating: 
Summary: Thirties style gangster epic and Bogie's big breakthrough.
Review: 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.
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