´The blazing mountain manhunt for Killer Mad-Dog Earle!´

Directed by:
Raoul Walsh

Written by:
W.R. Burnett (screenplay and novel)
John Huston (screenplay)

Cast:
Ida Lupino (Marie Garson), Humphrey Bogart (Roy Earle), Alan Curtis (Babe Kozak), Arthur Kennedy (Red Hattery), Joan Leslie (Velma), Henry Hull (‘Doc’ Banton), Henry Travers (Pa), Jerome Cowan (Healy), Minna Gombell (Mrs. Baughmam), Barton MacLane (Jake Kranmer)

The famous bank robber Roy Earle (Humphrey Bogart), who was supposed to be in jail for life, is pardoned. He immediately joins a group of desperados who plan to rob a hotel. Along the way, he meets two women who will both play an important role in Earle’s remaining time on earth.

1941 was the year Bogart made his breakthrough as a Hollywood legend. It was the last time he got second billing. In the same year, he made The Maltese Falcon, directed by John Huston, who also wrote the screenplay for High Sierra. Both are early film noirs. High Sierra is based on a novel by W.R. Burnett, who also wrote the gangster films Little Caesar and Scarface.

Raoul Walsh directed another classic about the era of gangsters three years earlier: The Roaring Twenties. It was an influential genre picture. With High Sierra, he achieves the same. It has speed, excitement, and, in Bogart, a great leading man. The camerawork is also very advanced.

The ending at Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the USA, is a classic gangster moment. Walsh would direct his ultimate gangster film in 1949: White Heat.

Rating:

Quote:
DR. PARKER: “Remember what Johnny Dillinger said about guys like you and him? He said you were just rushing towards death.”

Trivia:
Bogart’s part was originally intended for Paul Muni (the original Scarface in 1932), who turned it down because he didn’t like the script.