The Petrified Forest (1936)
Directed by Archie Mayo

Film Review

Robert E. Sherwood's stage play The Petrified Forest is effortlessly transposed to the big screen by director Archie Mayo in this gripping existential melodrama which is considered a forerunner of classic American film noir.  The film's obvious staginess (virtually all of the action takes place in one set, the interior of a roadside diner) does not for a second diminish the power of the performances from its attention-grabbing cast, headed by Leslie Howard in one of his favourite roles.  Here Howard is re-matched with Bette Davis, one of Warner Brothers' rising stars, just two years after their previous amorous pairing in John Cromwell's Of Human Bondage (1934).  This time round, Davis thankfully ditches the cod cockney accent and is content merely to massacre the French language.  Well, if she can't pronounce 'Bette' what hope is there for François Villon?

Howard and Davis have a good thing going until someone gatecrashes a promising romance around the film's midpoint, making what is known in the business as 'an entrance'.  Little did anyone think at the time that the someone in question would soon become one of cinema's most iconic performers, none other than Humphrey Bogart.  Bogart had appeared in a handful of films before this, B-movies that are probably best forgotten, but The Petrified Forest is where his screen career began proper, in the role in which he would be typecast for the rest of the decade, that of the gun-toting hoodlum.  It's hard to believe that Bogart was almost denied the role, in spite of having played it so brilliantly in the 1935 stage production of Sherwood's play.  It was Leslie Howard, who took the lead in the same production, who persuaded Warners to give Bogart the part, after they had decided to offer it to Edward G. Robinson.  Bogart would never forget his debt to Howard and even named his daughter after the actor.

Bogart's dramatic incursion suddenly changes both the tempo and tone of the film.  In an instant, The Petrified Forest turns from a placid highbrow melodrama, with Howard lamenting the passing of the intellectual as Davis shows him her etchings, to a tense thriller with a particularly grim ending.  We almost forget everything we saw and heard in the first half of the film, and Davis disappears into the background as Howard and Bogart monopolise our attention with a slightly surreal series of verbal exchanges.   Not yet burdened by the necessity that afflicts ever Hollywood A-lister to protect his nice guy image, Bogart is free to turn in a truly despicable character performance, which he does with sadistic relish, basing his portrayal on the real-life gangster John Dillinger.  There is an animal-like, almost Satanic quality to Bogart's performance that is truly terrifying, and the one thing you will not forget is the psychotic glare in his eyes in those nightmare-inducing close-ups.  The Petrified Forest gave Humphrey Bogart his first shot at stardom and he grabbed it with both hands.  The rest is history.

Film Synopsis

Alan Squier, a failed British writer, ends up hitchhiking his way across North America.  Whilst crossing the Arizona desert he comes across a diner when he strikes up an immediate rapport with Gabrielle, the daughter of the eatery's owner.  Having an estranged French mother, Gabrielle professes to a desire to visit France and impresses Alan with her interest in French poetry.  Gabrielle is equally taken by Alan's erudition and imagines that he might one day show her the glories of France.  Not long after he resumes his travels, hitching a lift from a wealthy couple, Alan is forced back to the diner at gunpoint by a ruthless gangster, Duke Mantee, who is on the run from the police.  With no desire to continue living, Alan sees an opportunity to allow Gabrielle to fulfil her dreams, at the cost of his own life...