High Sierra -Keepcase-

Good acting; weak plot
Humphrey Bogart is always a pleasure to watch. Here, he's the tough but sensitive guy who has just been issued a parole and returns for another jewel heist. Along the way he falls in love with a sweet farm girl with a club foot, pays for her operation and pals around with her old-timey family in between meeting mobsters to plan for the job. The yokels he's been assigned to work with him have picked up a dime-a-dance girl in LA. (Ida Lupino). He wants her to go home but somehow she convinces him to let her stick around. Then, a very cute, but allegedly bad-luck dog attaches himself to Earle(Bogart). Earle proposed marriage to Velma, the farm girl, after her foot is fixed but she is improbably attached to a slick guy with a pencil mustache (always a bad sign in these pictures) who drinks too much and she tearfully refuses Earle's proposal, much to the dismay of Pa who knows who's who. So Earle falls back on Marie, the dance hall girl and quickly falls in love with her. Well, he's been in prison for eight years so I guess he's sorta vulnerable in the romance department. Mixed in with this human-interest strain of the plot, is the actual crime. It goes from bad to worse, no doubt due to the presence of Pard, the bad-luck dog, and Earle finds himself stranded in a cranny of the highest peak in America, with an audience of hundreds, including Marie, awaiting the outcome at the bottom. It's a pretty bad story and the only reason I hung in there were the nice performances of both Bogart and Lupino. Lupino, especially, was very convincing as the tough but pathetic girl who had nothing in the world but this criminal she met up with in the motel in the Sierras. If you can stand the plot, or if you are a died-in-the wool Bogart fan, you will probably like this. He certainly made better films later.

High Sierra
The movie was of high quality and I received it in working order and was very pleased with product and the amount of time it took to received, thanks larry king

Great performances hampered by a silly storyline
Reading the editorial review as well as the customer reviews, I didn't realize the context the movie had when it came out in its day. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold up too well today. The plotting is its ultimate failure, as Bogie's Roy Earle lets his guard down all too often in the silliest of ways. This directly contradicts with Bogie's portrayal of a streetwise seasoned con who appears to know all the tricks in the book as well as the downsides to a life of crime, fitting in line with his greatest gangster roles like Glenn Griffin and Duke Mantee. The "big" heist plays off as such a small affair where the criminals spend much of their time waiting for the green light by twiddling their thumbs, fighting with each other, and taking side trips that have nothing to do with the heist itself. The heist itself is pulled off in the open, with the criminals baring their faces to several witnesses. Earle himself stays in the clear far too long for even the police work of the time and the scale of the heist as portrayed in the film, given the fact that he doesn't lie low like he should and is aided by a few lucky breaks that would most likely never happen in real life. Worth a look but definitely not a keeper.

Bogie near the peak of Super-Stardom!
"High Sierra" released in January of 1941,gives us Bogart after having climbed that acting mountain for many years,just in hairs reach of the peak of super stardom.A classy tale of a heist gone wrong with lots of action and good acting throughout. The story concerns one Roy Earle,a criminal who is sprung out of the pen by his old boss Big Mac(Don McBride).He has one last big job for him and wants him to take charge of a group of characters,none of which Roy really trusts.On the way out he meets up with a kindly family led by Pa(Henry Travers)and his granddaughter Velma(Joan Leslie).Roy falls for the granddaughter whom he later helps out by giving the funds necessary to correct her clubbed foot.But Roy's love in the end is unrequited and in the end chalks his good deed up to experience. He reaches a camp where the "gang" are holed up waiting for the job to begin.One of the two men Babe(Alan Curtis) has brought along a girlfriend by the name of Marie(Ida Lupino),whom he periodically roughs up,much to the chagrin of Roy.After one such incident Roy gets rough with Babe and puts him in his place.Roy has wanted Marie to leave but in the end recants and Marie starts to fall for him. Roy finally meets up with Big Mac who is in serious trouble,health wise.Big Mac gives Roy a letter to be opened if anything should happen to him.The day of the big job finally comes and Roy and company rob the safe of a very up-scale hotel.The front desk clerk Mendosa(Cornel Wilde) is their inside man who leaves the safe purposely unlocked.The job is taking a little longer than expected when a security guard making his rounds stumbles in on the heist and gets shot by Roy.While fleeing in seperate cars,Roy and Marie witness their three partners accidentally run off the road and seemingly killed.However Mendozza lives and eventually squeals on Earle. By this time Roy has reconnected to hand over the jewels that were heisted,only to find that Big Mac has died.As instructed in the envelope he goes to another fence who tells Roy to return for his cut when he hears from him.When he gets the word and tries to collect he is discovered and the chase is on.He ends up in the Sierra Mountains and in the end,with Marie watching,dies there.He is now "free",as Marie,teary-eyed but comforted that he's in a better place(her identity as Roy's moll now confirmed),is led away by the police. The screenplay was co-written by John Huston,the famous director to be of such super hits as "The African Queen","The Maltese Falcon" ,"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and so many more.The film was directed wonderfully by venerable director Raoul Walsh of "Sadie Thompson"(1928) fame and many other good pictures of the 20s and 30s.Bogie as mentioned was just near super stardom and after his next gig "The Maltese Falcon", would come "Casablanca" and the rest is history.Ida Lupino was a classy actress in these years and plied her trade skillfully.It wouldn't be until the late 40s that her star would rise to its' peak, but in the meantime she learned about directing and between that and acting would continue to work well into the 70s.Character actor Henry Travers("Ball of Fire",the angel in"It's a Wonderful Life",and so many more),is a welcome addition to the cast playing a very affable Pa.Also a welcome addition is Willie Best giving some comic relief as Algernon,the camp caretaker and keeper of a little dog by the name of Pard.Pard was in fact Zero,Bogie's OWN dog!Also here is a young 15 year old Joan Leslie in her first major movie role and the first time using that name(she was billed in bit parts at MGM using her real name of Joan Brodel!).Finally we see 25 year old Cornel Wilde,almost unrecognizable,at the start of his career in a bit part as the inside man at the hotel(Mendoza)who rats out Roy later in the picture. This DVD has been transferred very well and the print,while exhibiting some flaws in keeping with its' age and condition,is generally in pretty good shape.Extras here are slim with just the theatrical trailer and a featurette about the movie. Wonderfully acted and directed, with a good script with well fleshed out characters,"High Sierra" makes for very entertaining movie fare and has never failed to disappoint.A good addition for your DVD library.

Touching Movie of an Outlaw and a Lady
High Sierra is a touching story of an outlaw who is somehow pardoned only to join in a another planned robbery. Ida Lupino is a woman who has somehow gotten together with two men he plans the heist with. Both women beaters, she ends up staying with Bogart. Since she is not a nice woman, Bogart also is drawn toward a young woman who seems nice but not as nice as he thought. The hesitant love story between Bogart and Lupino is very touching and the ending is a heartbreaker. Can't recommend the movie enough. Bogart's first starring role and a wonderful one.