The Petrified Forest: Menace in the Desert (2005)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Another excellent featurette from Warner with this one taking a look at their gangster classic THE PETRIFIED FOREST. Alain Silver, Andrew Sarris, Drew Casper, Eric Lax and Robert Sklar are among the historians on hand to discuss the film as we learn about the play, its transition to the big screen, the fight to get the unknown Humphrey Bogart in the case and the alternate ending that was shot. At just fifteen minutes there's certainly not a lot of running time devoted to the film but you get a great history of the production as well as getting a great idea of how this film helped form what would become the noir genre. The interviews are full of terrific information and there's no doubt that you'll be smarter on the genre by watching this.
