Seu Último Refúgio

'High Sierra' belongs in genres that have been held in long-term high regard by me. It also has Humphrey Bogart in the film that properly propelled him to stardom and fully established his comfort zone. Raoul Walsh was a gifted director, evident in two of his best known films 1924's 'The Thief of Baghdad' and 1949's 'White Heat' (two of the best films in their respective genres) amongst others. John Huston was another fine director and was equally good at script-writing as seen here. Talented cast in general too.

All done justice here in 'High Sierra' and far from wasted. To me and many others, this is a very good and often excellent film and up there with Bogart's best films and performances. It has pretty much everything that makes me love film noir or similar films and the genres it falls into, and hardly anything disappointed. Regardless of any small imperfections that were not enough to ruin the film drastically. If asked whether the film is recommended to me, my easy answer would be yes.

Sure, the story is daft in places. Did feel too that although sweet and that it wasn't too sentimental, the Joan Leslie subplot was a little strange at times and didn't always fit.

On the other hand, Bogart is excellent and brings both hard-boiled intensity and in the right places an endearing softer side. It is very easy to see why he became such a big star after this. Ida Lupino also fares strongly, tough but also very easy to like. Although her subplot left me mixed, Leslie does a very good job in a role not easy to play and raises some smiles. As does the adorable dog, who brings so much charm to all the scenes it steals without any effort. Walsh gives some of his best directing here, especially in the suspenseful and cleverly staged final third.

Visually, 'High Sierra' is very well made, with very stylish and suitably eerie photography that helps open up and give atmosphere to the settings. The music is suitably ominous in the right places and Huston's script is taut and pacey with a lot of smart wit and edge.

The story as an overall whole is gripping and with the right amount of suspense. The final third especially leaves one glued to the edge of the seat. The characters carry the film really well and don't feel stock or like ciphers.

In conclusion, very, very good. 8/10

Humphrey Bogart's screen name in High Sierra is Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle. But it's clear from the outset that if Bogart is anything he's not crazy. Bogart may have been a wild guy in his youth, but he's now a middle-aged man who is fully aware that he can't do anything else, but continue in a life crime. He's got the resume and the reputation for that and nothing else. What else can he do, but accept an offer to crew chief a heist at an expensive resort hotel in Nevada.

He can't pick the men he'd like, they're probably all dead or in the joint. He gets some young punks assigned to him by Barton MacLane who is acting as a middleman for boss Donald MacBride out on the west coast. Bogey gets Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy, and an informant at the hotel, Cornel Wilde. Curtis and Kennedy are getting their hormones in overdrive over Ida Lupino.

On the way west Bogey meets up with a near do well family headed by Henry Travers and he starts crushing out on teenager Joan Leslie. They represent to him a simpler time before he took up crime as a living.

The first half of the film sets up the characters, the second part is the robbery and it's aftermath. In that second half High Sierra moves at a really good clip. Not too many went out for popcorn when it was shown in theaters back in the day.

High Sierra was one of three films that George Raft turned down and were given to Humphrey Bogart that established him as a leading man. The other two were The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. Raft must have had some agent back in the day.

Of course Bogart is playing a gangster, but this one is a three dimensional character and a fine piece of work. It represented a big advance from some of the villains he played at Warner Brothers during the late Thirties.

High Sierra was directed by Raoul Walsh and another Hollywood icon director, John Huston, co-wrote the screenplay. There's a lot of similarity with this and Huston's later classic, The Asphalt Jungle.

High Sierra was remade twice, as a western with the miscast Joel McCrea in Bogart's role and in the Fifties as I Died a Thousand Times with Jack Palance. I daresay it could be made again quite easily for this generation, it's story is timeless.

The first thing to bear in mind is that there are actually TWO movies."High sierra" and its western remake "Colorado territory" (1949),both Walsh 's works.The latter is probably superior to the former,since the final is more impressive,but you should not underestimate it though;Humphrey Bogart is much better than Joel McCrea and Ida Lupino is at least as good as Virginia Mayo:actually,except for Lauren Bacall,Ingrid Bergman and Katherine Hepburn,rarely a Bogart's female partner had such an intensity,such a presence :sometimes she even steals the show,particularly in the last scenes.

There are two female parts in Walsh's movie -as in the remake,in which the second one is played by none other than Dorothy Malone- Lupino's bad gal with a strong heart,whose stature keeps on growing during the whole movie:a gangster's moll at the beginning of the story,she becomes a tragic character whose pursuit of happiness is moving at the end.On the other hand the crippled girl,who seems a sweet ,romantic (check the scene of the stars),and touching heroine,becomes an hateful silly goose when she's had the operation.And she 's changed physically as well:she grew into a sophisticated girl,we hardly know her in her last scene.

The car chases are masterfully filmed ,the grandiose landscapes lovingly filmed as if they were seen through Bogart's eye ,this man who had been in jail for a long time and who longed for freedom...this freedom he would earn anyway.Ida Lupino's last words will move you to tears.

Aw, the film that launched stardom for Humphrey Bogart and changed him from the perpetual villain to the "good guy."

The movie doesn't feature a lot of action but it keeps your interest. You have two women in here: the hard-boiled Ida Lupino and the soft-and-sweet Joan Leslie. Both are entertaining to watch and both demonstrate a few surprises in the personalities of the characters they are playing. Bogart does the same: goes back and forth between tough guy and softy.

Another key member of this unusual crime story/film noir is "Pard:" a little dog! Human supporting roles are supplied by some familiar and solid actors such as Arthur Kennedy, Alan Curtis, Henry Hull, Henry Travers, Barton MacLane and Cornel Wilde. Most of the people in here, including "Pard," are that endearing but there are so many different angles to this story, it's always interesting to see.

A sublime film. Probably one of the most melancholic pictures ever made in the classic period. It is one of the earliest and strongest portraits of the tragic hero, so recurrent in Walsh's filmography. Bogart's character, a mournful, resigned old-timer who witnesses the gradual downfall of the world as he knows it, dresses in black all through the film, like the mute and only assistant to his own funeral. As other Walsh anti-heroes –notably White Heat's Cody- he must reach the heights before him dies. One wonders what would have been of the Bogart, Cagney, Flynn or Raft persona without their significant roles in the Raoul Walsh films. It's remake, Colorado Territory, is even better.