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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.

"High Sierra" was the film that changed the course of Bogart's career and lifted him up to stardom…

As Earle, Bogart was expanding on the criminal characterization he had already mastered in a dozen earlier films, giving it greater depth by adding contrasting elements of warmth and compassion to compensate the dominant violence…

Bogart helps a clubfooted girl, Velma (Joan Leslie), who repays him only with disregard and indifference…

Bogart's interpretation already showed signs of the special qualities that were to become an important part of his mystique in a few more films…

Here, for the first time, was the human being outside society's laws who had his own private sense of loyalty, integrity, and honor… Bogart's performance turns "High Sierra" into an elegiac film…

As a film, "High Sierra" has other notable qualities, particularly Ida Lupino's strong and moving performance as Marie, the girl who brings out Roy Earle's more human emotions…

The movie was remade as a Western, "Colorado Territory," with Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo, and as a crime film in "I Died a Thousand Times," with Jack Palance and Shelley Winters in the Bogart and Lupino roles… Neither came up to the stylish treatment given "High Sierra" by director Raoul Walsh from an exceptionally good script by John Huston and W. R. Burnett

'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

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.

Bogey is picked to lead a jewel heist at a resort. When he meets the rag tag team he has to work with, he senses trouble brewing. This is the film that brought attention to Bogart's leading man skills and Huston's peerless writing. Many remember the classic ending with Bogart hiding out in the mountains for one final stand against the law (and fate). Ida Lupino is one of my favorite actresses from the 40's and does fine work here (and looks stunning). Many fine moments with Bogey...including a memorable speech within his cabin hideout. This is one of the best portraits of a desperate outlaw in film history. A blueprint for all the antihero films that would follow over the years...great fun! Seek it out and enjoy!