The Petrified Forest (1936)

Directed by Archie Mayo. Starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, Charley Grapewin, Porter Hall, Genevieve Tobin, Paul Harvey, Slim Thompson, Joseph Sawyer, Adrian Morris, John Alexander.

Disillusioned writer Howard drifts into a roadside diner without a penny to his name, engages in wistful conversation with kindhearted dreamer Davis, winds up a hostage alongside all the other patrons and employees when gangster-on-the-run Bogart arrives. Charles Kenyon and Delmer Daves are credited with bringing Robert E. Sherwood’s stage play to the big screen, with Howard and Bogart recreating their Broadway roles (since he wasn’t a star yet, Bogart was only given the part after Howard threatened to pull out if producers didn’t cast him). Good drama, well-acted by a fine cast—including Howard in a part as tailor-made for his persona as Pygmalion, and Davis in a rare opportunity to play a character that can be described as both “nice” and “lovely”—though the characters are too often converted away from flesh-and-blood creatures into mere symbols, with intellectualism vs. brute strength being the primary conflict. The flagrantly phony sound stage backdrops of Arizona can be distracting, especially in exterior scenes (coincidentally, that same sound stage is where Conan O’Brien’s TBS talk show is filmed). Later adapted for a live television version in the 50s with Bogart playing the same heavy, and Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall stepping into the Howard and Davis roles respectively.

78/100