Grade: B+
Synopsis: An outlaw (Humphrey Bogart) holds an intellectual (Leslie Howard), waitress (Bette Davis), and others hostage in a small diner in the Arizona desert.
The Petrified Forest is a tight, well-written thriller with a knockout cast.
Lead Leslie Howard manages to mix just the right amounts of vulnerability, courage, and despair into his role as a disenchanted writer coming to terms with his own failed ambitions. On paper, the part could come off as pretentious or whiny, but Howard plays it perfectly without ever stooping to sentiment.
Opposite him, Bette Davis is the very epitome of the wide-eyed dreamer. Though her role is written a bit thinner than Howard’s, Davis makes up for it with sheer charisma, winning the audience over the same way she wins over Howard’s character.
Overshadowing both Davis and Howard though, is Humphrey Bogart. The Petrified Forest served as his first big break Hollywood. While it wouldn’t be until High Sierra (1941) some five years later that he would graduate from supporting actor to star, it was this film that made him a name.
And for good reason. The script gives him a great role to work with. As Duke Mantee, Bogart is a force of nature, a chaotic whirlwind. Further, the script does a fantastic job of fleshing out Mantee with minimal dialog, creating a pair of anti-heroes in Howard and Bogart’s characters that have more in common than one would think.
And that’s the film’s strength. It’s not a hostage drama at all, but an exploration of dreams and ambitions, both gone and yet to come. That the script has the guts to follow this theme through to the end is, ultimately, what makes the movie, as a typical “Hollywood” ending would have killed it.
The Petrified Forest’s only weakness lies in the sets, as the desert backdrops are so ridiculously fake they can be distracting early on, but it’s a small blemish on an excellent story.
Bottom Line: The Petrified Forest is a near-perfect film that’s a must-see for Humphrey Bogart fans, and highly recommended for everyone else.
