HIGH SIERRA (1941) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Raoul Walsh
Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Leslie,
Arthur Kennedy, Alan Curtis, Henry Hull.
Henry Travers, Cornel Wilde, Barton MacLane
Humphrey Bogart plays Roy "Mad Dog" Earle, a gangster who goes free after eight years in prison and gets involved in a plan to rob a hotel safe. One of two breakout movies - the other was "The Maltese Falcon" - that put Bogart on top in Hollywood, both with scripts by John Huston and both released in 1941. A classic noir thriller in which the good girl (Joan Leslie) isn't entirely good, the bad girl (Ida Lupino) isn't entirely bad, and the criminal protagonist shows signs of wanting to go straight, but only after he pulls off one last big job. There's a moral, too. Never take a dog along on a heist. It's bad luck.
