HIGH SIERRA forever changed the rules for cops-and-robbers movies - changed Humphrey Bogart’s career, too, nudging him to real stardom. Released after a long stretch in prison, bank robber Roy "Mad Dog" Earle (modeled on John Dillinger, as was Duke Mantee, Bogart's character five years earlier in PETRIFIED FOREST) tries to go straight while rushing toward a predestined finish. Great story and acting by Ida Lupino, Arthur Kennedy, Willie Best, Joan Leslie and Henry Travers (who played Jimmy Stewart's guardian angel in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE). A young, mustached Cornel Wilde plays a two-bit crook named Mendoza, whose lack of spine winds up breaking Earle's back. (Trivia note: Bogie's own dog “Zero” played Mad Dog's little pooch, “Pard.”)
HIGH SIERRA (1941)
Bogie does Dillinger
HIGH SIERRA forever changed the rules for cops-and-robbers movies - changed Humphrey Bogart’s career, too, nudging him to real stardom. Released after a long stretch in prison, bank robber Roy "Mad Dog" Earle (modeled on John Dillinger, as was Duke Mantee, Bogart's character five years earlier in PETRIFIED FOREST) tries to go straight while rushing toward a predestined finish. Great story and acting by Ida Lupino, Arthur Kennedy, Willie Best, Joan Leslie and Henry Travers (who played Jimmy Stewart's guardian angel in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE). A young, mustached Cornel Wilde plays a two-bit crook named Mendoza, whose lack of spine winds up breaking Earle's back. (Trivia note: Bogie's own dog “Zero” played Mad Dog's little pooch, “Pard.”)
