100 min | Action, Adventure, Drama | 1940 | Color
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Bogart, the sympathetic gangster
This was Bogart's breakthrough film. Though Lupino got top billing over him (on account of her film-stealing performance the year earlier in another Raoul Walsh work 'They Drive By Night'), it is Bogart's performance that makes the film so memorable.
He plays Roy Earle, a Dillinger-like gangster from the 30's who is released from jail with a dodgy, paid-off pardon. He is to lead one last big jewel heist, but finds himself displaced and at odds with the new, 'jitterbugging' 1940's society. Instead of being chummy with the new lot of crims, he finds he has more common with the dispossessed Oakies, figures from his past he can sympathize with. He is a man caught between two worlds (Perhaps what Dillinger would have been like if he had lived? The Dillinger likeness is hard to ignore, with his name cropping up a couple of times in the film), and this is a film that is sort of 'caught' between two genres. It marks the transition from the gritty 30's Warner Bros. gangster films to the pessimistic, low-budget 40's noir. 'High Sierra' has elements of both, so it is an interesting study.
In my opinion, this is one of Bogart's best performances, and best characters (That said, Bogart played so many great characters in his career that it is very difficult to pick and choose). We have moved on from the portrayal of the psychotic gangster in the 30's by a Muni or a Cagney- Earle is a sympathetic gangster figure. He is given definite human qualities, he has a heart and a soul. He's also willing to 'play the sap' for a dame, and this is noticeable in his unrequited love for a much younger girl, Velma. His care and attentiveness to the girl, who has a club foot, is character building a beautiful component of Bogart's performance. The fact that Roy is rejected by Velma, who becomes wanton and selfish after her foot is repaired, only serves to endear him more to us.
Roy's perfect girl is in the fine form of Marie Garson (Ida Lupino, great performance), a 30's survivor like himself. She's also cynical, weary and downtrodden, and knows about life's hard knocks. She's in love with Bogart throughout, but Bogie only wakes up to this, and her devotion to him, after being dealt a cruel blow by Velma. Lupino, a British actress, is maybe a little unconvincing as the gangster's moll because of her English diction and accent, but she plays the part very well. Joan Leslie overacts in her role Velma, but she was only 17, so it's largely due to inexperience. She handles Velma's transformation with accurate judgement.
Raoul Walsh handles the action very well; this a fast-paced film with some terrific and well-crafted sequences.
Certain racist elements are apparent in the film, with the all-too requisite 'idiot black' making an appearance. Looking at the film now, it's a backwards portrayal, but at the time nothing would have been thought of it. Perhaps we should be glad that an African-American actor was actually getting a chance in the films, not condemning a film that is very much a product of a bygone era.
I never thought that I would be crying at the end of a Warner Bros. film from the gangster cycle, but this film leaves me in tears at it's conclusion. We know that Earle, as an outlaw, must ultimately die, but by the end of the film we are rooting for him so much that it is a painful, saddening blow when the inevitable occurs. The famous last scene in the mountains is justifiably brilliant, with Lupino terrific in her emotions and Bogart in his desperation. They make a great team, Bogart and Lupino. Oh, and 'Pard' too.
10/10.
