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"The Petrified Forest" - The weak link in the 'Warner Gangster Collection' box set and no mistake. here were so many better titles to add other than this.
Hardly a Gangster film at all, it's more akin to the Bogart flick "The Desperate Hours" about 'small fry hoods on the run'.
The problem is the amazingly stodgy first half hour (Bogart does not even appear and biy, does it hurt) where the (delightfully English) Leslie Howard's scenes with a very young Bette Davis are arse numbing in their twee tedium! On and on they waffle as Bette bugs out her eyes and flutters her lashes and Leslie sups on his pipe with measured civility.
Damn! Where the hell are the hoods when you need them?'
'Warner's' amazingly obvious, but cute, stage-bound outdoor set adds a nicely comfortable charm, but we REALLY , REALLY need Bogart to appear!
Evenmtually he does (over half an hour gone) and at last some real drama and atmosphere blasts out!!
With the balls out hard boiled attitude of Bogart waking the audience up!
The moral/psychological/sociological dialogue exchanges between Howard and Bogart are cliche of course, but they work well enough and the huge contrast between these two actors really works.
You could not get a more English actor as Leslie Howard (who would of course die in the approaching WWII) or a more American actor as Bogart. One hell of a strange combination but it's what makes the film work.
But damn!!! This sucker is so slow, marshy and annoyingly mannered for the first 35 minutes or so (and now and again later on as well). It's the one title in the box set that has really dated.
Thankfully all the other titles are much, MUCH better...but there were so many other 'Warner' gangster classic to replace this with in the box set.
GREAT DVD presentation though., and for fans of Bogart there are some great moments to be had, but it's a case of the parts being better than the whole.
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