High Sierra (1941)

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

John Huston (screenplay) and
W.R. Burnett (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

25 January 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

Tagline:

The Blazing Mountain Manhunt for Killer 'Mad-Dog' Earle!

Plot:

After being released from prison, notorious thief Roy Earle is hired by his old boss to help a group of inexperienced criminals plan and carry out the robbery of a California resort.

Plot Keywords:

Robbery | Police | California | Prison | Hotel

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Ida Lupino	...	Marie
Humphrey Bogart	...	Roy Earle
Alan Curtis	...	'Babe'
Arthur Kennedy	...	'Red'
Joan Leslie	...	Velma
Henry Hull	...	'Doc' Banton
Henry Travers	...	Pa
Jerome Cowan	...	Healy
Minna Gombell	...	Mrs. Baughmam
Barton MacLane	...	Jake Kranmer
Elisabeth Risdon	...	Ma (as Elizabeth Risdon)
Cornel Wilde	...	Louis Mendoza
Donald MacBride	...	Big Mac
Paul Harvey	...	Mr. Baughmam
Isabel Jewell	...	Blonde
Willie Best	...	Algernon
Spencer Charters	...	Ed
George Meeker	...	Pfiffer
Robert Strange	...	Art
John Eldredge	...	Lon Preiser (as John Elredge)
Sam Hayes	...	Announcer
Zero the Dog	...	Pard (as Zero)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Eddie Acuff	...	Bus Driver (uncredited)
Erville Alderson	...	Farmer at the Earle Homestead (uncredited)
Dorothy Appleby	...	Margie - Joe's Girlfriend (uncredited)
Peter Ashley	...	Young Man at Auto Accident (uncredited)
Arthur Aylesworth	...	Circle Auto Court Owner (uncredited)
James Blaine	...	Deputy (uncredited)
Wade Boteler	...	Sheriff (uncredited)
Lucia Carroll	...	Brunette with Bob (uncredited)
Eddy Chandler	...	Policeman at Auto Accident (uncredited)
Davison Clark	...	Deputy (uncredited)
Richard Clayton	...	Bellboy at the Robbery (uncredited)
Clancy Cooper	...	Policeman George Asking for ID (uncredited)
Frank Cordell	...	Slim - Marksman (uncredited)
James Flavin	...	Policeman (uncredited)
William Gould	...	Hotel Watchman (uncredited)
Carl Harbaugh	...	Fisherman (uncredited)
Harry Hayden	...	John - Druggist (uncredited)
Louis Jean Heydt	...	Bob - Tourist at Robbery (uncredited)
Robert Emmett Keane	...	Man with Glasses at Auto Accident (uncredited)
Al Lloyd	...	Man in Auto Court Office (uncredited)
George Lloyd	...	Gangster Greeting Earle at Prison (uncredited)
Gerald Mackey	...	Boy Going Fishing (uncredited)
Frank Moran	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Jack Mower	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Garry Owen	...	Joe - Velma's Guest (uncredited)
Lee Phelps	...	Policeman Henry Holden at Drugstore (uncredited)
Jack Rutherford	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Ralph Sanford	...	Tom the Fat Man at Drugstore (uncredited)
Buster Wiles	...	Marksman Who Shoots Roy Earle (uncredited)
Maris Wrixon	...	Blonde at Auto Accident (uncredited)
Charlotte Wynters	...	Woman Behind Counter (uncredited)

Directed by
Raoul Walsh

Writing credits
John Huston		(screenplay) and
W.R. Burnett		(screenplay)
W.R. Burnett		(novel)

Produced by
Mark Hellinger	....	associate producer
Hal B. Wallis	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Adolph Deutsch

Cinematography by
Tony Gaudio		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Jack Killifer

Art Direction by
Ted Smith

Costume Design by
Milo Anderson		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Perc Westmore	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Jack L. Warner	....	in charge of production

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Russell Saunders	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Dolph Thomas	....	sound

Special Effects by
Byron Haskin	....	special effects
Hans F. Koenekamp	....	special effects (as H.F. Koenekamp)

Stunts
Roydon Clark	....	stunts (uncredited)
Harvey Parry	....	stunts (uncredited)
Waldo	....	stunts: base jump (uncredited)
Buster Wiles	....	stunt double: Humphrey Bogart (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Eugene Joseff	....	costume jeweller (uncredited)

Music Department
Leo F. Forbstein	....	musical director
Arthur Lange	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Irving Rapper	....	dialogue director

Production Companies

• Warner Bros

Distributors

• Warner Bros (1941) (USA) (theatrical) (as Warner Bros. Pictures Inc.)
• Warner Bros. (1941) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros (1952) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Dominant Pictures Corporation (1956) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1970) (Finland) (TV) (1979) (1991) (2006) (2008)
• Key Video (1982) (USA) (VHS) (For CBS Fox Video)
• Mainostelevisio (MTV3) (1983) (Finland) (TV)
• Turner Entertainment (1988) (USA) (VHS) (colorized)
• Fazer Musiikki Oy/Fazer Video (1990) (Finland) (VHS)
• MGM/UA Home Video (1990) (USA) (VHS)
• Turner Entertainment (1990) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (2004) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (2004) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Sandrew Metronome Distribution (2004) (Finland) (DVD)
• Living Colour Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• CBS/Fox (198?) (USA) (VHS)
• Epoca (????) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2003) (Canada) (DVD)

Other Companies

• MGM/UA Home Video  VHS package design
• Turner Entertainment  DVD package design
• Turner Entertainment  VHS package design
• Warner Bros. Entertainment  DVD package design

Also Known As:

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Germany:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | Canada:PG | Australia:G (TV rating) | Argentina:Atp | Finland:(Banned) (1942) (1947) | Finland:K-8 (1990) | USA:Approved (certificate #6563)

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros

Trivia:

The rights to W.R. Burnett's novel were snapped up within two weeks of its publication.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the chase scene on the mountain road at the end, Roy has to swerve to avoid hitting an oncoming car. Soon after this Roy comes to the 'Road Closed' sign, so where did the oncoming car come from?

Quotes:

'Doc' Banton:He's on a bad way, Old Mac. Bum ticker, kidney's on the blink, bad stomach, like a kid's toy that's running down. I try to keeping him from drinking but there's no stopping Old Mac. he'll go on doing just as he always has done. Well, maybe he's right. Well, good night Roy.
Roy Earle:Good night 'Doc'.
[goes back in Big mac's bedroom]
Big Mac:Roy.
[points at the bottles of liquor]
Roy Earle:I don't know, Mac, the 'Doc'...
Big Mac:Yeah, I do know.
[takes a drinks]
Big Mac:Yeah, now I feel better.
[finishes writing a letter and puts in a envelope]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Illegal: Marked for Life (2007) (V)

Soundtrack:

I Get a Kick out of You (1934)

Mountain Greenery

W.R. Burnett's novel High Sierra is maybe his best book; it's certainly a classic of its type, and very readable and moving even today. The movie version of the book isn't quite as good, but it does something few adaptations do: it captures the spirit of the original.

The story is about a John Dillinger-like criminal, Roy Earle, just released from prison, and his planning of his last 'heist', as he moves from the Midwest to California. It's as much a character study as anything else, and here the book is better, as Burnett seems to get inside the heart and soul of Roy Earle in ways that screenwriter John Huston and director Raoul Walsh can't. This isn't their fault. Burnett gives us Earle's inner life in interior monologues, and movies simply can't do this. Nevertheless, we get a feeling for Earle, a lonely, extremely sentimental and romantic man, essentially a frontier type, or with more brains an artist, who cannot fit into modern life. The reason is simple: he doesn't understand it. He is driven by two things, strong emotions and extreme professionalism. The problem is that his profession is crime. Between these two extremes he is unsocialized, or rather doesn't understand the subtlety of contemporary life. To put it in current parlance, he's not hip, which is to say he has no detachment, no capacity for pulling back and reflecting, unless, that is, he is in love, and even then he gets it wrong by misunderstanding an attractive, crippled girl's reliance on him for love, and taking her country girl disposition for naivite (i.e. like him), which isn't true. This tragic aspect of Roy Earle is beautifully and perceptively described by Burnett, and while it's present in the film, it makes Roy seem obtuse, while the truth is his emotions run deep, and are sincere. He wants to give up crime and marry a small-town girl so that he can go back and get it right again. In the lead role Humphrey Bogart gives a major performance. Superficially he's wrong for Roy Earle: too urban, flip, smart and clever. But he trades in his natural big city persona for a moony, brooding romanticism, and it works. He doesn't seem the least bit sophisticated, and in his quieter moments he comes off like a man who can kill the way other men write checks

He has a true girl-friend in Ida Lupino, but he doesn't realize that she's more his type: life-weary, straightforward, deep and caring. He prefers the one he can't get, and this gets him in trouble, as his commitment to her puts him in a dreamy, dissociative state that is dangerous for a man in his line of work. The story builds on little things, and the bucolic mountain and small-town setting of the film is terra incognita for Roy, and we sense this even if he doesn't. He is, for all his professionalism, way out of his league, and is looking back to his idealized, romanticized early life, and longing for an ideal girl that he can 'fix', rather than doing the right thing and going off with Lupino and stating anew, which is his only chance for happiness.

Roy is a man who lives in two parallel worlds, the real, vicious one he must cope with, and the fantasy one he longs for and sees in the crippled girl he so tenderly loves. There is no in-between for him, as his head is in the clouds much of the time. It is therefore fitting that the movie ends up literally in the clouds, or so it seems, atop a mountain, as Roy shoots it out with reality one last time.