Lack of good storyline.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It is his film. not only for admirable performance but for the work of his partners. it is, in same measure, a surprising modern film. because it is a film about life, survive, heroism and desillusions who escapes by Hollywood classic formula. sure, it is adaptation of a play and you feel that scene by scene. all - from characters to the story are familiar. Humphrey Bogart gives the lines defining his great roles and Bette Davis reminds her skills for the vulnerable young woman looking for Charming Prince. but something change the expectations of viewer. maybe, the precise show of an universe who defines near reality in more exact manner. maybe Charley Grapewin job, shadow of past in fight for survive to present. anymore, Leslie Howard has the science and the gift to propose the best axis of a story of too deep solitude. and that did "The Petrified Forest" an obvious must see.

As far from the big city as you can get, this film version of a practically forgotten Broadway play is the reason for that legend film audiences still talk about named Bogie. Indeed, it was the transition in the career of Humphrey Bogart who had left the lights of Hollywood two years before and scored big on Broadway. The claustrophobic feel of Black Mesa in the middle of nowhere is equally as much a character as Bogart's killer, Leslie Howard's suicidal drifter and Bette Davis's tired waitress.A profound script shows that the lowest of low lives can become art when written with heart. Howard visits Davis's restaurant in the middle of nowhere, an oasis destroyed over the sands of time that has become as dead as Howard seems to long to be. For a film with a ton of chit chat, this is never boring, with a variety of visitors questioning their own mortality while being held hostage by Bogart.Davis is sweet yet alluring, with Howard facing his maker with the determination of Sydney Carton. Also excellent amongst the supporting players is Charley Grapewin as Davis's grandfather who interjects his own diluted vision of a long ago world as he allows his possible senility to escape out of him. This is a film that you could watch over and over again.

When I first watched The Petrified Forest I was at an unsure time in my life; fearful of the future and with my own sense of individualism and artistic ambitions. Watching Leslie Howard as Alan Squier, a failed artist who eventually takes his own life so a young girl could be the artist he never was made me fearful and depressed of what my own future held in store for me. I felt for this character to the point that it hurt because I was worried that someday I could become that character, perhaps not to that extreme but destined to a similar fate. Gabrielle (Bette Davis) on the other hand is stuck in a rut and dreams of going to France. No one in The Petrified Forest has much to look forward to; even the old man played by Charlie Grapewin gets very excited by the prospect of gangsters being nearby. Anything to create some excitement in the middle of the desert, excitement which doesn't wain when he's being held hostage by them. At the time when I watched this film and I was dealing with the uncertainty of if I would ever leave my hometown or would I always be stuck here. Few other films have ever had characters which spoke so directly to me. The atmosphere in The Petrified Forest is intense enough that I can forgive the not so seamless transitions between real-life locations and the sets. With little to no use of non-diegetic music, the sound of a windstorm is more than enough to emphasize the prison of which the characters reside. I also highly recommend checking out Heat Lightning from 1934 which contains many similarities to The Petrified Forest in its setting and atmosphere as well as characters and plot points. The Petrified Forest's most notable contribution to cinema is the breakthrough role of Humphrey Bogart as Duke Mantee, a role in which he has never been more terrifying. I generally don't think of Bogart as an actor who is scary but here he is a guy I would not want to be stuck in an elevator with, even with that distinct walk with his slouch and his arms bent in that manner as the dangle. - In most cases this would look ridiculous by Bogart makes it work. Bogart's acting career had been marred with failure up until this point with this likely being his final chance to make it in Hollywood and no doubt must have fueled his performance. I know a film is good when I have to think and contemplate which actor (Howard or Bogart) gave the better performance. How often do you get to see gangsters and intellectuals involved in such profound conversations? Howard and Bogart play characters whom are worlds apart yet develop a mutual respect for each other as they discover they share a bond with their individualism (also look out for Bogart's head being framed over a moose head so it looks like he has antlers). Fascinating characters (all with such unique dynamics between each other) in a fascinating story is already one of the most important things I could ask for from a movie, even better when they affect me on a personal level.

I saw this years ago, when I didn't know much about anything, and I remembered it as a gripping gangster flick.This time around I realized it was about something more complex -- learning about oneself and personal evolution. Sometimes transformation occurs in the unlikeliest of locales, and here we see the possibilities unfold at the edge of a desert out West.The first to gain insight is Leslie Howard playing the kind of guy I used to adore -- the unusual man who thinks in literary and philosophical terms but is unequipped to engage in a normal relationship. The drama here enables Alan Squire to realize all that and finally give of himself to another. Bette Davis excels as the naive, artistic waif who falls for Alan's musings. She doesn't get her man but she does gain the means to finally launch herself onto a trajectory of independence. However, it's Humphrey Bogart, still six years from his "Casablanca" triumph, who surfaces as the most complex and interesting in this dusty, tumbleweed-swept tale. The killer Duke Mantee has been betrayed by an unnamed and unseen blonde but there is something in the interaction of the ensemble here that prevents him from taking everyone down along with him. "Even if she did betray you, don't commit a worse crime -- don't betray yourself!" Duke is advised. And he is able to hear. "I spent most of my time in jail and it looks like I'll spend the rest of my life dead," he says toward the end. The physical and psychological terrain of this film is a little reminiscent of a much later desert tale, "Baghdad Café."