In a sentenceHumphrey Bogart has enough trouble without trying to be helpful
Roy Earle (Humphrey Bogart) is a professional criminal whose attempts to help others complicate a life already shaped by crime. Marie (Ida Lupino), Velma (Joan Leslie), Babe (Alan Curtis) and Red (Arthur Kennedy) are among the people in his story, which takes the gangster out of the city and into the Sierra mountains. Earle wants to do some good for those he encounters, but his dealings with them leave him trying to balance the demands of his profession with his personal attachments.
High Sierra is a fine crime drama, held together by Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino. Its crowded plotting sometimes tests the patience, but Raoul Walsh gives its difficult people enough feeling to reward the attention.
Raoul Walsh gives High Sierra a tired criminal worth spending time with, even when the story around him grows crowded. It is a fine crime drama, sustained by two performances that deserve more uninterrupted attention than the script allows. Humphrey Bogart plays Roy Earle with the weary authority of someone for whom crime has become work. There is enough assurance to explain why we watch him, and enough fatigue to make us wonder what the work has cost.
The screenplay by John Huston and W.R. Burnett, adapted from W.R. Burnett’s novel, is particularly good on Earle’s attempts to help other people. Those efforts can be awkward, and the writing resists presenting them as grounds for an immediate pardon. We were moved by his wish to be useful, because Humphrey Bogart gives it a hesitancy that makes the kindness seem difficult. We can care about this man without having to pretend that his occupation has slipped our minds.
Ida Lupino gives Marie a welcome directness, keeping the feeling clear when the plot threatens to become fussy. Her performance has enough firmness to prevent tenderness from turning into an appeal for pity. Alongside Humphrey Bogart, she makes us attentive to the difficulty of accepting affection as well as offering it. The writing supplies plenty of complications, but the actors need little help to make their company interesting.
Tony Gaudio’s cinematography makes the Sierra setting feel bleak rather than liberating. Moving the gangster out of the city opens up the images without making Earle’s circumstances seem any more comfortable. Raoul Walsh uses that discomfort well: the scenery never becomes a holiday from the people we are watching. It is a useful change of surroundings for a genre so often energised by crowded streets, and the exposed landscape suits the weariness of the leading performance.
Jack Killifer’s editing cannot quite persuade us that every supporting strand deserves its place. The pace becomes uneven as the screenplay divides its attention, and some of the diversions ask for interest the film has not earned. Adolph Deutsch’s music supplies emotional weight, occasionally pressing harder than the performances require. These interruptions are frustrating because the actors have already made the central relationships absorbing, and returning to them can feel overdue.
The movement towards film noir is apparent in the attention paid to a criminal’s exhaustion. Earle’s professional standing gives him little protection from the awkwardness of dealing with other people, particularly when he wants to help them. Humphrey Bogart makes that uncertainty as interesting as the character’s authority. Raoul Walsh allows sympathy to develop without repeatedly asking us to approve of the man, which keeps the sentiment from becoming oppressive.
At 100 minutes, the film still feels a little overstocked, especially beside the economy of its leading performances. We would recommend it with that reservation; the supporting stories do not all earn their time. There is considerable pleasure in watching Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino keep the feeling direct while the writing gets busy around them. Choose it when there is time to let a crime drama linger over its people.
With only 5 reviews in so far, the available assessments lean positive, with praise clustering around Bogart’s world-weary performance and the film’s unsentimental treatment of its criminal protagonist. The reviews also value its psychological depth and its move towards noir, with the bleak Sierras replacing familiar urban settings. The spread is wide, however: Variety praises Bogart and Lupino but finds the plotting cluttered, the pacing slow and the side stories extraneous. The New York Times verdict cannot be verified from the available text, so its position remains unclear.
Cole praises High Sierra as a haunting, psychologically rich crime film. He singles out Bogart’s world-weary performance and the Criterion edition’s excellent transfer and informative extras.
Read the full review →The review describes the film as momentous and credits it with helping move the gangster genre toward film noir. It singles out the shift from urban settings to the bleak Sierras.
Read the full review →Newman gives the film a largely admiring assessment as a distinctive gangster story about a professional criminal. He particularly praises Bogart’s performance and the film’s unsentimental treatment of Earle’s attempts to help others.
Read the full review →The page could not be read, so its verdict cannot be determined. No specific praise or complaint can be verified from the available text.
Read the full review →The review finds the film weighed down by cluttered plotting and slow pacing, though Bogart and Lupino help salvage it. It particularly praises their performances while faulting the extraneous side stories.
Read the full review →
The Asphalt JungleAnother patient look at professional criminals whose private needs complicate the work.
Rififi · not on Fi1m yetFor criminal competence, uneasy loyalties and a robbery given exacting attention.
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A Bittersweet Life · not on Fi1m yetA Korean crime drama where a professional discovers the cost of tenderness.
