147. High Sierra (1941)

Running Time: 100 minutes
Directed By: Raoul Walsh
Written By: John Huston, from novel by W.R. Burnett
Main Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Henry Travers, Joan Leslie, Alan Curtis
Click here to view the trailer

GEEZ BOGEY, GO AWAY!

My (seemingly) never ending quest to find an, at least suitable Humphrey Bogart picture will not end today, with the reviewing of "High Sierra" - a film that I did not like...not in the slightest.

This time around, in my seventh Bogart movie from THE BOOK, Bogey is Roy Earle, a notorious gangster, who has just been pardoned from prison, via a phone call a gangster friend of his made to the governor. Once on the outside, it's back to his criminal ways, as Earle wastes no time getting back into the life of a professional thief. This time around, he'll be leading the charge in a heist against an upper-class California resort. As he drives across the country, headed for California, Earle meets a poor family, consisting of an elderly man & woman and their granddaughter. It turns out that there headed about to the same place he's going and when he gets to his destination, he looks them up again and again...and again, securing his sights on the granddaughter, Velma (Leslie), a looker in her own right. Of course, there's work to be done too and Earle meets up with the gang of guys he'll be working with: all rookies and all new faces to the veteran Earle. There's two guys: Babe (Curtis) and Red and a woman, Marie (Lupino). They take the time (what seems like forever) to case the place and get all their plans in order and meanwhile, the Earle character spends the rest of the film visiting Velma, a cripple, whom he plans to pay for surgery and babysitting a dog. End of story...

This was Humphrey Bogart's big break in Hollywood, as he doesn't even get top billing in this one, as that honor goes to Ida Lupino. Could Humphrey Bogart be the most overrated actor EVER?? That's a question that I pondered as I watched this film and knew that the sole reason for it's inclusion was THE BOOK'S obvious infatuation with Bogey.  Believe it or not, there are, by my count, four Humphrey Bogart films still remaining in THE BOOK, which will make a grand total of ELEVEN Bogey pictures in all!! And as far as I can tell, the only one worth anything is "Angels with Dirty Faces" and guess what...it's the only one of the eleven he's not the star of. There's just something about the guy that doesn't appeal to me in the slightest...kind of like the problem I had with Cary Grant, during my early blogging days. These days, I'll take Cary Grant any 'ol day of the week, over Bogart. Oh well, I'm still bound and determined to find ONE picture, starring Bogart that I like.

As for "High Sierra", it just went on for what seemed like forever and literally NOTHING happened. There's one heist in the whole film, which we hear about five minutes into the film and they don't pull that heist off until over an hour into the movie. The rest of the time is total down time, with Bogart proving that he can be a bad ass AND have a heart of gold, getting estimates for Velma's club foot surgery and visiting old, dying gangster friends. Give me a break! It's also a really odd movie, in that Bogart's character doesn't get the girl he wants and ends up having to settle for his second choice, Marie. That's just weird and probably has a lot to do with the fact that Humph really wasn't the star and therefore, could be made to look a little weaker than he could when he hit his starring days. There's a pretty sweet car chase near the end and the ending is pretty decent, but it wasn't nearly enough to save this train wreck and I'm just glad it's all over.

RATING: 3.5/10  '4' just seemed too high, so a '3.5' should do just fine. That will take care of the first half of what I have remaining and now we'll jump to the end and knock out five from that side.

MOVIES WATCHED: 668
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 333

ON DECK
The Departed (2006 - Martin Scorsese)
Apocalypto (2006 - Mel Gibson)
Talk to Her (2002 - Pedro Almodovar)
In the Mood for Love (2000 - Wong Kar-Wai)
Gladiator (2000 - Ridley Scott)

April 27, 2013  1:18pm

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69. Me and My Gal (1932)

Running Time: 79 minutes
Directed By: Raoul Walsh
Written By: Philip Klein, Barry Conners, Arthur Kober
Main Cast: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Marion Burns, George Walsh, J. Farrell MacDonald

DON'T BE A "BEZARK"...SEE THIS MOVIE!

Continuing right along with my new format (watching the five oldest films that I have left to watch, before jumping to the end and watching the five newest), we come to "Me and My Gal", a film I was forced to record off of Turner Classic Movies last October, as part of their Spencer Tracy tribute, as I was unable to find it elsewhere.

Spencer Tracy is Danny Doyle, a new cop on the beat in New York City and while he isn't the slickest or keenest copper on the force, he gets by. We open with about a twenty minute piece of Doyle walking through town; getting into numerous interactions with the town drunk, chasing down some kids who break a window with their baseball and flirting with a waitress he calls "Red" (Bennett)...due to her blonde hair. Then we start to get into the little plot that this movie does have, as Red's a.k.a. Helen Riley's newly married sister, Kate (Burns), is dropped in on by her old beau, Duke (Walsh), a gangster who wants to rob the bank she works at and wants her help. Kate denies the offer and luckily Duke is picked up by the police and sentenced to prison time. However, he busts out and of course, calls upon Kate to help hole him up, while his gang set plans in motion to knock off the bank. Meanwhile, Doyle starts courting Helen and the two get along swimmingly, despite the fact that they're both smart-asses, which is okay because it suits them well and they play off of each other nicely. Danny is then upgraded to detective and finds out that if he can track down the recently escaped Duke, he could earn himself a cool $10,000 reward - dead or alive. It shouldn't be too hard for Danny to get his hands on that reward money, considering Duke is hiding out in the apartment of his girlfriend's sister.

SPOILER ALERT!

Yeah, like I mentioned in the synopsis, there's really not much plot to speak of here and what little plot there is just acts as fodder to give Tracy and Bennett more time to play off one another, which they do superbly. It's a shame that I've never really taken to a Spencer Tracy movie, because he's a marvelous actor and I really enjoyed him here, proving that he can do comedy with the best of them. There are so many little running gags and physical comedy situations in this movie that it's literally impossible not to be tickled, at least a few times throughout the picture. The town drunk, at the beginning of the movie was hilariously played by Will Stanton. You've also got the radio salesman, who shows up for literally like one minute of screen time, but kills it. Everyone, whether they're onscreen for one minute or one hour, knows their part and plays it well...except Marion Burns who seemed to be lost in there. I also liked the idea of having the paralyzed father-in-law (Sarge), who could only blink his eyes and hear and who tips off the Danny as to Duke's whereabouts. I knew as soon as he showed up, he'd play some sort of integral part in the climax. I also liked the little bank robbery heist scene, with the gangsters breaking into the apartment of a mild mannered family that lived above the bank, cutting through their floor and then dropping down into the vault...clever stuff from Walsh.

Walsh realizes that he doesn't have much of an idea to play with, so wisely keeps the picture to a short running time and packs a nice punch with what he does give us. This is a really fun, little picture and since it's debut on Turner Classic Movies back in October, I've seen them replay it, at least, two more times, so you should really keep your eyes peeled for it, because it's not available anywhere else (in the U.S. anyway). If you're a fan of Spencer Tracy, this gives you a chance to see him early in his career, before he became a Hollywood mega star and he and Joan Bennett have a great chemistry together, just as good as Tracy and Hepburn, in this reviewers opinion. Fans of Tracy will also surely be thrilled to see him at being a goofball and at such a baby face age. It's fun; it's funny; it features greatness from the duo of Tracy and Bennett and the direction of Walsh, keeping things short and tying them up in a nice bow at the end, gets this one a thumbs up from yours truly!

RATING: 7/10  Maybe that's a smidgen too high, but I'm gonna' go with it and if need be, I can adjust at recap time. It's at least a very strong '6.5' anyway and what's a half a point to quibble over?

MOVIES WATCHED: 665
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 336

April 25, 2013  1:17am

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