High Sierra is a fine film, its only real story is a love story though, formed through persistence. The love of Marie and the love of Pard, who keep forcing themselves into Roy's life. All the other stuff is pretty uneventful and lackluster. Roy's goons losing control of the car, while not being chased, catching fire was utterly ridiculous. I liked that Velma didn't want to be with Roy, she wasn't very nice about it, but people aren't always nice. Nearly every Bogart film, women are throwing themselves at him, it was good to see at least one turn him down, even though he still got the better deal. Ida Lupino was very alluring. People sure do love Humphrey Bogart, "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" I think is his best work from what I have seen, probably mostly due to believing him in that role and not the role of a gangster or a detective, but this would be among his better performances. In all seriousness though, Pard stole the show.

This was Humphrey Bogart's first lead role, as Roy Earle: experienced gangster, who is summoned to move from Indiana to California to lead a single heist. Thus, Bogie was in the familiar role of a gangster, but the unfamiliar role of lead male. Actually, his role was initially offered to George Raft, who had been the lead actor in 2 recent films including Bogie. ... Beautiful Ida Lupino, who had shared supporting actor status with Bogie in "They Drive at Night", was the leading lady. For a short period, as Marie, she becomes Roy's not entirely appreciated moll. He was basically a lone wolf. Ida's role isn't nearly as interesting as her role in "They Drive by Night" However, she still served as eye candy...... There is nothing particularly unusual about this gangster screenplay, except the memorable race up Whitney Portal Road, and Roy's hopeless attempt to evade capture by climbing partway up Mt. Whitney. No doubt he knew he would die if he didn't surrender, and chose to die fighting. .....One wonders what was so compelling about Roy that made Marie cling to him even when it was obvious he would soon be captures or die....Joan Leslie plays Velma: a young woman hampered by a clubfoot, brought to California by her family after their Midwest farm went under. Roy pays for surgery to correct her foot, then asks her to marry him She turns him down for 2 reasons: she doesn't love him in a romantic way, and she has a fiancé back home, who will be arriving soon.. Roy eventually meets her fiancé. Clearly he's very jealous ,and tells him straight forward he doesn't like him and doesn't want to see Marie married to him. Thus, Roy and Velma part on a sour note..... An unrecognizably young Cornel Wilde plays one of the gangsters...... Raul Walsh directed both films in which Bogie and Ida costarred or supported.

All the same, without "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Big Sleep", Humphrey Bogart's reputation as Mr. Ultra-Tough Guy rests entirely on Raoul Walsh's "High Sierra" (1941) (available on a 10/10 Warner DVD). "Mad Dog" Earle is an inveterate loser, an embittered hood with an odd streak of compassion and sensitivity that finally destroys him.Bogart's performance emerges as more clearly shaded than in his previous roles and the final scenes of the film in which he defiantly meets his death — and freedom — on top of the mountain have an impact that cannot be equaled. If Bogart had continued in this fatalistic vein, he may well have laid a claim to a unique, immovably tough-guy image. Instead he made "The Big Shot" (1942) (available on DVD, at Warner Archive) in which he plays another has-been bandit, but this time dies nobly to save a mixed-up kid! And then, of course, came the exotic "Casablanca". Romance with a capital "R".

I was always interested to see the film that made the leading character actor of Casablanca and The African Queen a star, and it seems it was this one that I found listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, from writer John Huston (The Man Who Would Be King). Basically Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle (Humphrey Bogart) has just been pardoned and released from an eastern prison, but the experienced bank robber is wanted by aged gangster Big Mac (Donald MacBride) to lead and take charge of a California resort casino heist. He starts by driving across the country, meeting the three men that will assist him in the heist at a camp in the mountains, they are resort worker Louis Mendoza (Cornel Wilde), and camp residents 'Red' (Arthur Kennedy), and they are also joined by young woman Marie (Ida Lupino), who after argument is eventually allowed to stay. Marie falls in love with Roy, but he does show any of the same feelings, he instead has affection for young woman Velma (Joan Leslie) who he pays to have an operation on her deformed foot, but she refuses a marriage proposal because she is seeing someone else, so when her fiancé shows up he does turn to Marie and they become lovers. All the plans for the robbery are made and they go ahead with the heist, but they are interrupted by a security guard and it goes wrong, the three assistants ends up in a car accident, Red and Babe are killed, and the police interrogate Mendoza. The police put a search out for 'Mad Dog' for the public to identify and catch him, Roy and Marie leave town together, but they separate so she can get away, and he hides in the Sierra Mountains. It is sunrise when the police catch up to Roy, and he tries to shoot the officers below, and it is when he hears Marie calling for him that they get the chance to shoot him, and they do and he falls to his death, while she sobs and is driven away. Also starring Henry Hull as 'Doc' Banton, It's a Wonderful Life's Henry Travers as Pa and Elisabeth Risdon as Ma. Bogart is usually the charming good guy, here he is a likable criminal, I can see reasons why he became more popular following this film, the film itself does have a bit of cheesy feel and corny story, there could have been a bit more heist action, but it is I suppose paced alright and a not bad crime thriller. Worth watching!