High Sierra is a 1941 Film Noir crime drama directed by Raoul Walsh. The film stars Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, and Joan Leslie. High Sierra was based on W.R. Burnett’s 1940 novel of the same name, with the film’s script being cowritten by Burnett and John Huston.
Director: Raoul Walsh
Production Company: Warner Bros.
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Cast: Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy, Joan Leslie, Henry Hull, Henry Travers, Jerome Cowan, Minna Gombell, Barton MacLane, Elizabeth Risdon, Cornel Wilde, Donald MacBride
US Box Office: $2,657,500 ($101,700,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Black & White
Genre: Film Noir, Crime, Drama
Release Date: January 23, 1941 (Los Angeles premiere)
Plot Summary: After being released from prison, bank robber Roy Earle (Humphrey Bogart) travels to California on the orders of his old boss “Big Mac” (Donald MacBride) to lead a jewelry heist on a wealthy resort hotel in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Assisting Roy in the heist are low-level thugs “Babe” Kozak (Alan Curtis) and “Red” Hattery (Arthur Kennedy), as well as former taxi dancer Marie Garson (Ida Lupino). Not wanting a woman to be involved in the robbery, Roy is initially hostile towards Marie, but soon finds himself falling in love with her. Another reason for Roy’s hesitation with Marie is his desire to become respectable and his interest in Velma Goodhue (Joan Leslie), the sweet-natured granddaughter of Roy’s naïve friend Pa Goodhue (Henry Travers). The robbery goes horribly wrong, and Roy and Marie are forced to go on the run together with the stolen jewels.
Production: In 1940 author W.R. Bennett published the crime novel High Sierra. The book was popular and Warner Bros. studio executives purchased the film rights to the novel shortly after it was published. Mark Hellinger was assigned to produce High Sierra, while Hal B. Wallis served as the film’s executive producer. The screenplay for High Sierra was co-written by the novel’s author W.R. Bennett and John Huston. Huston had been working as a script writer for Warner Bros. for the past few years, but he desperately wanted to become a director. If High Sierra was a financial success the studio would allow Huston to direct a film. Raoul Walsh was chosen to direct High Sierra. Walsh had a contract with Warner Bros. at the time and he had recently directed the crime films The Roaring Twenties (1939) and They Drive By Night (1940) for the studio.
Paul Muni was the studio’s original choice for the role of robber Roy Earle. Muni wasn’t interested in playing a gangster and turned the part down. George Raft was also considered for the role but turned it down for similar reasons. Raft was frequently typecast as mobsters and hoped to move away from playing these sort of characters, he also didn’t like Earle’s fate in High Sierra. Humphry Bogart, who was under contract with Warner Bros., read the film’s script and was very interested in playing the part of Roy Earle. Bogart liked that the character had more depth than the usual gangsters he played and wanted the chance to be a leading man. Bogart had supporting roles in gangster films like Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and The Roaring Twenties (1939) but wanted to chance to prove himself as a leading man. After petitioning studio head Jack L. Warner, Bogart was given the role of Earle. Raoul Walsh was hesitant to cast Bogart as Earle, Walsh only thought of Bogart as a supporting actor and didn’t think he had what it took to be a leading man. Writer John Huston saw the potential Bogart had that others in the studio did not realize. Huston later remarked about Bogart in High Sierra, “Bogie was a medium-sized man, not particularly impressive off-screen, but something happened when he was playing the right part. Those lights and shadows composed themselves into another, nobler personality: heroic, as in ‘High Sierra‘. I swear the camera has a way of looking into a person and perceiving things that the naked eye doesn’t register.”
British-American actress Ida Lupino was cast as Marie Garson, the gangster moll who ends up falling in love with Earle. Lupino recently starred in the drama film The Light that Failed (1939) for Paramount, and her performance impressed producer Mark Hellinger who signed her up for a contract with Warner Bros. and cast her They Drive by Night (1940) and High Sierra. They Drive by Night was released early during High Sierra‘s production and was unexpectedly popular, with Lupino’s performance receiving strongly positive reviews. As a result producers Hellinger and Wallis gave Lupino the top billing over Bogart (Bogart had also appeared in They Drive by Night, but only in a supporting role).
Raoul Walsh began shooting High Sierra in mid-August of 1940, and principle photography wrapped up in mid-September. The mountain car chase near the end of the film was shot on location on the Whitney portal road, leading to Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The exterior scenes featuring the Tropico Springs resort hotel were shot on location at the Arrowhead Springs Hotel in San Bernardino, CA. Scenes at the logging camp were shot near Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake. Interior scenes were shot on set at Warner Bros. Burbank Studios. Walsh disliked working with Humphrey Bogart on High Sierra and later claimed that Bogart complained about everything from the studio lunches to the conditions of shooting. Ida Lupino was annoyed with Bogart’s constant sarcasm and she refused to work with him on their planned next film Out of the Fog (1941), leading to Bogart being replaced on that film.
Fun Facts and Trivia: High Sierra was the first film in which actor Cornel Wilde (Louis Mendoza) was credited. Wilde was later nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for his role in the biopic A Song to Remember (1945) and also notably co-starred with Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven (1945). Pard the dog was played by canine actor Zero. Given Pard’s chemistry with and devotion to Humphrey Bogart’s character, it was widely rumored that Zero was Bogart’s dog in real life. This is not true, Zero was actually owned by Rennie Renfro, who frequently supplied dogs to be used on Hollywood productions at that time.
High Sierra was one of six films to feature Humphrey Bogart and Barton MacLane (Jake Kranmer). The other films were Bullets or Ballots (1936), San Quentin (1937), The Maltese Falcon (1941), All Through the Night (1942), and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). MacLane, Cornel Wilde, and Henry Hull (Doc Banton) all later appeared in the 20th Century Fox drama The Walls of Jericho (1948).
Reception: High Sierra premiered in Los Angeles on January 23, 1941. Although not a huge box office hit, High Sierra earned a profit for Warner Bros. due to its modest budget. Studio executives were pleased with High Sierra‘s performance, so they gave John Huston permission to direct a film. Huston chose to direct an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon. Bogart was eventually cast as that film’s lead character Sam Spade. The Maltese Falcon (1941) became a critical and commercial success, and it kickstarted Huston’s career as a director and contributed to Bogart’s rising popularity. Bogart later became a major star after his leading role in the romantic drama Casablanca (1942).
The Screen Guild Theater broadcast two radio adaptations of High Sierra. The first version was aired on January 4, 1942 and starred Humphrey Bogart, with Claire Trevor in the role of Marie. The second version was broadcast on April 17, 1944 and featured Bogart and Lupino reprising their film roles. Raoul Walsh later directed Colorado Territory (1949), a loose adaptation of Bennett’s novel that functioned as a remake of High Sierra. Colorado Territory changed the setting to that of the 19th century American West and starred Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo in the leading roles. A third adaptation of the novel, I Died a Thousand Times, was released in 1955 and kept the novel and 1941 film’s modern gangster aspect. I Died a Thousand Times was directed by Stuart Heisler and starred Jack Palance and Shelley Winters.
High Sierra received positive reviews from critics when it was first released. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times liked the film’s excitement and suspense and he had strong praise for the acting, especially the performances of Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino. The critics at Time magazine similarly approved of High Sierra and astongly praised Bogart’s nuanced performance. Time wrote, “What makes High Sierra something more than a Grade B melodrama is its sensitive delineation of gangster Earle’s character. Superbly played by Actor Bogart, Earle is a complex human being, a farmer boy who turned mobster, a gunman with a string of murders on his record who still is shocked when newsmen call him ‘Mad-Dog’ Earle.” The National Board of Review ranked High Sierra as being one of the top ten best films of the year, and ranked Humphrey Bogart (for High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon) and Ida Lupino (for High Sierra and Ladies in Retirement) as being among of the best actors of the year. The April edition of Photoplay magazine similarly ranked High Sierra as one of the best films of the month, with Bogart and Lupino being ranked as among the best actors of the month.
High Sierra continues to receive positive reviews in modern times and is now regarded as an important early example of the Film Noir genre. Matt Brunson of Film Frenzy gave High Sierra a perfect 4/4 star review and had strong praise for Humphrey Bogart’s “sympathetic” portrayal of Roy Earle. Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid applauded director Raoul Walsh for giving the film plenty of action and excitement. Rob Thomas of The Capital Times, Carol Cling of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Bob Bloom of the Journal & Courier all gave High Sierra 4/5 star reviews.
Why You Should See It: High Sierra is an excellent crime drama film. Raoul Walsh does a superb job combining the film’s emotional drama with exciting action. The jewelry robbery scene, the car chase, and the mountain finale were all thrilling and have suspenseful moments. Humphrey Bogart gives a great performance as criminal Roy Earle. Bogart gives Earle a great deal of depth and nuance, and makes the character far more sympathetic than most gangster characters.
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