"You know the story. Most of my life in jail; the rest of it dead! "

In 1936 a new edition to the Warner Brothers rogues gallery appeared. He was an old face both literally and figuratively. He was getting his final chance in Hollywood to become an actor. If this man failed he would be stuck in New York acting stage plays for the rest of his life and his performances would be unseen by audiences today. As it happened, the man in question turned in a brilliant performance, and became one of the biggest movie stars of the 1940s and 1950s.

The story of The Petrified Forest (1936) takes place almost completely inside a diner in the Arizona desert. Here vagabonds come and gather to forget their sorrows. Some feel like they know what they wand from life, others are unsure. It is an interesting story as it follows the lives of seemingly different people, who all happen to be the same. There is Leslie Howard’s character, Alan Squier, who is a writer with great talent. At least that is what everyone said when he was in Europe years ago. Now the writer does not know what he wants and is just content spending his time wondering around the United States. Bette Davis plays Gabrielle, a girl who works as a waitress in her father’s diner. She dreams of going to Europe to study painting. Her mother lives in France and that is the one place Gabrielle wants to visit. She can’t stand being stuck with her ultra-nationalistic father and rich, but full of old-world values grandfather. Her grandfather longs for the old west where Billy the Kid used to roam. Gabrielle doesn’t take to this and spends her life reading a poetry book. When Alan enters her establishment, her whole world changes. She becomes deeply interested in him. He likes her, but doesn’t feel like he is adequate enough to become anything closer than a mentor.

The little world and people of the Arizona diner are in for a big surprise when it is learned that gangster Duke Mantee has escaped and is heading for Arizona. When Mantee arrives he becomes a symbol for Gabrielle’s grandfather of someone who embodies the old gangster. Alan believes he and Duke are cut from the same cloth, each looking for something in life. Mantee, who is played wonderfully by Humphrey Bogart, does a nice job in letting the people he meets carry on with their lives. He is only concerned with leaving the diner alive and with his girl. The troubles of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in his world. Of course the movie ends predictably as Mantee gets captured and Leslie Howard gets to die heroically in the arms of Bette Davis.

Today this movie is remembered as Humphrey Bogart’s first big break in Hollywood. The actor had previously been in movies with Warner Brothers, but hadn’t caught on so he went back to New York. When Robert E. Sherwood wrote the play of The Petrified Forest, he remembered Bogart from another play he saw. Sherwood believed Bogie would make a perfect Mantee. Although Bogie had his doubts he agreed to play the part and was terrific. At this time the country was fascinated with John Dillinger. Bogie looked a bit like Dillinger and with his mechanical walk and unshaven look, he terrified audiences on Broadway.

A huge stage hit is always a hot commodity in Hollywood and Warner Brothers scooped in to buy the rights to it. Leslie Howard was to reprise his role from Broadway. Bette Davis was to make her return to Hollywood after her nasty break-up with Warner Brothers. The two stars would be reunited after appearing together in Of Human Bondage (1934). There was just the issue of casting Duke Mantee. After receiving word from Leslie Howard that he would not appear in the movie if Jack Warner didn’t hire Bogie for the part, Warner extended a second chance to the Broadway actor. The rest as they say is history. Bogie became a huge star and never forgot Howard for sticking up for him. He would name his daughter Leslie.

All the characters in this movie are well drawn. From the main ones to the bit players, like Gabrielle’s supposed boyfriend, Boze, who can’t give up his past football glories or the rich man who is only concerned with money and neglects his wife even when bullets start to fly around the diner and he might be killed. Like all good adaptations of stage plays, the movie keeps what worked on Broadway intact. It is contained to one set and lets its characters do the rest. There are no Fellini or Hitchcock shots here, just pure character studies.