Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

bombersflyup 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.

tomgillespie2002 It may be difficult to believe now, but there was once a time when Hollywood icon Humphrey Bogart played second-fiddle to a bigger star, usually lumped with the role of deadbeat gangster or short-fused psychopath. In movies like Angels with Dirty Faces, The Roaring Twenties and this, High Sierra, he find-tuned himself into the fast-talking leading man he would later become in the likes of The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. With High Sierra, his name appeared below that of the magnificent Ida Lupino, but the film starts and ends with Bogart, and he appears in near enough every scene. He plays Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle, a career criminal freshly sprung from prison who soon realises that his generation of the respectable, honourable gangster is quickly dying out.After serving eight years for armed robbery, Roy receives a governor's pardon arranged by his old boss Big Mac (Donald MacBride). He is to use his experience and expertise to oversee a heist of a swanky new Californian resort hotel, and heads into the country to hook up with his new crew. On his way into the mountains, Roy meets the young and pretty Velma (Joan Leslie), and decides to use the money stolen from the hotel to pay for an operation to correct her clubfoot, and win her affections in the process. Only his new team-mates Red (Arthur Kennedy) and Babe (Alan Curtis) are young, brash and green, and inside man Mendoza (Cornel Wilde) can't be trusted to keep his mouth shut. The only saving grace is Babe's sort-of girlfriend Marie (Lupino), who seems to be the only one of Roy's new rag-tag gang of thieves who can be trusted. She falls in love with the old-school Roy, and after the robbery naturally goes wrong when somebody gets shot, the two must flee into the hills and live as fugitives.Director Raoul Walsh, working with a script by John Huston and W.R. Burnett, seems to have believed that both the gangster and the gangster movie were slowly dying out back in 1941. This isn't true of course, as gangster films are just as popular today as they have ever been, but this air of melancholy helps distinguish High Sierra from the countless other genre pictures of the era. Lupino and Bogart are both superb as the damaged, lonely criminals. Roy has his heart set on the younger Velma, who represents everything he isn't and never will be, while failing to realise that Marie may actually be the woman he's looking for. Only Marie is just as broken as Roy, and the ageing gangster is looking to make a clean break and a fresh start. When the subjects of gangster movies and film noir crop up, High Sierra doesn't tend to get mentioned much, but it's a terrific and often gripping crime drama, with an engrossing romance at its very core.

JPA.CA This film shows Humphrey Bogart's incredible versatility and natural talent.The story and his acting as a gangster are so believable and Ida Lupino was a perfect match. Her performance was so great that in my mind she is forever typecast in the role.How many times can you say you enjoyed every minute of a movie? I'd put a small handful in that category, all of which star Humphrey Bogart or John Wayne.This one is even available in digital HD! Thanks Warner Brothers - score huge!

Bill Slocum The film that elevated Humphrey Bogart from Hollywood hoodlum to romantic lead, "High Sierra" deserves respect. It's not his greatest role, or that entertaining a film, but it works insofar as director Raoul Walsh gives his star all the right support to cement a winning impression.Bogie is still a hood in this one, but one with a heart. Roy Earle is a tough-luck robber who wants to go straight but needs one last big heist for a sick old man who got him sprung from prison. Problems accrue. His partners in crime are neither smart nor reliable, and a woman named Marie (Ida Lupino) gets stuck on him to the detriment of both. There's even a dog with a record of bringing bad luck to his minders who attaches himself to Earle.All this works sometimes. It brings out a riveting performance from Bogart, whose ticks and melancholy spirit feel utterly right. You pull for him despite the fact he's not presented to us as anything other than a Hays Code baddie, even calling out one handler for being an retired policeman ("A copper's always a copper"). People talk about this being the beginning of film noir, and while Bogie previously played an anti- hero up against a bitter destiny in "Black Legion," this is really establishes that up-against-the-system vibe for later film use.The problem with the film is how much it plays things on the nose. Right from the start, Earle is established as a guy who likes his freedom when he directs his driver to make a stop at a nearby park. Asked if he's alright, he answers: "I will be, just as soon as I make sure grass is still green, and...trees are still growin'."Later, we watch Earle have a nightmare which amounts to a soliloquy, complete with him making punching motions in his sleep. Writers John Huston and W. R. Burnett, working from Burnett's novel, have the bones of a fine story, but clutter it too much with moments like this. A black character played by Willie Best is brought in to do some crosseyed servile shtick that comes over even more lame in such an otherwise serious flick.Then there's the sweet family with the pretty daughter Velma (Joan Leslie) whom Earle befriends, which slows down the heist story to a crawl. Earle sees in Velma reason for a clean start in life, but cruel circumstance works against him yet again. (Some reviewers here are aghast at the age gap between the middle-aged Bogart and the teenager Leslie. Better not tell them about her and Cagney the following year in "Yankee Doodle Dandy"!) The Velma arc just goes on too long, and plays like a bad joke.But even the weak moments are worthwhile with Bogie at the center of things. In the last scene with Velma, the weakest scene in the movie, there's a moment when Marie bursts in and Earle shoots her the most marvelously murderous look. It's pure Bogart.That's the best that can be said of "High Sierra." Lupino merits interest less for her performance, which is serviceable, but for the way her character is introduced and hangs on with Earle like a proto-Bonnie Parker. She shouldn't have been credited above Bogart, but the story is really as much about her character as his.It's also a treat having come off a Budd Boetticher kick to find myself back on his stomping grounds, Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills around Mount Whitney, served up this time in glorious black and white. The scenics by cinematographer Tony Gaudio impress even when they don't try to grab your attention, and give this pre-noir a deceptively sunny sheen."High Sierra" is worth recommending, to Bogie fans and noir enthusiasts especially. This isn't where it all began for the actor or the genre, but it's where it reached a new height, even if it would prove a mere stepping stone for things to come.