- The Petrified Forest is an odd little crime drama that stars Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart before either became very famous. The story takes place near a small gas station and roadside cafe in Arizona owned by the Maple family. "Gramp" Maple (Charley Grapewin) is a funny old coot who likes to recount how Billy the Kid shot at him and missed. Jason Maple (Porter Hall) is the humorless, patriotic father figure while Davis plays the romantically idealistic daughter, Gabrielle. Gabrielle spends most of her time waiting tables while fending off the clumsy advances of aspiring football player/pump boy Boze (Dick Foran), but she'd rather be touring France than grilling burgers. Her romantic notions are only inflamed by the arrival of the itinerant Alan Squire (Leslie Howard), who has more poetry in his heart than money in his pocket. This situation alone would have made for a dull film (as evidenced by the first half hour), but fortunately the gangster Duke Mantee arrives to spice things up.
- Duke Mantee is probably Bogart's first memorable character, but he's still far from Bogart's best. Mantee is basically just a standard glowering gangster, although I suppose he is a little more menacing and a little less heartless than most. Mantee wants to escape across the border with his gang, but he's stuck collecting hostages at the diner while waiting for his girl to arrive. Much of the film involves everyone sitting around in the diner while Squire tries to philosophize about their situation. In a sense, this makes The Petrified Forest one of the first hang-out movies (adopting Tarantino's excellent term), but the film doesn't quite pull it off.
- The basic problem with The Petrified Forest, I think, is that its characters really are as superficial as my rather glib descriptions of them. Their conversations and actions are fairly predictable and uninteresting, which is the last thing you would ever want in a hang-out movie. The exception is perhaps Squire's revelation that he wants to die for Gabrielle, but I was sufficiently tired of his half-formed ideas by then that I wasn't sorry to see him go. Unfortunately, this film also suffers a bit from having several vague similarities to Key Largo, which is in every respect a better film. A great hang-out movie should make you want to meet the characters. This one makes you want something interesting to happen.
- Apparently, Edward G. Robinson came close to playing Duke Mantee. This is maybe not a surprise.
