High Sierra | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Raoul Walsh |
Produced by | Mark Hellinger |
Screenplay by |
John Huston W.R. Burnett |
Based on |
High Sierra by W.R. Burnett |
Starring |
Ida Lupino Humphrey Bogart Alan Curtis Arthur Kennedy |
Music by | Adolph Deutsch |
Cinematography | Tony Gaudio |
Edited by | Jack Killifer |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
High Sierra is a 1941 early heist film and film noir written by W.R. Burnett and John Huston from the novel by Burnett. The movie features Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart and was directed by Raoul Walsh on location at Whitney Portal, halfway up Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada of California.
The screenplay was co-written by John Huston, Bogart's friend and drinking partner, adapted from the novel by William R. Burnett (also known for, among others, Little Caesar and Scarface). The film cemented a strong personal and professional connection between Bogart and Huston. The film is also notable as the breakthrough in Bogart's career, transforming him from supporting player to leading man.
The film contains extensive location shooting, especially in the climactic final scenes, as the authorities pursue Bogart's character, gangster "Mad Dog" Roy Earle, from Lone Pine up to the foot of the mountain.
An aged gangster, Big Mac (Donald MacBride), is planning a robbery at a fashionable California resort hotel in the fictional resort town of Tropico Springs, California. He wants the experienced Roy Earle (Humphrey Bogart), just released from an eastern prison by a governor's pardon, to lead the heist and to take charge of the operation.
Roy drives across the country to a camp in the mountains to meet up with the three men who will assist him in the heist: Louis Mendoza (Cornel Wilde), who works as a clerk in the hotel, plus Red (Arthur Kennedy) and Babe (Alan Curtis), who are already living at the camp. Babe has brought along a dance-hall girl, Marie (Ida Lupino). Roy wants to send Marie back to Los Angeles; but, after some argument, she convinces Roy to let her stay. Roy also is adopted by a small dog called Pard. Marie falls in love with Roy as he plans and executes the robbery, but he does not reciprocate.