Movies - The Petrified Forest

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	Movies - The Petrified Forest

The Petrified Forest (1936) is a predecessor to film noir with an original screenplay by Delmer Daves and Charles Kenyon, from the play by Robert E. Sherwood. It stars Humphrey Bogart as Duke Mantee, Bette Davis as Gabrielle "Gabby" Maple, and Leslie Howard as Alan Squier.

This 1930s drama is set in the Petrified Forest area in northern Arizona (the set constructed for the film mistakenly includes saguaro cacti, which do not grow in the area). Alan Squier, hitchhiking, wanders into a roadside diner. The diner is run by Jason Maple, his daughter Gabby, and her grandfather, "an old man who almost got shot by Billy the Kid."

Gabby's mother, in love with a young handsome American in his military uniform, married Gabby's father. But eventually she found herself living in the remote desert with a "dull defeated man." She moved back to France when Gabby was a young child. She now sends Gabby poetry and her daughter dreams about visiting Bourges one day to study art. Gabby shows Alan her paintings and reads him a favorite Villon poem.

To Alan Squier, who sees himself as a failed writer, Gabby represents the future and he finds her eagerness and optimism both touching and refreshing. When Duke Mantee, "a world famous killer," and his gang appear and hold everyone hostage, Alan eventually makes an arrangement with Duke. With Gabby out of the room, Alan signs over an insurance policy to her and asks Duke to shoot him. "It couldn't make any difference to you, Duke. After all, if they catch you they can hang you only once . . ." And to another character in the play he explains: "Living I'm worth nothing to her. Dead—I can buy her the tallest cathedrals, and golden vineyards, and dancing in the streets."

Even though he had been a huge success in its stage presentation, Bogart was initially not cast in the film version. Instead, Warner Brothers planned to use Edward G. Robinson. (Robinson was under contract to Warners and Bogart was not.) Legend has it that Howard, who was cast as the lead, lobbied Jack Warner to hire Bogart. According to Robert Sklar, however, it was studio politics and Robinson's reluctance to take on another gangster role that resulted in Bogart being cast (Sklar, 1992, pp. 60-62).

Whatever the truth may be, the film doubtless made Bogart's reputation in Hollywood and he remained grateful to Howard throughout his life—naming his daughter after him.

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