Petrified Forest (2013)

Who can argue that this isn't the greatest collection of classic gangster films ever made?

If you need more proof about how good these are, I have 3 sources that rated these films BEFORE they were released to DVD.

Leonard Maltin (represented by LM, his highest rating is 4 stars),Nick Martin & Marsha Porter (authers of DVD & Video guide represented by DVDG), and All Movie Guide (Represented by AMG).

Let's go Chronologically:

Little Caesar: LM3 1/2; DVDG 3; AMG 5

The Public Enemy: LM 3 1/2; DVDG 4 1/2; AMG 5

The Petrified Forest: LM 3 1/2; DVDG 4 1/2; AMG 4

Angels With Dirty Faces: LM 3 1/2; DVDG 4 1/2; AMG 4 1/2

The Roaring Twenties: LM 3; DVDG 4 1/2; AMG 4 1/2

White Heat: LM 3 1/2; DVDG 4 1/2; AMG 5

If you really look at the ratings (and consider that Maltin uses a 4 star rating system (as opposed to a 5 star)),you will see that the profesional critics rate these as quite high. Let's face it. These are the cream of the Warner gangster library. Another neat thing that was done for the DVD is the Warner Night at the Movies (Similarly done with Yankee Doodle Dandy, Treasures of the Sierra Madre, and the Adventures of Robin Hood also introduced by Leonard Maltin) which gives you the option of viewing the film the way it was in theaters during that year (complete with trailer, news item, short, cartoon, & movie). They all have commentaries by notable historians, and have "Making of" special features (a few which include Martin Scorsese).

The prints are the cleanest I've seen in years (Turner does a top notch job of getting the best available source material).

The sound is above average to good. There are subtitles for the films, and closed captioning. Subtitles in english, french, and spanish.

The bottom line is if you are into this genre, you are going to want to get all 6 of these films (watch them in chronological order, the way the "making of"s are presented is much more rewarding if you do). These are simply the best of the gangster films. Second to none, and (to quote Cagney) "Top of the World".

I've had the advantage of seeing The Petrified Forest as a movie and on stage. Taking into account the fact that the stage production I saw wasn't the greatest, I still think that the movie version captured the story better. The story is dated and clearly belongs in the time period it was made, but that works in the film. The performances also work. Leslie Howard, sort of a forgotten Thirties' star these days, manages to make some difficult dialogue play well. Humphrey Bogart, in an early role as the young gangster, makes his character an interesting and sympathetic figure, despite not having many moments to really develop the character with dialogue. Bette Davis brings a lot of conviction to her role as the young, full of ideas waitress that Howard falls in love with. The Petrified Forest is a hostage drama, but it's more than that. It looks at life, growth, love, and disillusionment. It presents a nice contrast of characters, since Howard and Bogart are both at the end of their roads, having gotten there in very different ways. Bearing in mind that the film/play was written for an audience in the Thirties, today's movie fan will still find truths and entertainment in it.

Buy Petrified Forest (2013) Now

It's interesting to compare the three stars of these movies Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, and Humphrey Bogart and their styles in each of these movies. "Little Caesar" and "Public Enemy" were made when prohibition was still in effect and gangland crime was still a big problem. Thus Robinson and Cagney each play remorseless criminals with no redeeming values whatsoever. Robinson's Rico is less physical than Cagney's Tom Powers, though. You believe that either one of them would shoot you without a second thought. However, Cagney's Powers is scarier because the real fear is that he would beat you to a pulp for the fun of it and THEN shoot you.

"The Petrified Forest" is not your typical gangster film, with Leslie Howard's vagabond being the real star in what amounts to an improbable romance set against the backdrop of the desperation of the Great Depression which the desert setting seems to signify. This 1936 film has Bogart as Duke Mantee, a gangster on the run, in what amounts to a supporting role. However, you do get to see all of the traits that made Bogart great when he got the opportunity to seize the lead in later roles. And to think they almost cast him as the filling station attendant in this one!

In 1938's "Angels with Dirty Faces" and 1939's "The Roaring Twenties" Cagney is again playing the lead gangster and Humphrey Bogart plays a supporting role in both films. With prohibition long over, though, these movies make Cagney's gangster more three-dimensional, showing him to even be a self-sacrificing character at times as well as a killer. Both movies bother to show that had circumstances been a little different, he might not have even become a criminal in the first place.

1949's "White Heat" shows the influence of film noir that was so popular in the 40's an 50's. Here, Cagney's gangster persona has come full circle back to the viciousness of Tom Powers in "Public Enemy". The big difference is that in this film Cagney's mother is no cream puff. She is, in fact, probably a bigger criminal in thought if not in deed than Cagney's Cody Jarrett. This final gangster film of the six shows technology and thus the law gaining on the criminal, with electronic gadgets and undercover lawmen with college degrees in psychology replacing the determined hard-boiled detectives and beat cops of the past. It very much looks forward to the Dragnet series that is to emerge in the 50's.

In summary, this is just a terrific package and basically acts as a complete course on the gangster film as genre. All studios should stand up and take notice of how Warner Home Video put this set together. Highly recommended. The following are the extra features:

The Public Enemy (1931)

Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1931 with Newsreel, Comedy Short: The Eyes Have It, Cartoon: Smile, Darn Ya, Smile, and 1931 Trailer Gallery.

Featurette Beer and Blood: Enemies of the Public

Commentary by Film Historian Robert Sklar

1954 Re-release Foreword

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

White Heat (1949)

Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1949 with Newsreel, Comedy Short: So You Think You're Not Guilty, Cartoon: Homeless Hare, and 1949 Trailer Gallery .

Featurette White Heat: Top of the World

Commentary by Film Historian Drew Casper

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1938 with Newsreel, Musical Short: Out Where the Stars Begin, Cartoon: Porky and Daffy, and 1938 Trailer Gallery.

Featurette Angels with Dirty Faces: Whaddya Hear? Whaddya Say?

Commentary by Film Historian Dana Polan

Audio-Only Bonus: Radio Production with the Film's 2 Stars

Languages: English & French

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Little Caesar (1930)

Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1930 with Newsreel, Spencer Tracy Short: The Hard Guy, Cartoon: Lady Play Your Mandolin, and 1930/31 Trailer Gallery.

Featurette Little Caesar: End of Rico, Beginning of the Antihero

Commentary by Film Historian Richard B. Jewell

1954 Re-release Foreword

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

The Petrified Forest (1936)

Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1936 with Newsreel, Musical Short: Rhythmitis, Cartoon: The Coo Coo Nut Grove, and 1936 Trailer Gallery .

Featurette The Petrified Forest: Menace in the Desert

Commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax

Audio-Only Bonus: Radio Adaptation Starring Bogart, Tyrone Power and Joan Bennett

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1939 with Newsreel, Musical Short: All Girl Revue, Comedy Short: The Great Library Misery, Cartoon: Thugs with Dirty Mugs, and 1939 Trailer Gallery.

Featurette The Roaring Twenties: The World Moves on

Commentary by Film Historian Lincoln Hurst

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

This set was previously just called "The Warner Gangsters". This is that same set just retitled as Volume 1 to correspond with "Warner Tough Guys" being renamed "Warner Gangsters Volume 2", and a new set, "Warner Gangsters Volume 3", to be released in the first part of 2008.

Read Best Reviews of Petrified Forest (2013) Here

What a difference 70 years make. In 1936 THE PETRIFIED FOREST offered theater goes the exciting prospect of the re-teaming of IN HUMAN BONDAGE'S costars Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. Today Howard is practically forgotten and Davis moved on to much more memorable roles. The reason eternity pays heed to this movie is because of the breakthrough performance of the actor who shows up fifth on the cast credits, after not only Howard and Davis but Genevieve Tobin and Dick Foran as well. Although the term is overused, Humphrey Bogart is electrifying as criminal Duke Mantee, and he steals the show and wrestles a movie career in the process. Howard was a world class actor, and I can't remember another instance where Davis wasn't the most interesting character on the screen. For a 30-something stage actor, and a more or less failed film star, to steal a film from these two heavyweights is a staggering achievement. For my money, Duke Mantee stands as one of Bogart's best film performances ever.

The movie is based on Robert Sherwood's hit Broadway play of the same name. Howard plays gentle roustabout Alan Squier, an esthete young man hitchhiking across America, `looking for something to believe in.' The wind shakes him out of the even present dust and deposits him at the isolated Arizona diner young Gabrielle Maple (Bette Davis) runs with her father and grandfather. Davis plays the naïve and romantic and `gabby' young girl stuck in the middle of nowhere who paints and dreams of reuniting with her mother in France and reads the poems of Francois Villon to take the stink of the hamburger and gasoline out of her system. The first act, and much of the second, is used to bud the romance between Alan and Gabby, all the while reminding us that brutal criminal Nick Mantee is on the loose and in the area.

Of course, Mantee finally arrives and Alan presciently announces that `carnage is imminent and I'm due to be among the fallen.' Bogart, who modeled Mantee on real life criminal John Dillinger, then proceeds to lay claim to Hollywood immortality. With his heavy stubble and dark and haunted eyes and stooped shoulders Bogart looks like a hunted beast of a man. More a mono-syllabic killer than `the last great apostle of rugged individualism,' as Alan puts it. Or, as Mantee would say, `Maybe you're right, pal. I couldn't say.'

THE PETRIFIED FOREST never quite shakes it stage heritage. Although commentator Eric Lax (Bogart biographer) tells us in his fact filled and entertaining commentary the tons of dust used on the soundstage, the film spends almost all of its time on one set the interior of the diner and the movie has a pretty static feeling to it as a result.

The print looks and sounds great, by the way. The dvd also has a 15minute feature "Menace in the Desert", in which film historian Alain Silver and others discuss the Robert Sherwood stage play, its conversion to the screen, and the role that set Humphrey Bogart's star. Also included on the disk is the delightful and always welcome Warners Night at the Movie. It opens with a trailer for Bullets or Ballots, an Edgar G. Robinson crime thriller where he plays the good guy. That's followed by "Rhymitis", a dancing short with Hal LeRoy and Toby Wing. It doesn't have much of a plot but it's fun. A modern day alchemist comes up with a pill that makes you want to dance dance dance whenever you hear a beat that can't be beat. Night at the Movies concludes with the color cartoon "The Coo Coo Nut Grove," a take-off on the Coconut Grove nightclub and a lampoon of contemporary Hollywood stars i.e., W.C. Fields as a pig, Katharine Hepburn a horse, etc.

Want Petrified Forest (2013) Discount?

Ah, good ol' Warner Bros. Home Video! If she were a woman, I'd marry her! First, the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, then the Film Noir Classics Collection, and now this!!! I should have known that they would be the ones who would finally bring the often imitated but never duplicated "White Heat" to DVD. Not only that, but we also get two, count 'em TWO of the infamous pre-Hayes Code gangster classics, the two films which singlehandedly founded the entire crime-drama genre, "The Public Enemy" and "Little Caesar"!

"Angels With Dirty Faces" and "The Roaring Twenties" are also terrific films, and I'm really looking forward to seeing all of these cherished treasures of the American cinema rescued from neglect and digitalized for posterity! From what I've heard, Warner has poured their sweat and blood into this set, with commentaries for each film, vintage poster-art keep-cases, and the deluxe treatment that such a fine pack of films deserves. I think I speak for every classic film fan here when I say that January is going to be a darn good month to have a DVD player!

Save 40% Off