High Sierra

Released Jan 24, 1941

1h 40m

Crime

Drama

List

92%

26 Reviews

Tomatometer

78%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Aging mobster Big Mac (Donald MacBride) is looking to pull off one more heist before he retires. With his sights set on robbing a California casino, Big Mac breaks one of his former associates, Roy Earle (Humphrey Bogart), out of prison to mastermind the job. When the robbery goes awry, Earle is forced to go on the lam and settles for the night in the hills of the nearby Sierra Nevadas. But, with the cops on his tail, Earle is soon forced to fend off the law from the mountains.

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Steve D

Too hard to care what happens to anyone.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/18/24

Full Review

X O

Why is this film so coveted? I don't get it. Where's the magic? Why is it in the Criterion connection? How Roy pills a gun on the petrol station attendant. I'd laugh like mad of he did they to me. He wouldn't shoot. Watching the car chases with these super old cars that can't handle, and the geat shifting like it's cool It's so funny. It's 1941! These terrible vehicles. How much has changed on 80 years. Then he's in the mountains with his hat. It's so funny. Why don't tbe police go into the mountains? Why doesn't Roy just keep going over the mountains? Why stay there? Keep running! Oh, man. Is it all because of shouting for Marie? That's why it's celebrated? You're joking. What it means to crash out means he's free? That's why? But that's not true. It means he lost. What a joke.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

10/08/23

Full Review

Matthew B

It may not be named as one of Humphrey Bogart's best movies, but High Sierra is certainly one of the most significant films in Bogart's career. This was the film that finally removed Bogart from playing secondary characters and made him a star in his own right. For Bogart, this was not an easy journey. As with many roles that Bogart played at this time, the chance to star as Roy Earle in High Sierra had already been turned down by George Raft, who did not like the ending. James Cagney and Edward G Robinson were also considered. The director Raoul Walsh was reluctant to cast Bogart, because he saw Bogart as a supporting actor, rather than as someone who could hold a lead role. Once there however Bogart proved fortunate. Raoul Walsh was a good director to work under. He had a flair for fast-paced, exciting movies. It was cynically suggested that his films were made quickly because he was in a hurry to finish them. There may have been some truth in this. During the climactic scene in High Sierra, Bogart's stunt double was dissatisfied with his work, and asked for another take. "Forget it," replied Walsh; "It's good enough for the 75-cent customers." Still Walsh took enough care of his films to make his best work memorable. Who can forget the climax of White Heat, the best of all Cagney gangster movies? n retrospect, it is hard to see why it took Humphrey Bogart so long to be recognised as having star value. He was a gentleman, and yet he was also a man with a seething undercurrent of anger beneath the surface. Co-stars reported him to be bad-tempered and complaining. These inner emotional wounds allowed him to play darker characters that were still somehow sympathetic. Bogart was also highly articulate. Somehow it is hard not to imagine that Humphrey Bogart was laconic in his roles. However anyone watching Bogart's movies will find that he is anything but that. He appeared in many movies with literate scripts that required him to act, and he rose to the challenge of delivering complex and interesting dialogue. His emotional range was limited, but within that range he stood out from his co-stars. This is reflected in his character in High Sierra, Roy Earle. Roy Earle is a man who has the germ of a good person in him, but he chooses instead to live a bad life. This proves to be an unfortunate mixture, and he is brought down by his saving graces as much as by his criminal tendencies. There is no room for softness in his line of work. Nonetheless such qualities serve to make Earle a more sympathetic figure than perhaps he should be. I wrote a longer appreciation of High Sierra on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2020/05/14/high-sierra-1941/

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

08/24/23

Full Review

Josh G

Really cool and stylish heist film, one of Bogart finest films, beautifully photographed and full of snappy dialogue. Excited well paced and a classic

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

05/03/23

Full Review

CodyZamboni

Movie is compelling all the way, with Bogart, in his first starring role, as a criminal anti hero, with a moral code, heading for inevitable tragedy. Director Walsh makes sure the movie pushes all right emotional buttons, and he smartly streamlines all the pulpy action.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

07/26/23

Full Review

matthew d

Blame the dog for man's misfortunes. Raoul Walsh's film noir crime drama High Sierra (1941) is as much of a cautionary tale as it is an exercise in empathy. Walsh takes you along for violent bank robberies, tough guy planning, dangerous high speed car chases, and an intimate romance of like-minded individuals yearning for freedom in life. Whereas High Sierra takes its time to really get going, the characters are involving and Walsh's direction is engrossing. I wish it were 10 minutes shorter and better paced for 100 minutes strangely feels long here. Editor Jack Killifer cuts tenderly during conversations with shrewd hard cuts for the crime sequences that are exhilarating. But there's a lot of unnecessary space between scenes that drag the movie down a bit. High Sierra is as cool as they come with a killer crime drama story, but it's not so slick as it seems. Writers John Huston and W.R. Burnett creates a fascinating story of a robbery not intent on redeeming himself, but doing so in the process of helping others. His glory and greed seeking leave a trail of bodies in his wake, but he might have been a better man. I love the main story about Humphrey Bogart's stalwart tough guy bank robber Roy Earle. Bogart was born to smack men around and bark orders with a shifty swagger and mean spirited gravitas. I just wish all the women characters got more development as the men in High Sierra are distractingly sexist and dismissive of every woman as they command their every thought, movement, and feeling. Huston and Burnett attempt to sympathize with their lady characters, but never get to their heart in making them realistic. Ida Lupino is magnificent as a sure getaway driver and eager lover on the run named Marie. She's got nice romantic chemistry with Humphrey Bogart's Roy. I do think she could have gotten more to do, especially when all the other guys feel so functional in nature as she's there to be his reason to live as the rest of the world casts Roy aside without a second thought. I adored the cute little terrier Zero as the feisty and stubborn dog Pard. Willie Best is very funny as the lone black man Algernon with what little he's given to do and what racist belittling dialogue he's given to say. Alan Curtis is such a gross, sexist brute as Babe. Arthur Kennedy is more nuanced as the criminal Red with a bit of layers to him. Joan Leslie is all too happy to sucker Bogart's Roy out of money for her foot operation, then tragically feels like she doesn't love him, then departs on a cruel moment of selfish rejection in a wicked dramatic scene I loved seeing. Henry Hull is fun as the chipper Doc Banton. Henry Travers is so funny and pleasant as the old farmer Pa. Cornel Wilde is great as the fearful inside man Louis Mendoza. Donald MacBride is great as the elderly gang leader Big Mac, whose ill condition and desperation for money lets him hire unreliable amateurs and two-faced rats. Tony Gaudio's cinematography captures mountain ranges and cars swerving across the road in equal grace. I love his medium and close-up shots that get to the heart of these tragic crime characters. Adolph Deutsch composes a beautiful and cool score for High Sierra that captures the loving melodies and harsh intensity of a fast living crime life. In all High Sierra is a great film noir classic that mostly holds up. Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino are worth seeing on screen together.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Raoul Walsh

Director

Humphrey Bogart

Roy"Mad Dog" Earle

Ida Lupino

Marie Garson

Alan Curtis

"Babe" Kozak

Arthur Kennedy

"Red" Hattery

Joan Leslie

Velma "Pat" Baughmam

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George Orwell

Time and Tide

For anyone who wants the ne plus ultra of sadism, bully-worship, gun-play, socks on the jaw and gangster atmosphere generally, this film is the goods.

Oct 2, 2023

Full Review

Brian Susbielles

InSession Film

A smash for director Raoul Walsh...

Feb 28, 2023

Full Review

James Kendrick

Q Network Film Desk

a pivotal crime film that took the basic components of the gangster film and reimagined them through a more romanticized, emotional lens

Rated: 3/4

Feb 2, 2022

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Roy Earle proves to be one of the most sympathetic criminals in film history, which means his inevitable downfall takes on a tragic dimension not usually found in crime flicks

Rated: 4/4

Nov 13, 2021

Full Review

Danielle Solzman

Solzy at the Movies

High Sierra is a solid gangster movie and a breakthrough showcase for Bogart's leading capabilities.

Oct 11, 2021

Full Review

Robin Holabird

Robin Holabird

Co-written by John Huston and directed by Raoul Walsh, the combination of gangster and film noir elements holds up well; predictable by genre standards but featuring top-notch talent.

Aug 10, 2021

Full Review

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Synopsis

Aging mobster Big Mac (Donald MacBride) is looking to pull off one more heist before he retires. With his sights set on robbing a California casino, Big Mac breaks one of his former associates, Roy Earle (Humphrey Bogart), out of prison to mastermind the job. When the robbery goes awry, Earle is forced to go on the lam and settles for the night in the hills of the nearby Sierra Nevadas. But, with the cops on his tail, Earle is soon forced to fend off the law from the mountains.

Director: Raoul Walsh
Producer: Hal B. Wallis
Screenwriter: W. R. Burnett, John Huston
Distributor: Warner Home Vídeo, Warner Bros., MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc., Warner Bros. Pictures, Key Video
Production Co: Warner Brothers
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 24, 1941, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 21, 2016
Runtime: 1h 40m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: 35mm, Flat (1.37:1)

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