LeonLouisRicci Beginning in the Early Fifties Movie Studios discovered that they needed something, anything to pry Audiences from their Living Rooms and that Hypnotic Box called Television. It was not going to be an easy task. Well, they decided, we at least can give them Color and widen the Screen to seemingly endless Vistas.So they thought adding WarnerColor and Cinemascope was enough to cheat a little and remake a virtual Scene by Scene, Line by Line Movie called High Sierra (1941), a famously popular Bogart Movie Directed by Raoul Walsh. Despite a strong Cast it was not to be. Most of the Players are unremarkable and some like Lee Marvin are totally wasted barely registering. The whole thing seems uninspired and has very little Life and if you have seen the original this one will make you feel a little cheated. Its not Bad it just has no reason to exist.

Dfree52 To begin with, I haven't seen HIGH SIERRA in years, though I do remember most of it. Therefore, I was able to watch it with an objective eye, not constantly comparing the two films.It does offer panoramic vistas of the mountains and the desolate surroundings. I think the leads, particularly the love triangle of sorts (Marie is involved in two) are to me what sets it's apart from HIGH SIERRA.SPOILER AlERT We know that Marie (a very good Shelley Winters) is a fallen angel. She's a dance hall girl who's run off to the mountain cabin resort with Babe (Lee Marvin) as the gang Red (Earl Holliman) awaits the right time to pull off it's caper once Roy (Jack Palance) arrives and assumes leadership. But Marie isn't going to be anybodies girl, she's the prize of the Alpha Male of the bunch. Even though he repeatedly tells her he doesn't want her around, lust finally wins out.In the second triangle, Marie finally meets her rival, the presumed virginal Velma, a young woman whom Roy's opened up a new life for but springing for surgery to correct a club foot. Though Velma's previously rejected him and he's on the lam, he drops in one more time. Interesting that Velma is dancing up a storm with her young friends and Marie begins to wiggle around suggesting this is the proper way to dance (and maybe do other things)? Velma is Roy's embodied fantasy, a life he's longed for while languishing for years in prison. Though, her second rejection is callous, the second time a woman tells you to get lost usually is. He fools himself into believing he can have her and provide that kind of life. He rejects, then warms to Marie because she's a reflection of him...cheap, unrefined, desperate and living for the moment.Palance reveals both Roy's foolish sentimentality and his vicious streak. When he confronts Babe for slapping Marie, he takes great pleasure in beating the daylights out of him. This act, just like in the animal world, where the strongest males will fight over who gets the female(s) confirms not only Roy's place, but Marie's too. Palance is more brutal than Bogie (who's Roy was only violent when necessary). Palance will back hand a man, rather than speak to him.These factors I feel were better expressed here.

CTfans This is a remake of High Sierra with Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lapino. Not quite as good as the original, although it has obviously talented, and great actors. It makes you wonder why they would remake a classic like High Sierra with minimal changes just 14 years later. One interesting difference between the original and this movie... In High Sierra Willie Best plays a stereotypical comical black man (Algernon) in a servile role at the camp. The remake had a comical Hispanic (Chico) played by Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez. Both are incredibly insulting by current standards. It makes you wonder about the changes in the culture from 1941 to 1955.

dbdumonteil The problem with this movie with such a beautiful title is that it is a remake ,nay a re-remake, if we remember that Raoul Walsh remade his "High Sierra " as a western ," Colorado Territory", which almost surpassed the original Film Noir.The most interesting side of the screenplay (in the three versions)is the Roy/Vilma relationship ,which reminds you of one of king Lear's daughter.Vilma is one of those rare characters whose behavior is thoroughly unpredictable :who could believe that the sweet tender romantic girl watching the stars in the sky at night would turn into the vulgar gal dancing the night away with her snob new pals?In "Colorado territory" ,Vilma (Julie Ann)even tries to give her benefactor away to the marshal to get the reward !Vilma ,as far the hero is concerned,means a conventional life ,with a housewife ,all that Mary (Shelley Winters) can't give to him;the actress is as good as usual but Ida Lupino was more moving in "High Sierra".Jack Palance,cast against type ,does a good job too,but it is not easy to take ona Humphrey Bogart's part.