dougdoepke And here I thought the movie was a classic. Well, it is, sort of. That is, a classic of endless talk, talk, talk. That might not be so bad if the dialogue went somewhere. It doesn't. Instead we're treated to 80-minutes of Squier's (Howard) existential crisis. There's hardly a sentence that doesn't drip his maundering meaning-of-life quandary. About half way through I hoped Mantee (Bogart) would do us both a favor: that is, put Johnny-one-note and me out of our misery. But it's not just Squier's caricature. The cast's full of exaggeration, from Grapewin's mercurial grandpa to Foran's muscle-headed footballer. Even Davis's coquette is unlike her usual tough broad-- vulnerable, and dare I say it, almost sexy. At the same time Bogart gets to practice his scowling growl in a one-note that also landed him on Warner's A-list. Now, there may be some profundities lurking somewhere in the endless gab, but why bother searching. It's a little like picking through a pile of coal for a hoped-for pearl. If nothing else, the movie's an object lesson in why some stage plays should remain just that, stage plays. No need to go on, except to say in my many years of movie viewing rarely have I been so disappointed by a supposed classic. What I really wonder is why the impish Carol Burnette Show bothered to lampoon a movie that's already a lampoon.

bensonmum2 I'm not sure about others, but I cannot watch The Petrified Forest and not compare it with Key Largo. Beyond the obvious (Humphrey Bogart), there are several plot similarities. And while I enjoy Key Largo more overall, there are a couple of areas where I think The Petrified Forest does a better job:1. I much prefer Bogart's Duke Mantee to Edward G. Robinson's Johnny Rocco. Both may be real "baddies", but Mantee is a much darker, more effective character. His entrance is fantastic and he comes across as the cold-blooded killer he is. In contrast, I don't find Rocco quite as threatening. Sure, he's a killer, but he has some comedic touches (whether intentional or not) that take away from the character's menace. The Petrified Forest may not be a Bogart movie, but there's no doubting how effective he is.2. Bette Davis is just so good in The Petrified Forest that Laureen Bacall pales in comparison. Davis' wide-eyed, full-of-dreams innocence is perfect. I like Bacall in Key Largo, but she's not in the same league as Davis' Gabrielle Maple.I'm sure other IMDb users will write about deep, philosophical ideas behind the film's desolate setting and heart-breaking ending, but I'm pretty simple. I watch movies to be entertained. And The Petrified Forest never fails to provide entertainment. An 8/10 from me.

mmallon4 When I first watched The Petrified Forest I was at an unsure time in my life; fearful of the future and with my own sense of individualism and artistic ambitions. Watching Leslie Howard as Alan Squier, a failed artist who eventually takes his own life so a young girl could be the artist he never was made me fearful and depressed of what my own future held in store for me. I felt for this character to the point that it hurt because I was worried that someday I could become that character, perhaps not to that extreme but destined to a similar fate. Gabrielle (Bette Davis) on the other hand is stuck in a rut and dreams of going to France. No one in The Petrified Forest has much to look forward to; even the old man played by Charlie Grapewin gets very excited by the prospect of gangsters being nearby. Anything to create some excitement in the middle of the desert, excitement which doesn't wain when he's being held hostage by them. At the time when I watched this film and I was dealing with the uncertainty of if I would ever leave my hometown or would I always be stuck here. Few other films have ever had characters which spoke so directly to me. The atmosphere in The Petrified Forest is intense enough that I can forgive the not so seamless transitions between real-life locations and the sets. With little to no use of non-diegetic music, the sound of a windstorm is more than enough to emphasize the prison of which the characters reside. I also highly recommend checking out Heat Lightning from 1934 which contains many similarities to The Petrified Forest in its setting and atmosphere as well as characters and plot points. The Petrified Forest's most notable contribution to cinema is the breakthrough role of Humphrey Bogart as Duke Mantee, a role in which he has never been more terrifying. I generally don't think of Bogart as an actor who is scary but here he is a guy I would not want to be stuck in an elevator with, even with that distinct walk with his slouch and his arms bent in that manner as the dangle. - In most cases this would look ridiculous by Bogart makes it work. Bogart's acting career had been marred with failure up until this point with this likely being his final chance to make it in Hollywood and no doubt must have fueled his performance. I know a film is good when I have to think and contemplate which actor (Howard or Bogart) gave the better performance. How often do you get to see gangsters and intellectuals involved in such profound conversations? Howard and Bogart play characters whom are worlds apart yet develop a mutual respect for each other as they discover they share a bond with their individualism (also look out for Bogart's head being framed over a moose head so it looks like he has antlers). Fascinating characters (all with such unique dynamics between each other) in a fascinating story is already one of the most important things I could ask for from a movie, even better when they affect me on a personal level.

cricket crockett . . . in a piece that looks ultra low-budget, and rings as false as an Enron stock prospectus. Ashley Wilkes, written up by Margaret Mitchell as the moving force behind the Red States war on the Blue ones, explains here why his side lost: "If I had a gun, I wouldn't know what to do with it." THE PETRIFIED FOREST also indicates WHAT HAPPENED TO BABY JANE: she took her share, and high-tailed it to France. This flick's true confessions drag on for so long we even learn why "Uncle Henry" was so fearful of Elvira Gulch: Billy the Kid once took a couple drunken pot shots at him, and he's been a weak-minded drunk ever since. Perhaps one of Filmdom's biggest questions is why "Rick" is so devil-may-care as he nonchalantly guns done Nazis in CASABLANCA. He joins in playing Truth or Dare here as well, revealing "I spent most of my life since I grew up in jail, and it looks like I'll spend the rest of it dead." While THE PETRIFIED FOREST proves to be a true "Mystery Spot" for solving some of history's greatest riddles, the one thing it cannot explicate is how such a Pretentious, Logorrheaic, Preposterous script got shot in the first place!