Having *just* watched it I'm not sure if 'The Petrified Forest' is a crime thriller, a melodrama, or a comedy. I do know that I laughed all the way through it. The writing is sharp and oddly convincing despite an obvious written-for-the-stage sheen.
Every line that Bogart spits out is a gem, he's virtually radioactive, you can feel his angst through your screen. Leslie Howard and Bette Davis are also very good. Especially hilarious is the interplay between Howard, the wordy, cynical, romantic, failed novelist, and Bogart's terse, mad-dog, killer.
The DVD I saw comes with a news reel from 1936 that drives home the fact that this story was very much "ripped from the headlines" and most likely the contemporary audience didn't watch it with the same ear-to-ear grin that I wore, but it really is desperately funny.
Every line that Bogart spits out is a gem, he's virtually radioactive, you can feel his angst through your screen. Leslie Howard and Bette Davis are also very good. Especially hilarious is the interplay between Howard, the wordy, cynical, romantic, failed novelist, and Bogart's terse, mad-dog, killer.
The DVD I saw comes with a news reel from 1936 that drives home the fact that this story was very much "ripped from the headlines" and most likely the contemporary audience didn't watch it with the same ear-to-ear grin that I wore, but it really is desperately funny.