I have long wanted to watch The Petrified Forest, because it stars the elegant, languorous Leslie Howard, he of the high forehead, the foregone front-runner for Ashley Wilkes.
Gary has been on a Humphrey Bogart kick lately too, so this was all up in our demographic.
Sadly, I hated it. I might have enjoyed it more had I not been distracted by Baby Boy Bogart, in his first big role, who sounded as if he were in a high-school play.
And his arms. Why?
Now that I look it up online I read that he was positioning his arms like someone who was accustomed to being in shackles. I’m sure that was a nicety all the convicts in the audience in 1936 appreciated.
This moved so slowly that I longed for the action scenes – and you know I tend to fall asleep in action scenes. Typical action scene in the last half: Bogart points a gun at Howard. Howard talks about art for five minutes. Bogart does not shoot him. So disappointing.
Not as disappointing as (almost) guessing the ending to Les Diaboliques, but close.