"The Petrified Forest" at the time of this review is 71 years old. It has some painted outdoor sets, a very young, pretty Bette Davis, with Humphrey Bogart and Leslie Howard repeating their stage roles as, respectively, a Dillinger type criminal and an idealistic dreamer. It's less a film than a filmed play - and it's obviously a play, by Robert Sherwood. And guess what, it holds up with some wonderful acting and surprisingly refreshing themes.

Davis is Gaby Maple, who works in the desert café owned by her grandfather. It's there that she waits on Alan, who speaks loftily and listens to her dreams of leaving the hated Arizona desert, joining her mother in France and becoming an artist. In a short time, they fall for one another, but Alan has to move on. He hitches a ride with a wealthy man and his wife, the Chisholms, but on the way out of the desert, they run into the escaped murderer Duke Mantee and his gang, whose car has broken down. They steal the Henderson's car. While their chauffeur is attempting to fix the Mantee vehicle, Alan realizes that Duke and the gang are heading toward the café, and he walks back there. There, Duke holds everyone hostage, including the returning Chisholms, during which time, Alan comes to an important decision about Gaby, himself, and what his life means.

The film has two unusual aspects, the first being the surprising treatment of the black characters. One of the black men is part of Duke's gang and an equal member of it. When the chauffeur asks his boss if it's okay to have a drink, the gang member scoffs at his subservience. "Haven't you heard about the new liberation?" he asks him, shoving a drink in his hand. The second aspect is Mrs. Henderson's feminist counseling of Gaby. Mrs. Henderson urges Gaby not to suppress her dreams for someone else, in this case her grandfather, but to become an individual and know who she is and what she wants. She explains that she was in Europe and offered a stage role by the great Max Reinhardt, but acquiesced to her parents when they demanded she return to the states. She is now unhappily married to a selfish man and has no identity of her own. This is 1936, and acquiescing to what one's family expected of you and losing yourself in your husband's identity went on long, long after that.

Unlike today's films, "The Petrified Forest" is rich in dialogue with only a few action scenes. Nevertheless, it holds one's interest due to acting and wonderful atmosphere of this broken-down café with the wind whipping outside.

With his finely drawn, handsome features and British accent, Leslie Howard excelled at playing dreamers and philosophers, culminating in his role as Ashley Wilkes in "Gone With the Wind." As Alan, he's above it all, speaking of poetry and art to the wide-eyed Gaby and throwing even Duke Mantee off-balance. Mantee was Bogart's breakout film role, and he's fantastic. He studied John Dillinger's mannerisms to prepare for his stage role. Here he's fierce and angry as a man who knows he hasn't got a chance in hell of making it to Mexico but he's going to go down fighting. As Gaby, Davis conveys the character's fantasies, hope for the future, naive ambition, and love for Alan. Neither one of them belong in the desert, but while Alan is through with life's struggles, and Duke knows he's about to be through, Gaby is looking forward to them. Like the gas jockey who's in love with her (Dick Foran) she's willing to take risks for what she wants. Mr. Chisholm, the fat cat, just hopes nothing upsets his status quo. Mrs. Chisholm is stuck but vicariously roots not only for Gaby but Duke and Alan.

Allegorical in its themes, with no special effects, "The Petrified Forest," its title referring to the nearby dead forest where several characters are figuratively heading, is a real treat for lovers of classic film, classic actors, and our country's history of depression and classism. I treasured every minute of it.

Directed by Archie Mayo, "The Petrified Forest" gave a tremendous boost to Bogart's screen career by providing him with a ready-made showcase for his talent…

The movie was a very faithful adaptation of the play as it told of a group of diverse personalities who find themselves held at bay in a small service-station-restaurant by a ruthless gunman and his gang on the run from pursuing police… There were heavily symbolic overtones involving the overrunning of the doomed intellectuals by corruptive brute force…

Into this truly fragile framework, the screenplay weaves a tapestry of penetrating character studies… First there is Alan Squier (Leslie Howard),a disillusioned writer and intellectual who realizes he is a member of a vanishing breed of men whose visions of a Utopian existence have given way to the oppressive realities of a world that no longer has any room for his type of dreamer… Frustrated and quietly despairing, he meets a dreamer of another type, Gabrielle Maple (Bette Davis). She shares Squier's love of beauty and poetry and dreams of fleeing her repressing entrapment at the restaurant and traveling to France…

Into their world of fanciful idealism enters Humphrey Bogart—the reality, the brute force which threatens not only the dreamers but all of society… It is a finely truthful portrait of ultimate evil, magnificently played by Bogart with all the uncompromising ferocity the role demanded… It was one of Bogart's finest portrayals and it was the model, although considerably restrained, he would follow for the next years of his career…

Final note: Duke Mantee was a killer on the run… He was not a big-shot businessman… The assumption put into the audience's mind was that this mobster was a bank robber, a hold-up artist, an escaped convict... but never a wealthy criminal controlling an empire of corruption from plush offices on the 18th floor…

Approximately twenty years later, Bogart recreated his original role in a television production of "The Petrified Forest." Directed by Delbert Mann, the play featured Lauren Bacall in the Davis role and Henry Fonda in Howard's part... After all those years, Bogart still had the character down perfectly and received excellent notices

By today's standards, this is a pretty silly movie--particularly the character played by Leslie Howard--particularly as the movie concludes. The events are quite gripping and entertaining, but the viewer cannot possibly believe this a REAL in any way, as the performances and plot are pretty far-fetched. Plus, when watching this it is very easy to believe that this was first a stage production--as the action is mostly confined to the restaurant and it looks like it was filmed in a sound stage. However, this is NOT necessarily a horrible thing. There are lots of movies from this era that you KNOW couldn't possibly occur but they are still fun to watch. Humphrey Bogart's gangster, though unrealistic, is fun to watch and makes the movie worth watching. Bette Davis, also, does a fine job playing the wistful young lady who longs to see the world.