The Petrified Forest
film by Mayo [1936]
The Petrified Forest, American crime film, released in 1936, that established Humphrey Bogart as a major talent. Although cast in a supporting role, he earned much of the film’s acclaim for his portrayal of the gangster Duke Mantee. Leslie Howard played Alan Squier, a disillusioned intellectual and once-great writer who wanders into a café near Arizona’s Petrified Forest. There he meets Gabby (played by Bette Davis), a young women who longs to move to France and become an artist. The quiet is interrupted by the arrival of Duke Mantee and his thugs, who are on the run from the police. ...(100 of 232 words)