Movie Review: High Sierra

“I was flipping through my TV tonight and came across a movie called High Sierra. My onscreen guide said it was a Humphrey Bogart movie about a gangster who robs a hotel and then hides out at Mt. Whitney. That caught my attention, so I thought I would give it a try.

Bogart is using "Sam's Camp", a sportsmans camp near Whitney, as their planning base. Nothing special about this, just a bunch of rustic cabins. Besides this, Whitney really plays no part in most of the film. Bogart bounces back and forth between LA and Sam's Camp during the planning of the heist.

So Bogart finally knocks off the fancy hotel somewhere in the desert. If I had paid attention more and studied my California geography, I probably could provide a location for it. He goes on the run with the police searching the whole state for him. He finally gets spotted and the police chase is on.

At around 80 minutes into the 100 minute film, the car chase ends up in Lone Pine. I tried to look for the Dow Villa, but I didn't see it. The film was shot in 1941, so the Dow should have been hopping then.

Since the movie needed a little tension, Bogart does the smart thing and tries to outrun the police by driving the road up to Whitney. At this point I was thinking to myself, is he actually going to run up and over Whitney to escape the police? Well, I was wrong. The road finally stops and Bogart runs up the side of the mountain a few hundred yards and finds a secure hiding space in the rocks. At this point I felt a little cheated because I realized that Bogart was going to hide out on the SIDE of Mt Whitney. So, Mt Whitney actually had no real meaning to the movie. What a rip off!!!

Bogart continues to hide out on the SIDE of Mt Whitney, finds out that his girlfriend is waiting with the coppers below, gets a little weepy eyed, yadda yadda yadda, a sniper take Bogart out with a single shot.

According to IMDB and Turner Classic Movies, this movie is suppose to cause a big upswing in Bogart's popularity. The movie also is suppose to break the mold for gangster movies of the era.

My conclusion, the title High Sierra and Mt. Whitney references probably don't mean anything to the casual viewer, but to an outdoors person, the are totally misleading.

I guess I will just have to wait for more realistic camping movies like Without a Paddle.
last edited: 7/29/06 7:41:15 PM”

“I saw that and was not in the mood for an old movie. Glad I didn't watch. Thanks Matt.

Without a Paddle was juvenile but funny.”

“High Sierra isn't too bad, if you don't mind a little melodrama.

Check out The Petrified Forest for the role that really got Bogie rolling. Supposedly they were considering someone else for the role of Duke Mantee, but the main star of picture, Leslie Howard, said that unless they hired Bogie, he wouldn't do the movie.”