The movie poster might point out Leslie Howard and Bette Davis, but the only reason I had even heard of The Petrified Forest was thanks to a coffee table book on Humphrey Bogart. This was Bogart's big break, even if it was a supporting role, and one that nearly never happened. According to legend, when Warner Bros. bought the screen rights to the play of the same name, they had hoped to pair Leslie Howard (who starred in the play, along with Bogart) with another famous actor, like Edward G. Robinson. That wouldn't have been bad, either, but Howard refused to make the movie without Bogart. Forever grateful, Bogart would later name his only daughter Leslie Howard Bogart. Okay, so the back story to The Petrified Forest is pretty fantastic. What about the actual movie?
The Petrified Forest takes place in and around a lonesome diner in Middle of Nowhere, Arizona. The diner is owned and run by the Maple family; Jason (Porter Hall) is the grouchy and mildly incompetent owner, Gabrielle (Bette Davis) is his hard-working but increasingly depressed daughter, and Gramps (Charley Grapewin) seems to be on a mission to talk the ear off anyone who happens by the diner. It's a dreary existence, made even more torturous by Gaby's dreams of becoming an artist in France and the impossibility of that ever happening. One day, Alan (Leslie Howard) wanders in and adds a healthy dose of British charm to the lonely place. Alan, an alcoholic drifter, was once an aspiring writer and had traveled throughout Europe, looking for inspiration. When that didn't work, he went about looking for a reason to live or die and found the diner in his travels. Given the fact that Alan is an artist, British, well-traveled, and charming, you can probably guess the reaction he got from Gabrielle.
Cue giggles and batted eyelashes
Alan knows that he's no good, so he surprisingly does not pursue Gabrielle any further, and instead accepts some charity from her and continues his drifting. That would be that if the car Alan hitched a ride in was not hijacked by the infamous John Dillinger analogue Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart); Mantee and his gang are wanted gangsters with the law on their trail, hoping to get to a predetermined meeting place to join up with the rest of their crew. As luck would have it, that meeting place happens to be Gabrielle's diner. That means that everyone in the diner is the hostage of a desperate criminal. While most people would terrified in this situation, Alan's brain works in a very different way...
The acting in The Petrified Forest is pretty good, although it is limited by the source material. Leslie Howard --- who I don't recall seeing before --- played every note of this performance perfectly. He handles the flowery language of the script naturally, and manages to balance hopeless depression and hopeless romanticism effortlessly. Is it just me, or do Howard and Peter O'Toole have some noticeable similarities in their acting styles? Bette Davis was also good as an innocent girl; I had never seen her play such a pure character before, but she had no difficulty here. Her character's accent and vocal cadence don't make much sense, given her surroundings, but that's a minor gripe. Humphrey Bogart is also very good as Mantee. It's not his acting that wowed me here, though --- it's his voice. I've always liked Bogart's growl, but it felt less polished, more raw and dangerous in this role.
Also impressive: the hate in his eyes
The rest of the supporting cast was fine. The other gangsters didn't really pop out at me. I was amused that Charlie Grapewin clearly took "Frontier Prospector Gibberish" as his main inspiration. Porter Hall did what he does so well; he played a unlikable authority figure. I wasn't too impressed by Dick Foran as Boze; he wasn't bad, but his acting was simply typical of this time period. In other words, it was a little hammy. I was, however, surprised by Genevieve Tobin's monologue toward the end of the film; her character was pretty dull up until that point, but I was genuinely impressed by her speech.
Archie Mayo's direction was only okay, though. The Petrified Forest is based on a play, and the film definitely reflects that. Most of the action takes place off-camera and a large percentage of the movie takes place while the main characters sit at tables in the diner.
Above: scenes 3-27
Mayo handled the actors in the film just fine --- not a huge task, since Howard and Bogart had been in the stage production --- but showed no inclination to differentiate the film and the play. I always find that frustrating with play adaptations. As it stands, this movie can be a little slow at times. It is fifteen minutes before we heard Leslie Howard speak, and forty before we see Bogart or any conflict. That leisurely pace isn't as bad as it sounds; the characters are given the time to breathe and introduce themselves.
...and smoke pipes, and critique art, and...
I enjoyed The Petrified Forest, but it definitely shows its age. This film was released in 1936. It is expected for actors now to mold themselves to fit a role, but it was far less common in those days. As a result, some of the actors come off as too well-spoken or educated for their alleged station in life here. Howard's character has an excuse, but Davis and Foran do not, although Foran tries to play it down a little. There are also little things in the film that stand out sharply now. For example, something that used to be common --- like a drifter wearing a suit, tie and fedora --- is highly unusual now, especially for someone hiking through the American Southwest. And while the film isn't exactly racist, it does play the social difference between a black chauffeur and a black criminal for laughs.
In their defense, it is kind of funny
Despite all that, there is a timeless quality about this movie. A good part of that stems from the story; Alan's character makes a choice that is one of the more unique ones I've seen on film. SPOILER ALERT: Alan asks Mantee to kill him, so his life insurance money can fund Gabrielle's dreams. Most older Hollywood films have had their best bits recycled over and over again, but I don't think I've seen any other character make the same choice since (at least, not with good intentions). That unusual twist alone makes The Petrified Forest worth watching. When you pair it with some of the best idealistic romantic monologuing ever captured on film (courtesy of Leslie Howard), you have a pretty great movie. My personal favorite line was, "Every woman is worth everything you've got to give." Man, that's good stuff.
"Everything? Even bullets?"
It's not perfect and I don't know if it's truly a classic, but I enjoyed The Petrified Forest. It has some proto-noir elements and one of the more interesting romances of the period. Definitely worth a watch.
Look at that movie poster. If you didn't know better, you might suspect that this is kind of like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; a creepy old man falls in love with a little girl, and when he inexplicably de-ages as she ages, their disembodied torsos get to share longing, sex-crazed grins. But you do know better; this is the story of how people dissolve into a yellow background --- and love every second of it! Or not. Miracle on 34th Street is a Christmastime movie classic, but it obviously wasn't advertised as such when it was first released. I don't know why they went to such lengths to hide it (aside from being released in May), because this is a pretty great example of what a holiday movie should be.
Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) is enjoying the Macy's Thanksgiving parade in New York when he happens across the parade's hired Santa Claus; this Santa is sloppy drunk and about to make a fool of himself in front of the children of New York. Kris won't stand for such a slight against the good name of Santa Claus, so he brings this the drunken lout to the attention of Doris (Maureen O'Hara), the parade organizer. With so little time to solve the problem, Doris implores Kris to put on a Santa suit and play the part for the parade. He does, and everyone with a speaking part in the film remarks on what a good job he did.
Santa is a sucker for praise
Kris is so good that Doris hires him to play the part of Santa Claus for the holidays inside the famous New York Macy's department store. And boy, is he great. His methods might be unusual --- he tells customers to shop elsewhere if Macy's doesn't have what they need --- but his friendly attitude and astounding knowledge of toys makes him not only a customer favorite, but an accidentally influential person on the business policies of New York department stores. He is also surprisingly influential on the people he meets. He stirs up a sense of optimism in lawyer Fred Gailey (John Payne), introduces the concept of childhood to Doris' daughter, young Susan (Natalie Wood), and makes the pragmatic Doris consider the importance of life's intangibles.
Like giving a crap about her kid
Of course, that's before anyone realized that Kris actually believes that he's the real Santa Claus, and isn't just a method actor. This revelation, along with Kris giving someone a well-deserved noggin tap with his cane, leads to a sanity hearing. After all, this guy thinks he's the real Santa Claus --- he must be insane. That is, unless Fred can legally prove that Kris is the one and only physical representation of Christmas, derived from a Christian saint, a Dutch folk tale, a poem and a satirical cartoonist.
"He really, really looks like Santa, your honor. I rest my case."
Miracle on 34th Street doesn't really approach the Christmas theme in the same way as most holiday films. While most focus on the importance of family, this one takes a left turn and tries to implore its audience to have faith in things that are obviously ridiculous. If nothing else, it does not take the easy way out. It was interesting seeing a movie show Santa Claus in a real-world environment, handling modern cynicism in a variety of ways, not all of which are saint-like. I really enjoyed the legal angle in the story, too. I'm a sucker for silly arguments, so I thought the courtroom scenes were pretty clever.
The acting is pretty decent, and rarely as schmaltzy as the film's Christmas pedigree might indicate. Maureen O'Hara is okay in the lead, and she plays her logical part with the appropriate amount of cold killjoy-ness. John Payne is also adequate; he doesn't do anything wrong, but his is a fairly generic part that any number of 1940s leading men could have done just as well. Edmund Gwenn is the true star of the film, even though his is only a supporting role. It's difficult to play exceedingly good or nice characters and make them interesting, but Gwenn was a sweetheart that also managed to be convincingly childish and irritable. Plus, he happens to look an awful lot like Santa. This was Natalie Wood's first major role, and she was actually pretty good. Child actors are always a little difficult to judge, but she didn't play a brat, a mischievous genius, or overact. That might not sound like much, but when you consider what passed for child acting at the time, it is more than respectable.
Respectable, I tell you!
The other supporting characters are less impressive, but they are really just props in the story. The only stand-out was veteran character actor Porter Hall, once again playing an unpleasant person, this time as a wannabe psychiatrist with a chip on his shoulder.
Chin up, you've got a pretty decent IMDb resume for a character actor
The direction of George Seaton was pretty standard for the time period. His focus is on telling a story, and he does a good job with it. Seaton also wrote the screenplay, which is fairly clever. Is this a tour de force for acting or direction? Definitely not, but it is a story with a message, and it delivers where so many family films do not. Seaton made a cute, slightly unusual movie in an efficient manner.
Miracle on 34th Street has definitely aged, though. Not all of it is bad; some parts of this film are filled with friendly nostalgia for a time that probably never existed off-camera. Still, there are some awkward moments. The YMCA kid that volunteers to play Santa? He does it A) because he is so fat, he doesn't require padding and B) it makes him "feel important."
Keep sweeping, fatty!
Neither admission earns even a raised eyebrow from Kris Kringle, even though you can use the same points to validate smothering someone with your own body. The drunken "Santa" in the parade was also a little odd. I get that his drunkenness was intended for comic purposes, but the explanation Doris gives little Susan is a little disturbing, something along the lines of "remember when so-and-so did such-and-such?" Great. That's what I needed in my holiday movie: an underlying current of alcoholic abuse. And Fred was occasionally more than a little creepy. He made a point of finding out whether Santa Claus slept with his beard out or under the covers when he went to bed. It's meant to be a little funny throw-away joke, but it made me uncomfortable, as did Kris' nonchalant answer; it's not as intimate as "boxers or briefs" or "manscaped, or untended wilderness" between two strangers who are sharing a room, but a simple "beards are awesome" would have sufficed.
I went into Miracle on 34th Street not expecting a whole lot. I've seen bits and pieces of the various versions of this story before, but never in one sitting that I can remember. It's a surprisingly well-made and charming film. It does have a healthy dose of remarkable coincidences, but they fit the miraculous tone of the story. The laughably fast-paced closing minutes --- whoever heard of dating? --- and Fred's awkward closing lines are the only real problems I had with the movie. In a genre filled with eye-roll-worthy moments, it was a pleasure to see a cute film that didn't overdo it.
