The Big Picture

Prior to 1941’s
High Sierra,
Humphrey Bogart was primarily known as a supporting actor.
Bogart’s performance as a complex gangster with a heart of gold, was layered and nuanced, establishing him as a leading man.

High Sierra
shows Bogart’s Roy Earle as the quintessential anti-hero yearning for freedom.

In the 1941 film noir, High Sierra, Humphrey Bogart takes on a significantly darker role as celebrity bank robber Roy Earle, a departure from his usual tough guy with a heart of gold roles. The film transports audiences to a glitzy and decadent California, replacing the typically gritty life of the genre with easy living and healthy spas, a stark contrast that adds depth to the narrative. Hemmed up in an aging gangster’s bid for one last job and sprung from jail prematurely, Earle finds himself embroiled in an ill-fated heist of one of California’s most popular health spas. Bogart’s portrayal of Earle is complex and nuanced, showing his vicious side as a ruthless criminal in High Sierra, which also starred Ida Lupino as Marie Garso and was directed by Raoul Walsh. Bogart brings his hard-boiled sensibilities to the role of Roy Earle, whose love for the little guy and desire for freedom make him the quintessential American anti-hero.

High Sierra After being released from prison, notorious thief Roy Earle is hired by his old boss to help a group of inexperienced criminals plan and carry out the robbery of a California resort.Release Date January 23, 1941 Director Raoul Walsh Cast Ida Lupino , Humphrey Bogart , Alan Curtis , Arthur Kennedy , Joan Leslie , Henry Hull Runtime 100 Main Genre Crime Studio Warner Bros.

What Is ‘High Sierra’ About?
Bankrobber Royal Earle is sprung prematurely from a life sentence in prison by his well-connected gangster pal Big Mac (Donald MacBride) for one last big job. The aging gangster isn’t doing so well, according to his mob doctor “Doc” Banton (Henry Hull). He’s in bed with an ailing stomach, deficient kidneys, and a heart threatening to explode from his years of excess. So, from his deathbed, Big Mac pulls some strings to get the old band back together for one last heist, targeting that bucolic retreat for Hollywood muckety-mucks in the mountains of Tropico Springs in the awe-inspiring Sierra Nevada mountains. The two have that easy-going respect that aging war dogs seem to have for each other, a reverence for each other’s skills made more potent by their nostalgia regarding their past crimes. No doubt about it, Roy Earle is gangster number one, with a fearsome reputation and a heart of gold.

Roy’s flunkies, the lumbering Babe Kozak (Alan Curtis) and the plucky Red Hattery (Arthur Kennedy), regard him with both admiration and hostility. Babe is jealous of Roy, whose fame and good looks have caught the attention of his former taxi dancer girlfriend, Marie. In response, he resorts to physically assaulting Marie to prove how much of a big man he is. Red regards Roy as a celebrity, nearly giddy with excitement as he recounts Roy’s past capers, eventually coming to blows over Babe’s jealousy. Roy, however, employs some of his vicious trade to keep them in line. Marie, of course, falls in love with Roy, and it is easy to see why. Roy is a complicated man; though fearsome, his country boy roots soften his hard edges and hint at a heart of gold. He feels a deep connection to his kind of people, country people, and this is why he pays the money to have Velma’s (Joan Leslie) clubfoot fixed after bumping into her on the road to California – equal parts saint and love-sick fool. But Velma spurns his advances and leaves him in the lurch for another man, and the audience watches Roy’s heart blacken just a little before he leaves her bedside dejected.

Humphrey Bogart Is a Gangster With a Heart of Gold in ‘High Sierra’

There are two distinct sides to the character of Roy Earle. The first is the bank robber – ‘Mad Dog’ Earle, a viscous badass with a mean streak who won’t be hesitant to knock out a stool pigeon or open fire at the cops. He is particularly menacing when he is putting on his bad-guy persona. Take, for example, his chilling warning to Louis Mendoza (Cornel Wilde), the clerk from the hotel and inside man on the job. Marie, in an attempt to endear herself to Roy, warns him about Mendoza’s weak character, and Roy decides to tell Mendoza a story about the time they killed a “rat” in his former crew. He is terrifying and menacing, his eyes narrowed to slits in reptilian coldness, much to the delight of his fellow gangsters. He’s equally mean when imprisoning a curious farmer who is determined to collect the reward money the cops are offering by turning Roy in after their botched heist. Roy’s sympathy for country folk turns sharply on its head as ‘Mad Dog’ Earle bears his nasty teeth and bludgeons that poor farmer unconscious.

Related One Role Forever Changed How Hollywood Saw Humphrey Bogart Humphrey Bogart’s performance in this tragic role gave Hollywood exactly what it didn’t expect.

The other side is the irreverent country boy who, upon release from prison, walks in a park to watch the children play and see if “the grass and trees are still growing.” He looks pleased walking through nature and later stops by his old family farm to see what has become of the place while on his way to the job. He encounters a farmer he doesn’t recognize until Roy tells a child, reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn, carrying a fishing pole that he could catch four-pound catfish just a few ways away. Bogart is misty-eyed, and the longing for the pastoral splendor of rural life dances just behind the actor’s eyes, melancholy because he can never go home again, being who he is now. That childlike innocence is on display in his tenderness toward Velma as he holds her hand and waxes poetic about the nature of the stars and earth in a beautiful scene under a twinkling sky. Roy wants to be loved, to love, take his ill-gotten gains, and live a quaint country life, and it is this complexity, this balance between good and evil, that Bogart brings to the role that makes Roy such a wonderful character.

Humphrey Bogart Wasn’t Director Raoul Walsh’s First Choice For The Role Of Roy Earle in ‘High Sierra’

Bogart was so interested in playing the role of a doomed gangster that he talked its original actor, George Raft, out of the role. He even went as far as petitioning director Raoul Walsh for the lead, who saw Bogart only as a supporting actor – a potential star yet to be recognized by the studios, according to the director’s autobiography, Each Man In His Lifetime. This is also why Lupino was billed over Bogart as the film’s star; she had more name appeal at the time. However, Bogart delivered a truly masterful performance. There is a complexity to Earle’s character that makes this portrayal stand out from other gangster pictures of the era. Earle is a farm boy turned bank robber, driven by necessity rather than greed. His country’s sensibilities are overshadowed by the glamour and money of a booming California, forcing him to take the path of an outlaw to a significant dramatic effect.

Bogart is almost universally appreciated for his heroic roles, and it is no wonder that the actor would cajole his way into the cast in what would be a fantastic way to break type. The heroism of Bogart’s Earle continually bumps up against his anti-social tendencies, and this inner conflict makes him such an interesting character. The audience is rooting for the bad guy in this film. As the cops close in, Roy bravely shoots it out from his position hidden in the mountains, in a noir spin on an old wild west showdown motif, where the beleaguered Earle finds some freedom up there, bleeding to death in the mountains. It isn’t a sweet ending, but a fitting ending for a gangster whose unbreakable spirit is a beautiful albeit twisted rendition of the American dream.

High Sierra is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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