High Sierra (3)

I was told by a fan "They don't make films like this anymore" but after seeing it, I can see why they don't make films like this any more. It is just bad; come to think of it, they unfortunately still do make plenty of films like this. It is only a 3 (I watched it all, but it was a very hard thing to do).

A criminal who is released from prison joins a gang to rob a hotel. Roy Earle (Humphrey Bogart) is the tough mean guy who woman transform into soft focus for. In the getaway some of the gang die, and the police find out that it was him who carried out the robbery. Struggling for cash, Earl, his new girlfriend and their dog try to evade the police. In the end, Earl is in a desperate police cash across the Sierra mountains.

The story is simple enough, but there just so many things I didn't like the characters. First of Earl is supposedly shown being nice but all the his doing is helping a family who young daughter he fancies - he must be about 40 plus, she is only 20 but acts 10 (at first I really thought that she was retarded). Sexism is rife throughout out the film, as well some racial stereotyping too that is now just so wrong. Earl is an unkind, and worst of all, an uninteresting character. All the other characters revolve around him so there's next no story to them either.

So why didn't I fast forward trough this film and giving it 2? There were moments of promise and potential. Earl is supposed to be some washed out criminal - there is some reminiscing with the good line "..you twerps, soda jerkers and twitterbugs..." when talking about the young - yet this theme was nothing more than a fleeting whisper. When I resumed watching (yes, I stopped, for two days!) the second half became an interesting "run from the police" storyline, but it still couldn't make up for the dismal first.