The Petrified Forest
The Petrified Forest is a 1936 American crime drama film directed by Archie Mayo and based on Robert E. Sherwood's 1934 drama of the same name. The motion picture stars Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. The screenplay was written by Delmer Daves and Charles Kenyon, and adaptations were later performed on radio and television. The film is set in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. According to Variety, Warner Bros. filmed two endings. Howard's character dies in one and survives in the other. In May 1945, Warner Bros. released another film based on Sherwood's play, Escape in the Desert. It pits a Dutch flyer walking across country to San Francisco and others against a bunch of escaped Nazi POWs.
Plot
In the midst of the Great Depression, Alan Squier, a failed British writer, now a disillusioned, penniless drifter, wanders into a roadside diner in the remote town of Black Mesa, Arizona, at the edge of the Petrified Forest. The diner is run by Jason Maple, his daughter Gabrielle, and Gramp, Jason's father, who regales anyone who will listen with stories of his adventures in the Old West with such characters as Billy the Kid.
More details
author | Delmer Daves |
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contentLocation | Arizona |
director | Archie Mayo |
editor | Owen Marks |
genre | crime drama |
keywords | american old west billy the kid bourges capture disillusion federal agent first time flee françois villon great depression great depression in the united states hostage situation insurance money insurance policy life insurance move old west on the road paint petrified forest petrified forest national park police pursuit remote town roadside diner the old west their way war bride world war i |
musicBy | Bernhard Kaun |
producer | Hal B. Wallis |
productionCompany | Warner Bros. |
publisher | Warner Bros. |
theme | film noir |