Christy, Oddly enough I purchased the Warner Archive release of TCN and haven't gotten around to watching it, in spite of the fact that is definitely in my top five list and that I've only seen three or four times a so-so bootleg print I bought to a private collector several years ago -and which I shared with many pals-, and I used to yearn for the release of a decent print!
Love High Sierra. Roy Earle is one of the few Bogart characters I find truly romantic and attractive. More so even than Rick. And I love Ida and him together.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education." -- Will Rogers
I agree, Miss Goddess. The scenes that caught me this time were right after the one where Roy goes to see Velma dance.... and sees how sordid she has become, or maybe was all the time.
He goes back to the car and he and Marie sit there. He stares up into the sky, again that Sierra sky, and she says "You don't love her anymore do you?" and he says "No. But you already knew that." Later he gives her the ring from Big Mac's take, but his heart isn't in it, he's just being kind. He "puts it on the wrong finger" as Marie says. Do you think he meant it as an engagement ring?
Roy is a dreamer and Marie is a dreamer. Roy wants to go back to his childhood, a clean time, which is why he goes for Velma, but you can't go home again. We come to realize that somehow, he and Marie are cleaner inside than the life they lead or the people they meet outside their own company.
Marie hitches her heart to Roy. It's a heartbreakingly losing proposition
The heart and the head are seldom in agreement. Aint love grand!
you can't go home again
And you can't go any higher than the top of a mountain. It may be surrounded by open sky, but you're still stuck in a corner. Nowhere to turn. A most poetic gangster film!
I agree wholeheartedly, Miss G. Roy Earle is one of Bogart's most romantic leading men. One reason he is so attractive is that Ida makes him so by her response to him.
And Jackie and Red River, having the climax to a ganster film anywhere other than a dingy alley, or a dusty motel room is a refreshing turn away from the run-of-the-mill...
what was the Joan Blondell movie, with HB as a director, who carried a small dog around with him all the time? That was his dog, also. Saw the movie last summer, Joanie Day, and really liked the movie, but drawing a total blank....
I haven't seen it in ages, Theresa. When I was a kid it was on television ALL the time, like Trade Winds. Just saw Sadie Thompson for the first time in many years. I should put something on the Walsh thread, but I don't have too much of a positive nature to say about it.
You're in luck Bob, and Nancy, if you want to re-visit the film:
12:00 AM
STAND-IN (1937)- An efficiency expert tries to streamline operations at a Hollywood studio. Dir: Tay Garnett Cast: Leslie Howard, Joan Blondell, Humphrey Bogart. BW-90 mins, TV-G, CC.
This will be aired at midnite, the morning of July 3rd, Wednesday. I haven't seen it since last year, but I've gotta tell you, I loved this wacky zany tale of Hollywood. Everyone was on their game, and your girl is in it, Joanie Blondell. But the surprise to me was Howard; never a really big fan of his, my opinion changed after seeing him this movie.