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A rundown diner bakes in the Arizona heat. Inside, fugitive killer Duke Mantee sweats out a manhunt, holding disillusioned writer Alan Squier, young Gabby Maple and a handful of others hostage.
As trapped as his captives, Mantee admits: "It looks like I`ll spend the rest of my life dead." The Petrified Forest, Robert E. Sherwood`s 1935 Broadway success about survival of the fittest in the modern world, hit the screen a year later with Leslie Howard (Squier) and Humphrey Bogart (Mantee) magnificently recreating their stage roles and Bette Davis (Gabby) ably reteaming with her Of Human Bondage co-star Howard. Sherwood initially wanted Bogart for a smaller role. "I thought Sherwood was right," Bogart said. "I couldn`t picture myself playing a gangster. So what happened? I made a hit as the gangster." So right was he that Howard refused to make the film without him...and helped launch Bogey`s brilliant movie career.
In uno squallido alberghetto nel deserto dell`Arizona resta bloccato un gruppo di persone disparate; tra breve sopraggiungerà la polizia per catturare un gangster che si nasconde tra di loro. Frattanto si intrecciano dialoghi e viene a galla il carattere di ciascuno. Uno scrittore si fa uccidere e lo stesso bandito si lascia ammazzare senza opporre resistenza. Il regista Mayo riuscì a mantenere intatte le caratteristiche teatrali dell`opera (il film è tratto dall`omonimo lavoro di Sherwood). Bogart, quasi agli esordi, fu efficacissimo, anche se poi dovette aspettare una decina d`anni per affermarsi del tutto.
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Leslie Howard