The petrified forest
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The petrified forest |
| Original title | The Petrified Forest |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1936 |
| length | 79 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Archie Mayo |
| script |
Chales Kenyon , Delmer Daves |
| production |
Henry Blanke for Warner Brothers |
| music | Bernhard Kaun |
| camera | Sol Polito |
| cut | Owen Marks |
| occupation | |
| |
The Petrified Forest (Original: The Petrified Forest ) is a feature film by Archie Mayo with Leslie Howard , Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart from 1935. It is based on the play of the same name by Robert E. Sherwood . The film premiered on February 6, 1936.
action
During the Great Depression in a remote petrol station in the Arizona desert , near the famous "Petrified Forest" : One day, the destitute and romantic drifter Alan appears there - a once ambitious but now unsuccessful writer from England, who after a liaison with a rich man Patron in France has traveled to the USA and wants to cross the country as a tramp. The gas station is run by Jason Maple, his daughter Gabrielle and the elderly grandfather, who likes to tell stories from the Wild West and his encounters with Billy the Kid . Gabrielle is the daughter of a French woman who has since returned to her home country and who her father met in France during the First World War.
Gabrielle falls in love almost immediately with Alan, who is a man of the world for her with his cultured demeanor. She shows Alan the paintings she has made of the rugged desert landscape and reads him a poem from her volume by François Villon , which her mother sent her from France for her birthday. Alan also learns that the frustrated Gabrielle would like to travel to Bourges , where her parents once met, and want to become an artist. But she does not get rid of her obligations at the gas station. Meanwhile, the gas station attendant Boze Hertzlinger, a former football player with strong muscles, becomes jealous of Alan for having courted Gabrielle for a long time. Alan finally decides to leave the gas station and lets the wealthy Chisholm couple take him away. But only a few miles later, the Chisholms' car is stopped by the escaped gangster Duke Mantee and his accomplices. Duke and his gang take the Chisholm's car and drive to the gas station, where Duke is waiting for his lover, who is supposed to come by with other gang members soon. Because of a sandstorm, Alan and the Chisholms will soon have to find shelter in the gas station.
Dramatic conversations develop over the course of the night between the gangsters and the people detained in the gas station. This is how Mrs. Chisholm tells her life story and it becomes clear how unfulfilled her marriage actually is. Alan calls himself and Duke soulmates as both would be among the last specimens of real individualism , destined to perish soon. Like the Petrified Forest near the gas station, he, Alan, is a relic from the past, whose ideals and thoughts are now as dead as the forest outside. Meanwhile, Boze tries to outsmart Duke when he is distracted for a moment. But he is too hesitant and Duke can shoot Boze in the hand. While Gabrielle, who dreams of a future together with Alan, is treating the gas station attendant, Alan makes an unusual request to the gangster: Alan takes out his high-quality life insurance and agrees with Mantee that he will shoot her so that Gabrielle can enjoy his life insurance comes and she can fulfill her wishes like the trip to France and the artist career. Since he is completely destitute and broken with life, this is the only way for him to prove his love for Gabrielle. Alan asks to bury his body in the Petrified Forest nearby.
Through a radio announcement, Duke learns that his lover has been caught and the gang has betrayed the police. This allows the police to locate Duke and a violent shooting ensues. Duke wants to flee and use the Chisholms as human shields. Alan stands in his way and, as agreed, is shot by Duke. The writer dies in the arms of Gabrielle, knowing that she can now fulfill her dreams. Duke Mantee is caught by the police shortly afterwards.
background
The exciting and oppressive atmosphere of the film is mainly created by the tight time frame (one day) and the few locations (almost exclusively the gas station and its guest room) as well as the manageable number of people involved. The characters of the main actors are worked out intensively.
A year earlier, the play had already run successfully as a theater play on Broadway , also with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart in their respective roles. Warner Brothers acquired the filming rights and also wanted to film with Howard in the lead role. Bogart, little known to the film audience - his 12 film appearances so far were supporting roles and had no major response - was to be replaced in the film adaptation by the star Edward G. Robinson . After all, Bogart owed his role in the film adaptation to Leslie Howard, who was impressed by his fellow actor's performance on Broadway. As the star of the film, Howard, who was already famous at the time, insisted, contrary to the intentions of the producers, that Bogart also play the role of gangster Duke Mantee in the film. For Bogart, The Petrified Forest meant the breakthrough in Hollywood and he got a permanent contract with Warner Brothers. Bogart named his daughter Leslie, born in 1952, after his fellow actor (Howard had since died in a plane down during World War II).
The plot was remade for television in 1955 with Bogart in the role of gangster. The role of Alan Squier was taken on by Henry Fonda and the role of Gabrielle Maple by Lauren Bacall .
Another “Bogart film” is very similar in its plot and the portrayal of the characters: Gangsters in Key Largo . Here, too, a smaller group of people is held captive by gangsters in a remote location (this time a hotel on Key Largo) and the action is limited to around 24 hours. This time Bogart plays the positive hero and Edward G. Robinson is now allowed to play the gangster who, according to the producers, should have mimed in 1935.
synchronization
The German dubbed version was created in 1964 at Berliner Synchron under dialogue direction by Klaus von Wahl with a dialogue book by Fritz A. Koeniger .
| role | actor | German Dubbing voice |
|---|---|---|
| Alan Squier | Leslie Howard | Sebastian Fischer |
| Gabrielle "Gabby" Maple | Bette Davis | Heidemarie Theobald |
| Duke Mantee | Humphrey Bogart | Jan Hendriks |
| Mrs. Chisholm | Genevieve Tobin | Elisabeth Ried |
| Boze Hertzlinger | Dick Foran | Horst Niendorf |
| Grandfather Maple | Charley Grapewin | Gerd Prager |
| Father Jason Maple | Porter Hall | Konrad Wagner |
| Gangster Jackie | Joe Sawyer | Holger Kepich |
Reviews
The Petrified Forest has received mostly good reviews from its publication to the present day.
"A brilliantly cast, technically solid melodrama, in which noble feelings and ideals go hand in hand with a puffy pessimistic pseudo-philosophy: The literary man's search for death is not presented as a disguised suicide, but as a noble act."
"This film really shows the confrontation between intellectualism and brutal violence."
literature
- Robert E. Sherwood : The petrified forest (Original title: The Petrified Forest ). German by Peter Sandberg . [Stage manuscript.] Gustav Kiepenheuer Bühnenvertriebs GmbH, Berlin undated
Web links
- The Petrified Forest in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b TV Guide (English)
- ↑ The Petrified Forest. In: synchronous database. Retrieved July 25, 2020 .
- ↑ "The Petrified Forest" by Rotten Tomatoes
- ↑ The Petrified Forest. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .