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High Sierra
Directed by	Raoul Walsh
Produced by	Mark Hellinger (associate producer)
Written by	W.R. Burnett (novel) John Huston W.R. Burnett
Starring	Ida Lupino Humphrey Bogart Alan Curtis Arthur Kennedy
Music by	Adolph Deutsch
Cinematography	Tony Gaudio
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	January 21, 1941 (U.S. release)
Running time	100 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

High Sierra (1941) is an early heist film and film noir written by John Huston and W.R. Burnett from the novel by W.R. Burnett. The movie stars Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart and was directed by Raoul Walsh on location at Whitney Portal, halfway up Mount Whitney. The film was remarkable for its extensive location shooting, especially in the climatic final scenes, as the authorities pursue Humphrey Bogart's character from Lone Pine up to the foot of the mountain.

A gangster, Big Mac, is planning a robbery at a resort casino in California, so he arranges to spring the experienced Roy Earle from prison back East to take charge of the operation. Roy drives across the country to a camp in the mountains to meet up with the two men who will assist him in the heist. One of the two thieves has brought along a runaway young woman, Marie. Roy wants to send Marie back to L.A., but after some argument she convinces him to let her stay.

Marie begins to fall in love with Roy as he plans and executes the robbery, but he does not reciprocate. On the drive up to the mountains, Roy met the family of Velma, a young woman with a deformed foot who walks with a limp. After the heist, Roy pays for corrective surgery to allow Velma to walk normally. While she is convalescing, Roy asks Velma to marry her, but she refuses, explaining that she is engaged to a man from back home. When her fiancee arrives, he and Velma begin drinking at their parents home for several days, which disgusts and frustrates Roy. He then turns to Marie, and the two become lovers.

Unfortunately, the police have been tracking Roy since shortly after the heist, and while he and Marie leave town, a dragnet is put out for him. The two separate in order to allow Marie time to escape, while Roy is pursued until he climbs one of the Sierra foothills, where he holes up overnight. Shortly after sunrise, a team of local roughnecks is sent to climb the mountain and attack Roy from the rear. As Roy trades shots with the police down the mountain from him, the posse spots him, and he is shot dead.

Actor George Raft was originally intended to play the Bogart part, but like Casablanca, Raft turned down the role. Bogart's then pet, Zero, appears in the movie as Bogart's character's dog, Pard.

The film was remade twice:

• Once, as the 1949 western Colorado Territory also directed by Raoul Walsh.
• The story was remade again in 1955 as I Died a Thousand Times starring Jack Palance and Shelley Winters.

• High Sierra at the Internet Movie Database
• High Sierra at the TCM Movie Database

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