High Sierra

Marking the moment when the gritty gangster sagas of the 1930s began giving way to the romantic fatalism of ’40s film noir, High Sierra also contains the star-making performance of Humphrey Bogart, who, alongside top-billed Ida Lupino, proved his leading-man mettle with his tough yet tender turn as Roy Earle. A career criminal plagued by his checkered past, Roy longs for a simpler life, but after getting sprung on parole, he falls in with a band of thieves for one last heist in the Sierra Nevada. Directed with characteristic punch by Raoul Walsh—who makes the most of the vertiginous mountain location—this gripping thriller sends Roy and Lupino’s Marie, a fellow outcast also desperate to escape her past, hurtling inexorably toward an unforgettable cliffside climax and a rendezvous with destiny. (Directed by Raoul Walsh, 1941, USA, 100 mins., Not Rated)