‘High Sierra’ (1941)

Peak Bogart: The man turns bitterness into an art form. The look on his face when his gangster character, Roy Earl, fresh out of prison, joyfully confesses his loving intentions to Velma (Joan Leslie), the young, innocent beauty he meets by chance on the road to California with her sweet grandparents, only for her to turn him down in favor of her boyfriend back home, is equal parts acrid and despondent. His chance to have a life free of crime and criminals and guns and capers up in smoke, he turns back to this hotel heist his boss has sent him on — and botches it up like a rank amateur.

Seriously, a notorious bank robber already so well-known that he’s often recognized in the street, brazenly waltzes into a posh California resort, a couple of inexperienced goons at his side, and seems not to have accounted for a) stray guests walking in; b) the security guard, who hears them hammering on the jewel safe to crack it open; and c) the possibility that any of the witnesses he leaves behind could easily identify him.

I guess we can say after getting shot down romantically by Velma, he doesn’t much mind getting lit up with real lead, but for a guy who claims to be such a pro, he sure isn’t at his best on this caper. Bogart, however — chain-smoking, ill tempered, and yet emotionally attached to both a former exotic dancer (Ida Lupino), and a lovably devoted mutt named “Pard” — is at his granite-jaw-glassheart best.

Extras: The splendid 4K restoration also includes a conversation with director Walsh, and a doc about the well-traveled director; as well as a 1997 doc about Bogart; trailers; and a radio adaptation aired back in 1944.