High Sierra (film)

High Sierra
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Raoul Walsh
Screenplay by	John Huston W. R. Burnett
Based on	High Sierra 1940 novel by W. R. Burnett
Produced by	Mark Hellinger
Starring	Ida Lupino Humphrey Bogart Alan Curtis
Cinematography	Tony Gaudio
Edited by	Jack Killifer
Music by	Adolph Deutsch
Production company	Warner Bros.
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	January 23, 1941 (1941-01-23) (Los Angeles)[1]
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$491,000[2]
Box office	$1.5 million[2]

High Sierra is a 1941 American film noir directed by Raoul Walsh, written by William R. Burnett and John Huston from the novel by Burnett, and starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart. Its plot follows a career criminal who becomes involved in a jewel heist in a resort town in California's Sierra Nevada, along with a young former taxi dancer (Lupino).

Parts of the film were shot on location at Whitney Portal, halfway up Mount Whitney.

The screenplay was co-written by John Huston, Bogart's friend and drinking partner, adapted from the novel by William R. Burnett (also known for, among others, the novel Little Caesar and the script for Scarface).^[3] The film cemented a strong personal and professional connection between Bogart and Huston,^[4] and provided the breakthrough in Bogart's career, transforming him from supporting player to leading man. The film's success also led to a breakthrough for Huston, providing him with the leverage he needed to make the transition from screenwriter to director, which he made later that year with his adaptation of The Maltese Falcon (1941), starring Bogart.

The film contains extensive location shooting, especially in the climactic final scenes, as the authorities pursue Bogart's character, gangster Roy Earle, from Lone Pine to the foot of the mountains. The novel is also the basis of the western Colorado Territory (also directed by Walsh, starring Joel McCrea & Virginia Mayo) and the scene-by-scene remake I Died a Thousand Times (directed by Stuart Heisler with Jack Palance as Roy Earle and Shelley Winters as Marie).