High Sierra (Criterion Collection) 10/21 Blu-ray (Rental)

Marking the moment when the gritty gangster sagas of the 1930s began giving way to the romantic fatalism of 1940s 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, Earle 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—Roy and Lupino’s Marie, a fellow outcast also desperate to escape her past, hurtle inexorably toward an unforgettable cliffside climax and a rendezvous with destiny. TWO-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES • New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack • Colorado Territory, director Raoul Walsh’s 1949 western remake of High Sierra • New conversation on Walsh between film programmer Dave Kehr and critic Farran Smith Nehme • The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh, a 2019 documentary by Marilyn Ann Moss • Curtains for Roy Earle, a 2003 featurette on the making of High Sierra • Bogart: Here’s Looking at You, Kid, a 1997 documentary aired on The South Bank Show • New interview with film and media historian Miriam J. Petty about actor Willie Best • New video essay featuring excerpts from a 1976 American Film Institute interview with High Sierra novelist and coscreenwriter W. R. Burnett • Radio adaptation of High Sierra from 1944 • Trailers • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing • PLUS: An essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith