Boze has a crush on Bette, and he's wearing down her resistance. But she instead falls for Leslie Howard, later of Gone With the Wind fame. Howard is an educated and erudite man, but he is also a penniless drifter. He would be back on the road, but no one can leave the diner, as all there are held hostage by desperado Humphrey Bogart and his gang.
The supporting cast includes humorless businessman Paul Harvey and his unhappy, aging trophy wife, Genevieve Tobin. Their black servant is Joseph (John Alexander), whose obsequious behavior toward his employer irritates Slim Thompson, an outspoken black member of Bogart's criminal gang. Jackie (Joe Sawyer) is Bogart's cocky, bullying right hand man.
How others will see it. This film is manna for classic film fans, and it helps secure the reputation of 1930s Warner Bros as the best studio for crime dramas. Those accustomed to recent Hollywood films will be put off by the black and white cinematography and the dubious romance between Davis and Howard. She wants to run off with him, even though he is unemployed, broke, and deliberately unambitious. He turns down her offer, even though she is highly attractive and would clearly help him obtain food and shelter. Instead, he wants Humphrey Bogart to shoot him, so that she'll collect his life insurance premium, which is probably worthless anyway since he's been a drifter for apparently some time.
Some viewers may be offended by Howard's suggestion to Charley Grapewin that he drop dead so that his life savings will go to Bette Davis. It is a strange and selfish argument from a character depicted as an intellectual.
The Petrified Forest is widely regarded as the break-out film in Humphrey Bogart's storied career. He played more criminals in such films as Dead End (1937), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), The Roaring Twenties, and High Sierra (1941) before Warner Bros finally gave him fully heroic characters in two of his best films, The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942).
How I felt about it. Screen lore says that it almost didn't happen that way. Bogart wasn't considered famous enough for the 'A' film The Petrified Forest, and it took the intervention of the film's star, Leslie Howard, to get him the role (both Bogart and Howard were in the Broadway play upon which the film was based). The movie was intended to capitalize on a prior Howard-Davis bittersweet romance, Of Human Bondage. But Leslie Howard comes off as an eccentric, eggheaded nincompoop, while Bogart steals the show with his jarring voice and bravura tough guy performance.
Davis' romance with Howard is unconvincing, but it is understandable that she would feel sympathy for him, and attempt to give him some money. She might also be on the lookout for the opportunity to escape the dreary diner where she has lived nearly all of her life. But Howard isn't a good ticket out, and the always cunning Davis knows this as well as anyone.