Heat Lightning

Heat Lightning was an early work by George Abbott, written and directed by him in 1933 it had only a run of 44 performances in that anemic Depression Era season on Broadway. It was not the best work Abbott was ever associated with, but I'm sure he was grateful that Warner Brothers bought the screen rights in those cash strapped times.

It stars Aline McMahon and Ann Dvorak as a pair of sisters running a filling station, automobile camp out in the American west, very similar to the one Bette Davis and her family was running in The Petrified Forest. They're both a bit antsy being stuck out in the desert without the attention of the male of the species. But McMahon's been around the track a little too often and she tries to steer Dvorak right.

The guy who gave her that ride a few times is Preston Foster and he's shown up with pal Lyle Talbot. On the lam as it turns out, but the sisters don't know it. Foster's putting the moves on Dvorak and McMahon ain't having any of that. Truth be told she's got a bit of a yen still left and the desert isolation ain't curing the yen.

Some other characters pop up in this drama, a pair of would be divorcées heading for Reno with their 'chauffeur' played by Glenda Farrell, Ruth Donnelly and Frank McHugh. Also at the beginning Edgar Kennedy and Jane Darwell are a married couple going west. I wish we could have seen more of them. In fact I'm surprised that Jack Warner didn't recognize a good potential comic team there and made more films with them.

As you can see there are a lot of similarities to The Petrified Forest, but I think that even with the tragedies that befall both Humphrey Bogart and Leslie Howard there, The Petrified Forest is a more optimistic play. Bette Davis does get her chance to leave and see the wider world. Not quite what happens here, but I can't say more.

As compared to some of the legendary work George Abbott was associated with on stage Heat Lightning is definitely minor league. Yet it's not a bad piece of work, definitely in keeping with the times. Mervyn LeRoy did a good job in filling the screen and striking a nice balance between the comic and the dramatic. Very typical of what came from the working man's studio.

If you like a subtle and mature superbly acted drama with just enough humour to keep it light, you should enjoy this. Although an awful lot happens, the action somehow manages to seem inconsequential compared with the oppressive mundanity of the desert.

This film has a very modern feel to it. Set in an isolated oasis in the Nevada desert there's little to tie it down to a particular time - were it not for the old cars, it could be now. The other thing which makes this timeless is the acting, specifically that of Aline MacMahon whose character is the focus of this film. Being from the 'method school' her characterisation is much more natural than was typical in the early thirties. It's an outstanding performance.

She plays Olga who runs this little 'service station' isolated from the outside world, isolated, as we'll discover, from something in her past. We never quite find out what led her here, dragging her reluctant and resentful sister along and that's one of the things which makes this so intriguing. Whatever it was, she's not going to let it happen to her sister whom she keeps a tight rain on which in her sister's mind means stopping her having any fun.

She's content hiding from the world where her only interaction with people is with the strangers passing through. She's content hiding from who she was, hiding from being a woman until a sinister face from the past re-enters her life. When her mask slips, we perhaps get an idea of why she abandoned that former life.

It's totally addictive viewing but at the time you're not sure why. When it's over you realise that it's one of those pictures that you will always remember. Although the skies are bright and clear, the atmosphere is as thick as soup infused with something undefined but dark and dangerous. Its unrelenting oppressive heat permeates through the screen into your own world, you can taste the desert yourself - such is the brilliance of LeRoy's direction.

In the Mohave Desert, Olga and her younger sister Myra run a gas station with diner in the middle of nowhere. Olga is perfectly happy with the isolation but Myra would like to go someplace, any place. The remote outpost gets a surprising number of visitors over a day's time including two bank robbers. One of them is Olga's former boyfriend Jerry and she knows he's up to no good. Then two rich dames stop by when their driver schemes for a rest.

I like the chaos of people keep showing up at this little place. I would like the filming to take place in the openness of the desert. It could have been epic in cinematography. I would also like for a more epic shootout. The story builds up so much possibility. It's almost anti-climatic but there is a bit of poetry in its execution. I really like the width of characters in this movie, even with some of side characters. From the first bickering couple to the two female hitchhikers, this movie is filled with great characters. I would love to see this remade with more noir touches.

After reading several reviews that enjoyed the film, I almost did not write a comment.

However, after reading the one comparing it to a poor man's Petrified Forest, I wanted to say that's just plain unfair.

I, was not around for the New York Times drab review in 1934, like the previous reviewer, but I can form my own opinion. I really liked the movie. Aline McMahon, pulled off the difficult character of playing a woman mechanic/business owner, and Preston Foster played the crook on the lam quite believable for the situation he was in.

I personally wish Ann Dvorak had more of a developed part, I always like her, but sadly hers was the least developed of the several interesting characters in the film. Obviously made on a small budget, it's just unfair to compare this to Petrified Forest. They are not the same film at all.

A fine example of minimalist film-making, this Warners B-pic offers a proto-feminist scenario delivered with some swell precode attitude. Two sisters (one world-weary, the other innocent) run a service-station-cum-caravansary on an isolated desert highway. Every passerby kids them about how dull and lonely this existence must be, but in the space of one night they serve host to a pair of criminals on the run, a couple of gold-diggers on the way back from Reno with their swag (and with a wise-guy chauffeur), plus a large family of Mexicans on the way to a fiesta.

The main thrust of the film is melodramatic, as even in their isolation the women cannot avoid mistreatment by treacherous men. However, it's also filled with neat little comic bits and clever wisecracks. Director Mervyn Le Roy creates plenty of atmosphere with few resources, and the cheap-jack desert-palms backdrop (with the Mexican father tenderly serenading his family in the background) sticks in the memory. Le Roy uses an almost slow-motion tracking shot to great effect to show the hallucinatory influence of an ex-lover on the older sister as he intrudes into this sweaty environment. And it's pretty clear that there's a lot of casual sleeping around going on -- a lot of the jokes and situations probably wouldn't have survived the censors if this were a more prominent picture (and definitely not a year later). But the picture never flaunts its raciness -- sex is just part of the fabric of life.

Though consistently enjoyable, the movie never builds up enough intensity to be classed with the immortal second features like Detour (though the climax does pack a punch). Surprisingly, the two leads never really click. Aline MacMahon and Ann Dvorak were always marvelously idiosyncratic in supporting roles, but here the former's baroque style seems overdone for the milieu, and the latter doesn't have much opportunity to vent her repressed passion (maybe the censor trimmed that bit). Overall, though, the performances from the many familiar faces are excellent, my particular favorite occurring in the opening scene featuring Edgar Kennedy as the henpecked spouse of Jane Darwell.

Definitely worth seeking out for aficionados (but hard to find). Some might compare it to The Petrified Forest, but it gives me a bit of an offbeat Shack Out on 101 vibe, too.