The Petrified Forest. 1936. USA. Directed by Archie L. Mayo. Screenplay by Charles Kenyon, Delmer Daves, based on the play by Robert Sherwood. With Humphrey Bogart, Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Porter Hall. 82 min.
Duke Mantee (Bogart, reprising the role he originated on Broadway in 1935) picks a small roadside diner in middle-of-nowhere Arizona for his gang to cool their heels. There they encounter the café proprietor, his daughter, who longs for a life away from their isolated town, and a wrecked writer in the wrong place at the right time, who revels in trying to figure Duke out.