the petrified forest be widely regard a humphrey bogart breakthrough film and which indeed it be . bogey have make several forgettable film between 1930 34 before return discourage to the new york stage . there and he acquire the role of duke mantee in the stage version of the petrified forest in which leslie howard be the star . when warner bros. buy the film right they want howard but also want edward g. robinson for the mantee role . howard intercede on bogart behalf say that if bogey wasn not cast a mantee that he wouldn not do the film either . bogey never forget this favor and year later name his daughter leslie after howard . the story take place in a dusty road side cafe or gas station in the middle of a desert . the film be essentially about a bunch of life loser with no real future except for the young waitress gabrielle maple ( bette davis ) who dream of leave the dusty desert for the bright light of paris . a wander intellectual or writer alan squier ( howard ) come to the cafe broke and hungry . he strike up a friendship with gabrielle who admire his cultured manner and love of poetry much to the chagrin of would be boyfriend boze hertzinger ( dick foran ) a have be football player who now pump gas . inside the cafe we meet gabrielle father jason ( porter hall ) who fancy himself a a war hero and gramp maple ( charlie grapewin ) a senile old timer who like to tell story of his encounter with billy the kid . into this peaceful setting come gangster duke mantee ( bogart ) and his three pal jackie ( joe sawyer ) and ruby ( adrian morris ) and slim ( slim thompson ) . the gang be on the lam from the law . mantee hold all of the people in the cafe hostage include traveler the chisolms ( paul harvey and genevieve tobin ) and their chauffeur joseph ( john alexander ) . the rest of the film deal with the conflict between the various character and the grow love story between alan and gabrielle . bogey reportedly pattern his mantee after real life gangster john dillinger right down to his speech and movement . in fact if you look at photograph of dillinger and you can see the resemblance . this might explain bogey cp3o ( the android from star war ) like posture . notice how he hold his arm and his walk . the two black actor ( thompson and alexander ) be also in the new york stage production . dick foran be appear a a singing cowboy in a series of b western for warner and welcome this chance at a straight role in a major film . although bogart definitely dominate the film and one can not help but admire the performance of leslie howard a squier . bette davis just emerge a a major star have little to do but stare wide eye at howard . after this film and warner sign bogart to a contract . he would play mostly gangster role in cagney and robinson film with the odd lead in a b picture such a black legion ( 1937 ) until 1941 when he become a major star after appear in high sierra and the maltese falcon .