bette davis always have a unique way of really make her character . gabby maple ( bette davis ) be a beautiful diner waitress with big dream of move to france to be an artist . she work with a football player name nick ( eddie acuff ) and who be take with her . gabby maple make a statement early on about always want to be free . not married and not tie down . you can see that part of her mean it and and the other part of her be beg to fall in love . an intellectual name alan squier ( leslie howard ) fly in and fall in love with complicated gabrielle maple and who fall in love with him and and within 10 minute of the start of the movie you see the tension and drama of a classic love triangle . it doesn not last because alan squier be a wanderer with no money and and hitch a ride with a wealthy couple and mr. and mrs. chisholm ( genevieve tobin and paul harvey ) . the fact that mr. squier have no money seem only to make gabby love him more . gabby and alan clearly adore one another . each seem to be jealous of the other life . there a perfection about this movie that hard to put into word . it romantic in the word native definition . once alan leaf and their car be hijack by 3 gangster who be on a killing spree . duke mantee ( humphrey bogart ) be the chief gangster . humphrey bogart performance in this movie be fantastic . he bring great depth to this character . he not a heartless gangster and nor will he hesitate to kill you . he call the woman maam and you can clearly see his respect for them . a you also see his respect for the elderly in one moment where he chastise alan for speak poorly to gabby grandfather . alan be a failed author with a failed marriage which he steal from his publisher . he remain that gabby be the only one he ever truly be in love with . classic movie have a way of make a 5 minute relationship seem like true love and despite the relationship they each have prior . the petrified forest be an example of this . it briefly discuss the meaning of life and and death . death be glorify and and you see the deep theme of a person be enlighten upon death .