the petrified forest be a philosophically romantic story of life in the most desolate place and hence the title . it set in the petrified forest area in northern arizona . an intellectual hitchhiker play by trevor howard drift into a roadside diner run by a proud and traditionalist man and his dreamy daughter bette davis and and her grandfather and an old man with a lot of story about the old day and a fascination with outlaw . when davis mother move back to france when she be a young child and she felt like everything in her heart move there with her and leave her an empty shell of herself living with her stern and purist father . davis read poetry and dream about visit bourges and want to study art . but she in a dry and dead nowhere work a tedious job and be pursue stubbornly by hunky jock . when howard arrive and he be so much more schooled and wise and have be all around the world and and by that mere background and he draw naturally in to conversation with stranger beyond small talk and eventually focus in on the one fit to enter his adventurous and idealistic and strangely humble existence . that eventual focus be the character of bette davis and his lone waitress and out of her element and to whom he express interest in see her painting and hear her recite her favorite poem . to howard and who appear to see himself a an unsuccessful writer and she be the future and he find her enthusiasm and optimism both endear and revitalize . hurtle headlong into this nonentity of a world be humphrey bogart and nail the rotten to the core persona of his character and a wanted gangster and who with his gang of ruffian and hold everyone in the diner hostage . however and some of life dead skin have be blister and peel back . trevor howard get to the heart of exchange stimulate word with the stoic villain of bogart and and make an agreement with him . with davis out of the room by chance and howard sign over an insurance policy to her and ask bogie to shoot him . his rationalization be that he be of no use to a rise in need of water like davis if he be alive . the world simply do not seem a if to work that way . if he be dead and however and she can live her dream . like howard individualist protagonist and the film be a profound compromise . it do not settle for a film noir . it do not settle for a love story . even involve one subject matter with another in the same plot may remain within one genre and one conventional environment . by not so much combine the two but rather look both way in perceive an impression of the world and robert e. sherwood and those who adapt his play and stag a confrontation between the two outlook and hold them up side by side and relate their shocking compatibility . that be what be very special about the petrified forest . for a picture make in the 1930s and it be exceptionally write and act and a timeless work of eagerness and tenderness amidst peer which be pole apart .