Humphrey Bogart of the play, "a peach ... a roaring Western melodrama ... Humphrey Bogart does the best work of his career as an actor." Bogart said that the play "marked my deliverance from the ranks of the sleek, sybaritic, stiff-shirted, swallow-tailed 'smoothies' to which I seemed condemned to life." This, however, did not yet mean felt secure. Warner Bros. bought the screen rights to "The Petrified Forest". The play seemed perfect for the studio, which was famous for its socially realistic, urban, low-budget action pictures, especially for a public entranced by real-life criminals like John Dillinger (whom Bogart resembled) and Dutch
Humphrey Bogart Coast Guard Reserve. Bogart resumed his friendship with Bill Brady, Jr., whose father had show business connections. Bogart got an office job, working for William A. Brady Sr.'s new company, World Films. Bogart wanted to try his hand at screenwriting, directing and production, but excelled at none. For a while he was stage manager for Brady's daughter Alice's play "A Ruined Lady". A few months later he made his stage debut as a Japanese butler in Alice's 1921 play "Drifting", nervously speaking one line of dialog. Several appearances followed in her subsequent plays. While Bogart had been raised to believe