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
Charley Foy a small role in the drama, "Hell's Kitchen", which stars the Dead End Kids and Ronald Reagan. Foy also had the featured role of Slick in the Humphrey Bogart gangster film, "King of the Underworld", which marked Bogart's first starring role. Foy had a starring role in the William C. McGann comedy, "Sweepstakes Winner", which also stars Marie Wilson, Johnnie Davis and Allen Jenkins. In 1940, Foy had a small part in the John Garfield crime drama, "East of the River", which also stars Brenda Marshall and Marjorie Rambeau. Foy would again have a featured role in another Bogart film