Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 Alan Squier: What`s your story, Duke? What`s your life been like?
Duke Mantee: You know the story. Most of my life in jail; the rest of it dead!
Duke Mantee: Maybe you`re right, pal.
Alan Squier: Oh, I`m eternally right. But what good does it do me?
Jackie Cooper: Now, just behave yourself and nobody`ll get hurt. This is Duke Mantee, the world-famous killer, and he`s hungry!
[Talking about signing his $5,000.00 life insurance policy over to Gabby]
Mrs. Edith Chisholm: You`re in love with her, aren`t you?
Alan Squier: Yes, I suppose I am. And not unreasonably. She has heroic stuff in her. She may be one of the immortal women of France. Another Joan of Arc, George Sand, Madame Curie, or Du Barry. I want to show her that I believe in her, and how else can I do it? Living, I`m worth nothing to her. Dead, I can buy her the tallest cathedrals, golden vineyards, and dancing in the streets. One well-directed bullet will accomplish all that, and it`ll earn a measure of reflected glory for him that fired it and him that stopped it. This document will be my ticket to immortality. It`ll inspire people to say of me, "There was an artist who died before his time." Will you do it, Duke?
Duke Mantee: I`ll be glad to.
Alan Squier: Let there be killing. All this evening I`ve had a feeling of destiny closing in.
Gabrielle Maple: Petrified forest is a lot of dead trees in the desert that have turned to stone. Here`s a good specimen.
Alan Squier: So that was once a tree? Hmmm. Petrified forest, eh? Suitable haven for me. Well, perhaps that`s what I`m destined to become, an interesting fossil for future study.
Alan Squier: The trouble with me, Gabrielle, is I, I belong to a vanishing race. I`m one of the intellectuals.
Gabrielle Maple: That, that means you`ve got brains!
Alan Squier: Hmmm. Yes. Brains without purpose. Noise without sound, shape without substance.
Gramp Maple: But let me tell you one thing, Mr. Squier. The woman don`t live or ever did live that`s worth five thousand dollars!
Alan Squier: Well, let me tell you something. You`re a forgetful old fool. Any woman`s worth everything that any man has to give: anguish, ecstasy, faith, jealousy, love, hatred, life or death. Don`t you see that`s the whole excuse for our existence? It`s what makes the whole thing possible and tolerable.
Trivia
Humphrey Bogart named his daughter Leslie to show his gratitude to Leslie Howard, who got him his big break in The Petrified Forest (1936).
Mounted on the wall of the diner in which the story takes place is the headdress of a Native American medicine man, which resembles the horned head of an American buffalo. `The Petrified Forest` director Archie Mayo staged many of the movie`s shots with the head of actor Humphrey Bogart (playing `world-famous murderer Duke Mantee`) framed by the headdress mounted on the wall behind him. The composition of these shots, which appear throughout the second half of the film, result in the appearance of a demon`s horns sprouting from Mantee`s head.
Constance Bergen is in studio records/casting call lists for the role of "Doris," but she did not appear, although her character name is mentioned.
The original Broadway version also featured John Alexander and Slim Thompson, who recreate their roles in this film. The stage production opened Jan. 7, 1935 at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York and ran for 197 performances.
The character of Duke Mantee was mainly inspired by bank robber John Dillinger.
Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart had played the same roles in the stage version. Warner Brothers wanted to put Howard in the film but replace Bogart with Edward G. Robinson. Howard insisted on Bogart, and Robinson was happy to step aside from yet another gangster role. Bogart would later name his first child with Lauren Bacall Leslie, in honor of Howard, the man who gave him his first big break.
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Leslie Howard
(as Alan Squier)
with Bette Davis
(as Gabrielle Maple)
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