To begin with, I haven't seen HIGH SIERRA in years, though I do remember most of it. Therefore, I was able to watch it with an objective eye, not constantly comparing the two films.
It does offer panoramic vistas of the mountains and the desolate surroundings. I think the leads, particularly the love triangle of sorts (Marie is involved in two) are to me what sets it's apart from HIGH SIERRA.
SPOILER AlERT We know that Marie (a very good Shelley Winters) is a fallen angel. She's a dance hall girl who's run off to the mountain cabin resort with Babe (Lee Marvin) as the gang Red (Earl Holliman) awaits the right time to pull off it's caper once Roy (Jack Palance) arrives and assumes leadership. But Marie isn't going to be anybodies girl, she's the prize of the Alpha Male of the bunch. Even though he repeatedly tells her he doesn't want her around, lust finally wins out.
In the second triangle, Marie finally meets her rival, the presumed virginal Velma, a young woman whom Roy's opened up a new life for but springing for surgery to correct a club foot. Though Velma's previously rejected him and he's on the lam, he drops in one more time. Interesting that Velma is dancing up a storm with her young friends and Marie begins to wiggle around suggesting this is the proper way to dance (and maybe do other things)? Velma is Roy's embodied fantasy, a life he's longed for while languishing for years in prison. Though, her second rejection is callous, the second time a woman tells you to get lost usually is. He fools himself into believing he can have her and provide that kind of life. He rejects, then warms to Marie because she's a reflection of him...cheap, unrefined, desperate and living for the moment.
Palance reveals both Roy's foolish sentimentality and his vicious streak. When he confronts Babe for slapping Marie, he takes great pleasure in beating the daylights out of him. This act, just like in the animal world, where the strongest males will fight over who gets the female(s) confirms not only Roy's place, but Marie's too. Palance is more brutal than Bogie (who's Roy was only violent when necessary). Palance will back hand a man, rather than speak to him.
These factors I feel were better expressed here.
It does offer panoramic vistas of the mountains and the desolate surroundings. I think the leads, particularly the love triangle of sorts (Marie is involved in two) are to me what sets it's apart from HIGH SIERRA.
SPOILER AlERT We know that Marie (a very good Shelley Winters) is a fallen angel. She's a dance hall girl who's run off to the mountain cabin resort with Babe (Lee Marvin) as the gang Red (Earl Holliman) awaits the right time to pull off it's caper once Roy (Jack Palance) arrives and assumes leadership. But Marie isn't going to be anybodies girl, she's the prize of the Alpha Male of the bunch. Even though he repeatedly tells her he doesn't want her around, lust finally wins out.
In the second triangle, Marie finally meets her rival, the presumed virginal Velma, a young woman whom Roy's opened up a new life for but springing for surgery to correct a club foot. Though Velma's previously rejected him and he's on the lam, he drops in one more time. Interesting that Velma is dancing up a storm with her young friends and Marie begins to wiggle around suggesting this is the proper way to dance (and maybe do other things)? Velma is Roy's embodied fantasy, a life he's longed for while languishing for years in prison. Though, her second rejection is callous, the second time a woman tells you to get lost usually is. He fools himself into believing he can have her and provide that kind of life. He rejects, then warms to Marie because she's a reflection of him...cheap, unrefined, desperate and living for the moment.
Palance reveals both Roy's foolish sentimentality and his vicious streak. When he confronts Babe for slapping Marie, he takes great pleasure in beating the daylights out of him. This act, just like in the animal world, where the strongest males will fight over who gets the female(s) confirms not only Roy's place, but Marie's too. Palance is more brutal than Bogie (who's Roy was only violent when necessary). Palance will back hand a man, rather than speak to him.
These factors I feel were better expressed here.