I enjoyed this film. I posted a Spoiler Alert just in case I say too much. First of all besides the setting I didn't think it was like The Petrified Forest. The Petrified Forest is a better film and story but this little mostly unknown flick is good. Olga (MacMahon) is now running a "next gas 200 miles" kind of a rest-stop/motel in the lonely dreary and hot desert. Unlike Gabriel, where Davis' character who was filled with optimism, Olga had seen that done that. She's somewhat jaded but still has that spark of something positive. Preston Foster and Lyle Talbot are on the lam. It's that "of all the gin joints she walks into mine" kinda thing. Foster and MacMahon were lovers at one time. Foster isn't the nicest fella but when MacMahon sports a dress and some make-up he with all his smarmy charm shows an inkling of interest. However he's so awful that it's best that MacMahon not really pursue this. Enough said. Poor Myra, Olga's younger sister, Dvorak, bored to the gills and wants to have some fun in life. She meets a self-sided loser and is of course saddened even tho' Olga warned her about men. Glenda Farrell, Ruth Donnelly and Frank McHugh show up who are mainly a diversion even though parts are paramount to the plot and I'm not divulging same. A family of Mexicans stop by just for atmosphere in my opinion. What happens near the end is something you'll have to see. Again, the running time of this film is short, good actors, a bit of comic relief and do not expect The Petrified Forest and enjoy.
Review of Heat Lightning
