Rent Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

Stupendous Cagney - Angels with Dirty Faces review by PT

Cagney and O'Brien are childhood friends on the wrong side of the law, rumbled on a crime the youngsters flee, only for the slower of the wrongdoers (Cagney) to be caught and sent to juvenile detention.

Fast forward to the pair as adults and their chosen paths. Rocky is a major criminal and Jerry is a priest, namely father Connely. The father has a bunch of wanna be kid gangsters under his wing, who he is trying to guide onto life's right road. The trouble is they hero worship his old friend Rocky for all the wrong reasons.

Rocky tries to help the father a with his good causes by throwing money around like confetti, which of course the father rejects on moral grounds. But, is there a way that a reluctant Rocky could help in a bigger way? An absolute classic.

Classic Gangster - A Must See - Angels with Dirty Faces review by GI

One of the great classic gangster movies of the 1930s and which caused such a furore over the 'hero' status given to criminals resulting in the Production Code insisting such films didn't give the main character a good ending. Indeed this film takes the hero worship theme and uses it as the centre of the story. James Cagney, an actor forever associated with the gangster genre although he strongly regretted it (he was in fact a very accomplished song & dance performer), plays Rocky Sullivan, a violent racketeer. The narrative follows the lives of him and his best friend Jerry (Pat O'Brien - he made nine films with Cagney). As boys Rocky is caught pilfering whilst Jerry manages to escape resulting in their lives going in two opposing directions. Jerry becomes a community priest while Rocky rises through the ranks of the underworld. Years later when Rocky returns to his old neighbourhood Jerry hopes to turn him away from crime but the local street kids begin to look up to Rocky and Jerry is forced to turn against him. This is quite a hard edged film, violent for its time and looking critically at the issue of glorifying criminals in American society. It's also a story of friendship, community and corruption with a deeply moral ending that even today raises questions about whether Rocky finds redemption or is revealed as a born coward. Either way this is a superb film, a real classic and very entertaining, exciting and with a brilliant reconstruction of New York in the 1920s. With Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart and George Bancroft in supporting roles. A film every film fan should see at least once.

Social Realism. - Angels with Dirty Faces review by Steve

With prohibition ending in '33 and censorship arriving in '34, the mob film began to slide from view by the mid-thirties. When it returned in this Cagney vehicle, it was with nostalgia. It's set in New York in the twenties. The crooks run the city and have the politicians and the police in their wallets. Crime often seems the only hope for the poor of the depression and the gangsters are revered by the kids.

Rocky (James Cagney) is released from stir and plans to rejoin his former partner, a slick mafia lawyer (Humphrey Bogart), who holds the proceeds from the job that Rocky took the rap for. Only Bogart would rather rub out Cagney than share his good fortune. The busted con forms a loose alliance with his childhood pal, Father Jerry (Pat O'Brien), a two fisted, crime busting priest trying to break the hold of the gangs on his parish.

This is more sophisticated than the early gangster pictures. There is a vast city set. Michael Curtiz's roving camera opens up the frame and there is a stirring score from Max Steiner. A key similarity with the pre-code gangster films is the inevitable demise of the criminal. What makes Angels With Dirty Faces special is how Rocky dies in the chair. It is one of the most stunning film climaxes, and absolutely chilling.

Warners was the studio with a social conscience. The title refers to the Dead End Kids, the slum delinquents who idolise Rocky, but the film asserts that they are redeemable. It is the deprivation of the big city, the impediments to turning an honest buck that make the poor turn to crime. The character of the priest is fanciful, but Cagney is a bundle of star energy. And that sensational ending places the film among the gangster greats.