City Streets (1931)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Nan (Sylvia Sidney), a racketeer's daughter, is in love with The Kid (Gary Cooper), a shooting gallery showman. Despite Nan's prodding, The Kid has no ambitions about joining the rackets and making enough money to support Nan in the lifestyle she's accustomed to. Her attitude changes after her father implicates her in a murder and she's sent to prison. During her incarceration, her father convinces The Kid to join the gang in order to help free Nan. When Nan is released, she wants nothing more to do with the mob and tries to get The Kid to quit, but she may be too late.
- Actors:
- Gary Cooper, Sylvia Sidney, Paul Lukas, William 'Stage' Boyd, Wynne Gibson, Guy Kibbee, Stanley Fields, Betty Sinclair, Robert Homans, Barbara Leonard, Terry Carroll, Allan Cavan, Bill Elliott, Norman Foster, Paulette Goddard, Bert Hanlon, A.R. Haysel, Matty Kemp, Bob Kortman, Ethan Laidlaw
- Directors:
- Rouben Mamoulian
- Producers:
- E. Lloyd Sheldon
- Writers:
- Dashiell Hammett, Max Marcin, Oliver H.P. Garrett
- Aka:
- After School
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Romance
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Reviews (1) of City Streets
Public Enemies - City Streets review by Steve
The same year as Warner Brothers grabbed the zeitgeist with Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, Paramount released their own prohibition gangster film. This isn’t as violent or streetwise, but much less preachy. An honest, carefree fairground operator (Gary Cooper) joins the mob to get his crooked girlfriend (Sylvia Sidney) out of the big house.
So it’s also a romantic melodrama. There are the usual issues of the period with sound, and the actors in support roles are inflexible. While we're spared the editorialising moral sermons of those ‘30s Warners crime pictures, the influence of the Hays Office is still palpable.
But there are many positives. Rouben Mamoulian’s direction is impressive for an early talkie, with the tracking shots, the expressionism and cute perspectives. And though the audio is primitive, it is innovative. Dashiell Hammett’s only original screenplay lands a few punches. And there is Sylvia Sidney in her breakout performance as the bad girl gone good…
Neither she nor Cooper is quite there yet as an actor, but the screen glows when she is on. And this being precode, she gets to wear a stunning sexy/glamorous evening dress. It’s not really a landmark gangster film. But there is clever, unorthodox direction. And it’s a must-see for Sylvia Sidney fans.