Rent Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

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.

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.

Social Realism (spoiler). - 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 decade. When it returned in this James Cagney vehicle, it was nostalgic. This is set in New York in the '20s. The crooks run the city and have politicians and the cops in their wallets. Crime offers the only way out of the slums and the racketeers are revered by the kids.

Cagney is out of stir and plans to rejoin his former partner, a slick mafia lawyer (Humphrey Bogart), who holds the spoils from the job that got Rocky sent down. Only Bogart would rather rub him out than share his fortune. So the ex-con forms a loose alliance with his childhood pal (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 precode gangster pictures. The sets are better. Michael Curtiz's roving camera opens up the frame and there is a rousing score from Max Steiner. But still the criminal still has to be punished. What makes this special is the scene where Rocky dies in the chair- among the most stunning climaxes in cinema.

Warners was the studio with a social conscience. The title refers to the Dead End Kids, the delinquents who idolise Rocky. The message is, that they can be saved. It is the slums  that make the poor turn to crime. While the tough Irish priest priest seems fanciful, Cagney is a bundle of star energy. And that ending places this among the greatest gangster films.