Angels with Dirty Faces

The story here is that Cagney is the gangster 'star' of the East Side, with a group of young hoodlums looking up to him, the same as movie-going kids who'd come to see the film. His priest friend from the old days wants him to help him put the kids on the right track. We know that he's basically a stand-up guy, a good soul, partly corrupted by the 'system'. In the end he agrees to die 'yellow', tarnishing his reputation so the kids will renounce gangster heroism. That's it in a nutshell. It isn't a bad movie, it's just that the study is so screamingly obvious, full of catechism aimed at us and reducing us to childlike goofs who know no better. It's nice enough at the start, the East Side world it portrays is thick. But it becomes such a thin message movie in the second half. Just not worth the time. Cagney though is magnetic as usual, a terrific guy. He could sing, tap dance, seduce; later on he was a judo blackbelt. Watch him slap Bogart around, here playing the mousey lawyer villain. It's clear there's no comparing them. Cagney was the real deal and this is all about his presence. How on earth did they think they could pull off that message with Cagney?

Had a lot of high hopes for 'Angels With Dirty Faces'. There are many great gangster films out there, some cinematic milestones, and when one talks about actors that excelled in this type of film James Cagney is somewhere near the top of the list. Really like to love a lot of Michael Curtiz's, a great and very versatile director, films, especially 'Casablanca', 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' and 'Mildred Pierce' and even lesser efforts are watchable. 'Angels With Dirty Faces' blew me away. It is up there with the best gangster films of all time to me and many others, which is evident from how massively influential it is and how often it's imitated. 'Angels With Dirty Faces' is also one of Curtiz's best films, well certainly among my favourites of his as of now anyway, one of Cagney's finest hours and has an ending (justifiably near-universally lauded) that left a huge impression on me emotionally. It is a wonderful looking film, Curtiz's films were always well made and his visual style was actually pretty unique at the time. While the production design is atmospheric and the lighting very artistic and moody, it was the cinematography that left me spellbound. Not just the stunning composition and how much it enhanced the atmosphere but also the use of camera angles, very varied kinds without being gimmicky and it is always fluid and ambitious. Max Steiner's score swells sumptuously and thrillingly and is very haunting and effectively dramatic. Without being intrusive or strident. Curtiz's direction is exemplary, the classy stylishness and boldness evident throughout. It shines especially at the end, well pretty much everything shines at this point. The script is gritty and lean yet also sophisticated and sincere. Some of it is quotable too. The story has so much great with it too. It is fast paced and appropriately tough as nails, while also having emotional impact. The chemistry between Cagney and Pat O'Brien and Cagney and Humphrey Bogart have sincerity and hard boiled tension and the moral, one still having a lot of truth now, makes its point without beating one around the head. The shoot out is thrilling and suspensefully staged, and the Dead End Kids' moments have heart and levity, but the highlight dramatically is the ending. Can't begin to tell you how powerful it is, my gut was practically wrenched watching it and after my heart was ripped into two. The characters are interesting, even though Rocky was very flawed it was hard to hate him. Cagney is magnificent and shows why his reputation as an icon in gangster films is richly deserved. It is an intense and bold yet oddly likeable performance and one of his best, his acting at the end is some of the best he ever did. O'Brien is sincere and a powerful contrast while Bogart plays a weasel of a character pretty chillingly. The Dead End Kids add a lot too. Altogether, brilliant. 10/10

This isn't the best of the Warner Brothers' 1930s gangster movies but it's the clearest statement of the formula. It's got everything. It's like a Romanesque mosaic. Here's Jimmy Cagney as Rocky Sullivan, the ex-choir boy gangster who hitches up his pants and greets people with, "Whaddaya hear, whaddaya say?" His childhood pal is Pat O'Brian, now a priest living in the same neighborhood and trying to save the new generation of kids from turning into hoodlums. We have the Dead End Kids (or whatever they're called here) who think Cagney is a swell guy. Humphrey Bogart is Cagney's lawyer who swindles him out of his stash, then tries to have him killed when Cagney is released from jail. The familiar girl with the pig tails grows up to be Anne Sheridan, who has big, pretty eyes but no New York accent. (Neither does Pat O'Brian, from Wisconsin, but I've given him absolution.) After the final shoot out, with Cagney's foes dead and himself trapped in a tenement with tear gas coming through the windows, O'Brian shows up and takes the speaker. "Rocky, you've got to come out!" "Go on back to da choitch where ya belong, Fodder!" (I just made that line up, but there are a couple of similar ones in the scene.) Rocky is convicted and sentenced to death. But he's a tough guy and won't break down. The Dead End Kids mope over the headlines and promise themselves that Rocky will never turn yellow at the end. O'Brian gets word of this and tells Rocky that he holds the fate of these innocent kids in his hands. If he doesn't turn yellow as he's marched to the chair, the kids will turn into miscreants. If he shows he's frightened, his myth will die with him and the kids will all become champion polo players overnight. Does Rocky develop a social conscience in his last moments and fake hysteria as he walks the last mile? Guess. The thing is, this isn't anybody's best performance and it is no one's idea of the tightest script, yet you can gain a rather full grasp of what these genre movies were all about by watching this single movie, and not having to sit through half a dozen others. If that's what you want. This is like reading an abstract in a professional journal, except that it's fun to see it all laid out.

This movie is simply a masterpiece, a classic story of two kids who grow up on different sides of the law. Cagney, as Rocky, gave his best performance, only to outdo himself a decade later in the 1949 film noir classic "White Heat". The execution scene at the end is classic, the second best movie ending of all time. Of course the best ending was from, once again, "White Heat" where he blows himself up,along with an oil refinery. "I'm on top of the world,Ma!!!!"

Oy! Had I known "Angels With Dirty Faces" was gonna force open your throat and shovel religion down your maw like ipecac, I would've hauled ass to the hills. As it stands, this film is nothing more than a Public Service Announcement for the lord. Who needs Reform School when you can simply peddle this diatribe to juvenile delinquents? Yes, yes, all the actors were on point, and it was nice to get a nice glimpse into criminal life from that era, but oy! The heavy handed use of religion does leave a somewhat bitter taste. That approach never worked then and it sure as hell doesn't fly today.

This movie was very, very similar to MANHATTAN MELODRAMA (MGM--1934), though this film combined this earlier flick with the Dead End Kids (an earlier incarnation of the East Side Kids or the Bowery Boys). Both films featured a smart and street-wise hood who is very likable (Gable and Cagney), a close fried who believes in them (William Powell as the DA and Pat O'Brien as a priest) and an ending in which the thug "does the right thing". As I said, the big difference was the addition of the Dead End Kids--as young punks who idolize Jimmy Cagney. And while I usually HATED the Dead End Kids/Bowery Boys/East Side Kids, in this film they were a pretty welcome addition, as they were used less as comic relief and more as integral parts of the story. Because of this, Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall (stars in the later incarnations of "the kids") were less stupid, annoying and important to the gang--being secondary characters at best. The story and acting is pure 1930s Warner Brothers gangster fare. While some might find this very, very formulaic and even dull, I like the predictability because the production values are so high and the films are just plain fun. Sure it isn't Shakespeare or Masterpiece Theatre, but it does entertain.

This movie works, and it interests me why. Regular readers of my comments know that I am on a grand quest to map all the introspective and complex folding tricks used to ensnare viewers. I'm convinced they are important. But along comes something like this that is so simple and pure, it throws all my obsessions with complexity into a cocked hat. This is so exceedingly simple and sappy and dumb and ordinary and stupidly moralizing that all of us would discard it if it were not for one thing: Cagney's character. And not even the fact that he created a character in the usual whole sense. Instead, he created a character acting a character (so I suppose there is folding after all). Cagney was essentially a dancer and here he does some somewhat obvious posturing, especially the shoulder reset tick. Can one motion carry a movie, even carry it into permanence? Yes, it seems so. Yes. Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

This is one of my favorite classics, with extraordinary acting of James Cagney, one of the best actors starring crime films, and his friend, Pat O'Brien, who once again played the role of a priest. In fact, O'Brien in his real life studied to become a priest, but later he quit for becoming an actor. The seed of criminality is here well shown, but not its causes. Why are these children finally criminals? It was not the intention of the director Michael Curtiz to go deeply into the problem, instead he treated it religiously. Men are products of the society where they live, obviously, some escape from bad examples while others continue to be spoiled for the whole life. Rocky Sullivan (Cagney) was the case, a spoiled child with some principles of friendship only, and hard with his enemies. His best friend (o'Brien) hopefully became a priest and took the life differently, trying to help and improve the behavior of the children in the community where he lives. Why one went in one way different to the other? this is not suggested in the film. We have only the facts and then you must figure out the reasons of such behaviors. Interesting film, anyway, with good acting of Humphrey Bogart too, who was a perfect actor for playing the roles of the villains, and always nice Ann Sheridan did it well too.

One of the greatest films of Cagney's film career, and the film that unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your gag reflexes) introduced us to the Dead End Kids! James Cagney is a career criminal, who, immediately after getting out of the clink, meets up with his former partner in crime (Pat O'Brien!), who of course is a priest now and loathes the life Cagney leads. Cagney is also preoccupied with a bunch of no-good kids who of course idolize him. Seeing this, O'Brien thinks Cagney should lead the kids to good. But Cagney is too busy getting even with his old business cronies (Humphrey Bogart!). This film is a lot fun, most especially watching Bogey and Cagney on the screen together. For those rather uninitiated with the career of Bogart (eg, just seen Casablanca and the Sam Spade movies), this film may come as a revelation to you, as he plays a cretinous heel here. And Cagney? Ahhh, what's not to like? He's flawless here, (well, except his curious gun usage). As for the Dead End Kids, I liked them here, rather interesting that Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall almost are in the background here, with their leadership of the group not yet realized.

If you ever take a film class about gangster films you'll soon learn that it's a genre " Catholic " in outlook in much the same way as the western is " Protestant " . Once you analysis the gangster genre you'll find that there's almost a formulaic lay out of themes of a fatherless outsider trying to become part of the American dream via illegal means . ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES is slightly different in that the characters are Amercan born and it's the street gang of juvenile delinquents who are in need of the father figure and the film rests on whether Father Jerry Connolly or Rocky Sullivan becomes that father figure I'm feeling slightly ashamed of myself for saying this but I liked this movie a lot , and the reasons I liked it is down to the reasons that I shouldn't . There's hardly a single scene that rings of any type of realism . Cagney was a Hollywood star but he was never an actor . There is something compelling about his performances however and he dominates every scene he is in . I can certainly understand why some people don't like his acting style but it's a style that suits the film perfectly that lacks any type of verisimilitude . None of it rings true but there's something that keeps you watching even though there's a voice inside your head saying " What a load of melodramatic Hollywood tosh " Your opinion of the film lies with what you thought about the golden age of Hollywood . This was a period of American film making where producers were under heavy censure via The Hays Code where any type of immorality must be seen to be punished on screen and this suits a film like ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES wonderfully . Rocky is a bad man but a hero to the teenage street gang , he must not be allowed to be a hero to criminal youth and so must face death as a coward . On paper this appears to be the cheesiest ending ever seen in a movie but as it plays out on screen it's one the most beautiful and memorable endings Hollywood has ever produced . Michael Curtiz directs this scene via suggestion and is all the better for it If you're a fan of Old Hollywood then you'll enjoy this . Even a self confessed cynic like myself found this movie compelling . You have to be slightly forgiving for some of the more melodramatic aspects but in some ways that's part of the movie's appeal