Cagney and Bogart made two gangster films together in 38 and 39. Both are legendary, but the other one, Raoul Walsh's Roaring Twenties, is the better of the two.
Director Micheal Curitz had a pair of masterpeices in his future, Casablanca and Yankee Doodle Dandy. He manages some great moments here, and the best two are situated at the beginning and end, giving this film a reputation that it really doesn't deserve. Otherwise, it tends to get bogged down, particularly in the basketball scene. In fact, the scenes with the Dead End Kids that rather dominate this picture threaten to drown the whole enterprise in sentimental melodrama that seems out of place in a gritty gangster film.
It's worth seeing on cable, to be sure, but it's not going to blow you away. Instead, check out the aforementioned Roaring Twenties or Walsh and Cagney's other masterpeice, 1949's White Heat.
Director Micheal Curitz had a pair of masterpeices in his future, Casablanca and Yankee Doodle Dandy. He manages some great moments here, and the best two are situated at the beginning and end, giving this film a reputation that it really doesn't deserve. Otherwise, it tends to get bogged down, particularly in the basketball scene. In fact, the scenes with the Dead End Kids that rather dominate this picture threaten to drown the whole enterprise in sentimental melodrama that seems out of place in a gritty gangster film.
It's worth seeing on cable, to be sure, but it's not going to blow you away. Instead, check out the aforementioned Roaring Twenties or Walsh and Cagney's other masterpeice, 1949's White Heat.