Gangster films were all the rage in the 1930s, and 'The Roaring Twenties (1939)' is another excellent Warner Brothers addition. Jimmy Cagney stars as Eddie Bartlett, a WWI soldier who returns home to America to find himself without a job. When Prohibition kicks in, he earns cash by delivering illegal liquor, and soon builds a corrupt underground empire that gives him wealth and power, but not happiness. Bartlett ignites a partnership, and then rivalry, with George Hally (the one-and-only Humphrey Bogart), a hardened, sneering, ruthless criminal with trigger- happy fingers. I recall watching 'Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)' purely for Bogart, and being surprised that Cagney's personality completely dominated him. Here, just a year later, the tables have turned. In this film, Bogart is a veritable force, a shrewd and merciless thug worthy of the great gangster villains. Cagney's performance is good, but perhaps lacking the intensity of earlier his earlier gangster roles.
A common element of most 1930s gangster films was a sympathetic protagonist. Despite being effectively condemned to death by the Production Code, these characters were usually forced towards a life of crime by unfortunate circumstances – in this case, WWI robs Bartlett of his livelihood, and Prohibition provides a means of survival. This plot device, circumstances pushing characters towards a fateful tragedy, proved a precursor to the film noir mould, in which justice is inevitable. Present here is also the interesting approach of mirroring similar characters on either side of the moral coin. In 'Angels with Dirty Faces,' Cagney's character became a gangster, and Pat O'Brien became a priest. In 'Manhattan Melodrama (1934),' William Powell's conflicted District Attorney must prosecute his boyhood friend, played by Clarke Gable. In 'The Roaring Twenties,' Jeffrey Lynn's honest lawyer (if such an oxymoron is to be considered possible) serves as a counterpoint to the film's otherwise shady characters, the only man wholesome enough for the bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked leading lady (Priscilla Lane).
A common element of most 1930s gangster films was a sympathetic protagonist. Despite being effectively condemned to death by the Production Code, these characters were usually forced towards a life of crime by unfortunate circumstances – in this case, WWI robs Bartlett of his livelihood, and Prohibition provides a means of survival. This plot device, circumstances pushing characters towards a fateful tragedy, proved a precursor to the film noir mould, in which justice is inevitable. Present here is also the interesting approach of mirroring similar characters on either side of the moral coin. In 'Angels with Dirty Faces,' Cagney's character became a gangster, and Pat O'Brien became a priest. In 'Manhattan Melodrama (1934),' William Powell's conflicted District Attorney must prosecute his boyhood friend, played by Clarke Gable. In 'The Roaring Twenties,' Jeffrey Lynn's honest lawyer (if such an oxymoron is to be considered possible) serves as a counterpoint to the film's otherwise shady characters, the only man wholesome enough for the bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked leading lady (Priscilla Lane).