Has anyone seen The Roaring 20's, with Humphrey Bogart and..
Feb 6, 2018 13:50:38 GMT
telegonus likes this
Post by The Social Introvert on Feb 6, 2018 13:50:38 GMT
...James Cagney. Didn't know these two had done a film together.
For a video version of my thoughts of it, see here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGJaFeJnRx0
I’ve seen a lot of the more well-known and celebrated James Cagney pictures, I’ve seen a lot of the more well-known and celebrated Humphrey Bogard pictures, so imagine my delight when browsing the internet I found a gangster film that had the both of them in the same film. It was directed in 1939 which I guess was a little before Bogey’s stardom but it was when Cagney’s star power was in full swing.
In the film, the two are part of a group of men serving in the First World War. When it is over, Cagney returns to the state and finds he is no longer welcome at the garage he used to work at, rent has increased, and jobs are hard to come by. Prohibition has also come into effect and a chance encounter with some criminals selling alcohol opens the doors to a life of blondes and bootlegging for Cagney. As a rising star in the underworld, in his new circle of friends and coming across old ones he experiences undercurrents of jealousy and betrayal, which ignite into becoming the main meat of the film.
I really enjoyed The Roaring 20’s. It took its time before the bootlegging and gave us a sincere and detailed account of the struggles of Cagney upon his return to the US, his frustration with the unjust and quickly changing world around him, his initiation into a life of crime, his fruitful time at the top and, as is custom with this kind of film, his eventual downfall.
What surprised me was the strength of the characters. They weren’t just there to show us the life, they were the life. Their dealings felt real and the relationships weren’t simply just the blond girlfriend, the comic relief sidekick and things like that, the relations between the characters was handled tremendously maturely, the characters were multi-layered, and said complex things with their facial expressions and body movements as well as the atypical 1930s’ swift and sharp dialogue.
The movie is set over the course of several years, 21 in fact, of Cagney’s life, intercut with narrated montages showing us the changing and developing landscape of the American way of life, from evolving social classes to country-wide mood, changing in legality of things and the stock market crash to of, course, the rise of the bootlegger and the Tommy gun. It’s a real praiseworthy aspect of the film that the hold ups, shootouts and fistfights – in general the gangster side of things – more than anything are a necessity, a backdrop to the best feature of the film, the already-mentioned relationships between the main players, from the contagiously infectious ginning of Cagney’s Eddie Bartlett to Bogey’s fierce, aggressive, sneering and sadistic Georgey Hally, the young naïve singer Priscilla Lane torn between two men and the aging veteran speakeasy owner Gladys George, probably the most interesting of the supporting cast, with an itching want for Bartlett but a rational sense in knowing her place and never managing to express her true feeling to a distracted Eddie.
It’s all about the characters in The Roaring Twenties. Without getting into spoilers, seeing how everyone starts up and then how they all end up, some happily ever after and other cradling their dead loved ones, it almost brings a tear to the eye. Throughout the film we are completely immersed into their world, we were there when Cagney was introduced to it, and we never leave it until they do. Interestingly, there are no major cop characters or district attorneys or anybody like that, instead the film choosing to focus on all these characters who are in “the life.”
The gangster movies of the 1930’s came along with the messages of condemnation of violence and showing the fruitlessness and ugliness of the life. But the actual agenda of these films, and of those crime films that would arrive decades later, like Goodfellas and American Gangster, was to provide audience with thrills and action. And The Roaring Twenties is a thrilling film, a worthy candle-bearer to abridge and close the curtain of the Warner Brothers gangster pictures of the 1930’s which would soon be replaced by the thrill of World War 2 action movies in the next decade. I give The Roaring Twenties an 8/10.
For a video version of my thoughts of it, see here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGJaFeJnRx0
I’ve seen a lot of the more well-known and celebrated James Cagney pictures, I’ve seen a lot of the more well-known and celebrated Humphrey Bogard pictures, so imagine my delight when browsing the internet I found a gangster film that had the both of them in the same film. It was directed in 1939 which I guess was a little before Bogey’s stardom but it was when Cagney’s star power was in full swing.
In the film, the two are part of a group of men serving in the First World War. When it is over, Cagney returns to the state and finds he is no longer welcome at the garage he used to work at, rent has increased, and jobs are hard to come by. Prohibition has also come into effect and a chance encounter with some criminals selling alcohol opens the doors to a life of blondes and bootlegging for Cagney. As a rising star in the underworld, in his new circle of friends and coming across old ones he experiences undercurrents of jealousy and betrayal, which ignite into becoming the main meat of the film.
I really enjoyed The Roaring 20’s. It took its time before the bootlegging and gave us a sincere and detailed account of the struggles of Cagney upon his return to the US, his frustration with the unjust and quickly changing world around him, his initiation into a life of crime, his fruitful time at the top and, as is custom with this kind of film, his eventual downfall.
What surprised me was the strength of the characters. They weren’t just there to show us the life, they were the life. Their dealings felt real and the relationships weren’t simply just the blond girlfriend, the comic relief sidekick and things like that, the relations between the characters was handled tremendously maturely, the characters were multi-layered, and said complex things with their facial expressions and body movements as well as the atypical 1930s’ swift and sharp dialogue.
The movie is set over the course of several years, 21 in fact, of Cagney’s life, intercut with narrated montages showing us the changing and developing landscape of the American way of life, from evolving social classes to country-wide mood, changing in legality of things and the stock market crash to of, course, the rise of the bootlegger and the Tommy gun. It’s a real praiseworthy aspect of the film that the hold ups, shootouts and fistfights – in general the gangster side of things – more than anything are a necessity, a backdrop to the best feature of the film, the already-mentioned relationships between the main players, from the contagiously infectious ginning of Cagney’s Eddie Bartlett to Bogey’s fierce, aggressive, sneering and sadistic Georgey Hally, the young naïve singer Priscilla Lane torn between two men and the aging veteran speakeasy owner Gladys George, probably the most interesting of the supporting cast, with an itching want for Bartlett but a rational sense in knowing her place and never managing to express her true feeling to a distracted Eddie.
It’s all about the characters in The Roaring Twenties. Without getting into spoilers, seeing how everyone starts up and then how they all end up, some happily ever after and other cradling their dead loved ones, it almost brings a tear to the eye. Throughout the film we are completely immersed into their world, we were there when Cagney was introduced to it, and we never leave it until they do. Interestingly, there are no major cop characters or district attorneys or anybody like that, instead the film choosing to focus on all these characters who are in “the life.”
The gangster movies of the 1930’s came along with the messages of condemnation of violence and showing the fruitlessness and ugliness of the life. But the actual agenda of these films, and of those crime films that would arrive decades later, like Goodfellas and American Gangster, was to provide audience with thrills and action. And The Roaring Twenties is a thrilling film, a worthy candle-bearer to abridge and close the curtain of the Warner Brothers gangster pictures of the 1930’s which would soon be replaced by the thrill of World War 2 action movies in the next decade. I give The Roaring Twenties an 8/10.
