Angels With Dirty Faces

I havent finished all these yet, but I have to say watching these "gangster" movies is thrilling. The acting, the personalities, the action is just tremendous. My wife wont watch any movie that is black and white especially something from the 30s- well she and many other people I bet are really missing out. I started from oldest to newest, so Little Cesar was up first, at only a little more than an hour its amazing how much story and action is packed into this classic. Edward G Robinson looks and acts just like I would imagine Al Capone. In fact, I would think they are the same person. Amazing. Only to be outdone by the Public Enemy's James Cagney. I remember as a kid we would imitate Cagney and Bogart and Jimmy Stewart, these actors had unmistakable personalities, they had signature traits and sayings. I remember reading about the grapefruit scene from a book, so i started watching and waiting for the grapefruit. Well, this movie is not about that scene, it is much more and Cagney shines throughout like a true moviestar. Petrified Forest was completely unknown to me and really took me by surprise. It was like a great short story novel, with eloquent monologues and witty dialogues and just tremendous ensemble acting. I have to say I never thought of Betty Davis as sexy but she sure is in this one. I also am still trying to figure out Bogart the way he was silent and moved stiffly and held his hands like they were burnt or injured, very memorable. But most memorable is Leslie Howard his character is like a great tragic figure from classical literature. Then we move onto Angels with Dirty Faces, possibly the best of all of them. I mean you have Cagney, O'Brien, the Dead End Kids, and Bogart for god's sake, not to mention Ann Sheridan. I thought I must truly be getting old, because I was crying at the end, crying at the end of a gangster movie! This one has all the elements- the gritty urban center, the cops, the robbers, a love story, a kid story. I do remember watching this a kid and it was memorable as a kid's movie. I didnt realize though until the final scene between Cagney and O'Brien that this is movie making at its best. The acting in the final 10 minutes, the atmosphere, the plot twist, its just overwhelmingly good. So, I'll move onto the last 2- the Roaring 20s which I've never seen and White Heat which I've seen many times, but look forward to seeing it again. Why? James Cagney of course- a movie star, a great actor, a tough guy, a cool guy, simply the best.

Kudos to Warner Home Video for the loving treatment they gave these six classic films from their vaults. Every film gets the Warner Night at the Movies treatment with a newsreel, a trailer, a vintage short subject, and a cartoon each from the year in which the movie was made. Plus there are commentary tracks for all of the films. I liked watching each film through first without the track, and then listening to them with the track turned on for insight into the stars and the style of the film. In addition to this you get the following featurettes:Little Caesar - "End of Rico, Beginning of the Antihero"Public Enemy - "Beer and Blood: Enemies of the Public"Petrified Forest - "Menace in the Desert". There is also a radio adaptation featuring Humphrey Bogart, Tyrone Power, and Joan Bennett.Angels with Dirty Faces - "Whaddaya Hear? Whaddaya Say?". This also has an audio-only radio production.The Roaring Twenties - "The World Moves On"White Heat - "Top of the World"It's interesting to compare the three stars of these movies - Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, and Humphrey Bogart - and their styles in each of these movies. "Little Caesar" and "Public Enemy" were made when prohibition was still in effect and gangland crime was still a big problem. Thus Robinson and Cagney each play remorseless criminals with no redeeming values whatsoever. Robinson's Rico is less physical than Cagney's Tom Powers, though. You believe that either one of them would shoot you without a second thought. However, Cagney's Powers is scarier because the real fear is that he would beat you to a pulp for the fun of it and THEN shoot you."The Petrified Forest" is not your typical gangster film, with Leslie Howard's vagabond being the real star in what amounts to an improbable romance set against the backdrop of the desperation of the Great Depression which the desert setting seems to signify. This 1936 film has Bogart as Duke Mantee, a gangster on the run, in what amounts to a supporting role. However, you do get to see all of the traits that made Bogart great when he got the opportunity to seize the lead in later roles. And to think they almost cast him as the filling station attendant in this one!In 1938's "Angels with Dirty Faces" and 1939's "The Roaring Twenties" Cagney is again playing the lead gangster and Humphrey Bogart plays a supporting role in both films. With prohibition long over, though, these movies make Cagney's gangster more three-dimensional, showing him to even be a self-sacrificing character at times as well as a killer. Both movies bother to show that had circumstances been a little different, he might not have even become a criminal in the first place.1949's "White Heat" shows the influence of film noir that was so popular in the 40's an 50's. Here, Cagney's gangster persona has come full circle back to the viciousness of Tom Powers in "Public Enemy". The big difference is that in this film Cagney's mother is no cream puff. She is, in fact, probably a bigger criminal in thought if not in deed than Cagney's Cody Jarrett. This final gangster film of the six shows technology and thus the law gaining on the criminal, with electronic gadgets and undercover lawmen with college degrees in psychology replacing the determined hard-boiled detectives and beat cops of the past. It very much looks forward to the Dragnet series that is to emerge in the 50's.In summary, this is just a terrific package and basically acts as a complete course on the gangster film as genre. All studios should stand up and take notice of how Warner Home Video put this set together. Highly recommended.