DOORWAY TO HELL
AKA A HANDFUL OF CLOUDS.
James Cagney & Lew Ayers,
Charles Judels, Dorothy Matthews, Leon Janney.
Dir: Archie Mayo, 1930, Warner Bros.

SYNOPSIS:
A young gangster attempts to go straight but gets lured back on to the crooked path. This plot hadn't yet become a cliché.

"Lew Ayers was cast in the leading role.... At the time Lew, in his mid 20s, was one of prettiest guys in all Hollywood. Notwithstanding, this fine looking lad was given the role of a latter-day Capone, a ruthless, murdering gangster baron - and I played his quiet pal. This will indicate how they did things at the studios then. Lew was hot at the box office."
- Jimmy Cagney.

REVIEWS:
"Vividly written but dramatically evasive crime-does-not-pay story that tries to have its cake and eat it."
- Leslie Halliwell.
"Swell gang picture, handled so as to just slip by the censors."
- Variety.