THE ROARING TWENTIES.
James Cagney & Humphrey Bogart,
Frank McHugh, Gladys George, Priscilla Lane.
Dir: Anton Litvak & Raoul Walsh, 1939, Warner Bros.

SYNOPSIS:
A cracking tale, it plays like Cagney's version of Little Caesar. The rise from lowlife hood to booze-peddling mob boss and then his downfall (due to a blonde bombshell, natch) to skidrow and finally death in a hail of bullets. It even features a treacherous Bogie. Charismatic stars, a classic script, violence and some cabaret tunes, who could ask for more. An absolute corker!

"So while we were on the set of the Roaring Twenties we made changes constantly, hoping to bring life to the silly thing. In a gangster film there is no cliché so strident as one guy knocking another out. In the script two hoods come up to me, one says something that prompts me to bounce him, and down he goes. I varied the scene by placing the second hood behind the first and when I belted No 1 his head went back, hit No 2 on the chin and they both went down. Those pictures were sheer product, if anyone was practicing art, I never saw it."
- Jimmy Cagney.

REVIEWS:
"Among the last of the Warner gangster cycle, this was perhaps the best production of them all, despite the familliar plot line. Stars and studio were in cracking form."
- Leslie Halliwell.