Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

This is a 30s era social commentary film from Warner Bros who had the best action stars of the time.  While it is classified under the gangster genre, I found it caused me to throw up a little into my mouth when I realized what a sap they took the viewer for.  Yes, even though it starred James Cagney a top crime star with an infectious personality it took the phony baloney position that you can stop crime by showing the hero is really a rat to his admiring fans. That is a sure sign of wishful thinking that never comes true and enough history has elapsed to show that hero worshipers are always ready to follow a bad example.

The story is a follow on to Dead End in the sense that it is set in the lower East side of Manhattan and uses the Bowery Boys/Dead End Kids as co-stars.  Instead of using Joel McRae as protagonist it uses the far more potent duo of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien as the two guys who grew up together one became a criminal the other a priest.  Humphrey Bogart again plays a large supporting part as a crooked double crossing lawyer.  Ann Sheridan plays the big sister of the lead Dead End Kid (Billy Halop).

The movie starts with a brief set up showing the two street kids living a life of petty crime, then one goes to reform school and a montage shows the term lengthens to about 15 years in various prisons. He (Cagney) returns to the old neighborhood and learns it's about the same as he remembered it, just different faces, but a couple of old ones are still there. His old crime partner is now a priest (O'Brien) and the girl he used to tease is now grown into a real peach - Ann Sheridan. The street kids are now the Dead End Kids including Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall.  These guys do their normal antics slapping each other, drinking, smoking, gambling, and doing their petty larcenies. The gang is a big part of the film's appeal to many.  The story plays out with Cagney following the life of crime and O'Brien trying to get the street kids to become solid boring citizens with jobs rather than trying to make money by stealing like Cagney.

What may seem like my disdain for this film is actually grudging admiration that they could pull a good film off despite an uneven, heavily moralistic script; a bogus but tear jerking ending; and the Dead End Kids who really don't add much except for being the objects of the great lesson the film hopes to impart to disadvantaged kids. With all these uneven inputs the strong performance of James Cagney pulls the movie in as better than average but you may ask yourself what the hell they were thinking as you recall the developments and especially the conversations. 

A passable supporting performance from Pat O'Brien as the milquetoast priest who thinks he can reform these street kids and a typically good Humphrey Bogart rat character also helps bring the movie in a winner. O'Brien always had an upright likeable personality and here he used it to put forward an overtly left wing message about crime and how to prevent youths from taking up that way of life.  Way too much hand wringing and finger pointing for my taste but I admit he did it well. 

The Warner Bros DVD is available both separately and in the set Warner Gangster Classics Vol 1.  The DVD contains the restored 97-minute B&W movie in full screen theatrical format.  The DVD is in the Warner Night at the Movies style with several features that would have appeared with the feature presentation at the time it appeared in theaters in 1938.  The extras include: a cartoon; a making of featurette; a newsreel;  and a radio broadcast with Cagney and O'Brien reading the script; as well as the theatrical trailer and a full length commentary by film scholar Dana Polan.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV