Angels With Dirty Faces

A deadset certified gangster classic... Angels with Dirty Faces definitely deserves it's 'classic' status. Of all the pre-70s gangster films I've seen, this is probably the best. Starring James Cagney (who had become a superstar by the time this film was made) and Pat O'Brien, this film also featured a supporting turn by Humphrey Bogart and was directed by Michael Curtiz (who would go on to make Casablanca).

Rocky (Cagney) and Jerry (O'Brien) start their respective paths to adulthood as slum-kids and would-be mugs, getting up to mischief in their local neighbourhood. One day they decide to rob a railroad car and they get sprung... the two young friends run for their lives, but Rocky gets caught. Fast forward a decade or so later and Rocky has become a bonafide gangster, a reform school veteran, ex-con, scourge of the police and hero to the poor kids in his old neighbourhood. Meanwhile, Jerry has become a priest, fighting to keep the same kids off the street in the hope that they won't choose lives of crime.

Rocky has just finished a three-year stint in gaol, and he comes back to the old neighbourhood to collect some stolen loot he left with his crooked lawyer. Rocky meets up with his old friend Jerry, and Jerry encourages the ex-con to help him save the kids - in particular the six young hooligans who have fallen in behind Rocky, hoping to learn the ropes from this gangster they idolise. Meanwhile, Rocky's aforementioned lawyer, Frazier (Bogart, suitably shifty), has grown wealthy off the money Rocky left with him, and has no intention of giving it back. How deep will Rocky fall back into a life of crime to get "what's owed to him"? And will Jerry succeed in breaking the cycle of crime that sees gangsters give rise to each successive generation? There are no easy ways out in this movie, and it's all the better for it.

Perhaps showing it's roots as a play, Angels with Dirty Faces is more plot-driven than the usual rise and fall gangster stuff of the 1930s, playing on themes of reform and hero-worship to highlight a more specific message than just "being a gangster will get you killed". It's more morally-complex than that, going deeper than any gangster film before. It utilisises it's message as a sincere and integral part of the story - rather than something just tacked on to please the censors (EG. Scarface). It also happens to be a really good film - full of action, laughs, engaging characterisation (especially the six young hoodlums) and memorable pathos.

Cagney brings his immense charisma to the role of Rocky, his screen presence perfectly matched to that of a gangster idolised by kids. His last small 'heroic' act of redemption - whilst not as brave a cinematic move as it could've been - is still a shocking and memorable piece of film history. Part of me was annoyed at how tame the film was in it's unwllingness to show screen legend Cagney as he cries and begs for mercy, but the stark and minimalist way in which it was treated conjured up some pretty powerful images in it's place.

A real classic, ranks up there with the best.