Review of Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) by Blake P — 17 Aug 2011

I can't decide if I like this movie or not. Rocky Sullivan (Cagney) and his buddy Jerry (O'Brien) are teenage gangsters pretty much-- robbing, stealing, killing, etc. is pretty much on a daily basis.

Multiple times, they're sent to prisons and reform schools, but nothing works. But when Rocky commits a bigger crime, he's sent to a federal prison for 15 years. Later on, when he's done, he comes back to the city to find two weird things-- Jerry's turned into a priest, and a rebel teenage group called The Dead End Kids look up to him.

With all this, he still commits crimes, but when one turns into a homicide, he's sent to the electric chair. Cagney was one of the most popular actors of the '30's, if not the most. Every movie he made (essentially) was a gangster picture, and this one seems to be the next highly regarded one, next to "The Public Enemy".

Unfortunately, this movie is off an on with the good and the bad for me. I shouldn't say bad: the parts I didn't like was all of the talky little parts. Some of it was just corny and annoying, and I wanted to see some of the good action stuff.

I found that later on with "The Roaring Twenties", which is more entertaining, but there's still not too much to hate with this one. It might be a little too long in some spots, but in the end, I found it to be worth it: I felt as though I was looking through our history.

Michael Curtiz ("Casablanca", "The Adventures of Robin Hood") directs with mastery, providing perfect examples of why he is rated so highly today. "Angles with Dirty Faces" is good, but for a phenomenal gangster movie, I'd go with "Lady Killer".