Review of Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) by Thomas L — 16 May 2009

I haven't even seen Public Enemy yet, but between this and White Heat, I'd say Jimmy Cagney's got the whole gangster thing monopolized. Damn, the boy is good. The writing in general was top notch here, even with the somewhat simplistic view of things at the very end, but I don't want to say too much about how it ends for those who haven't seen it.

And I wish they could've put more meat on Ann Sheridan's role, but this was the thirties after all, not exacltly the hotbed of strong women characters. Still, this obviously served as a template for innumerable crime flicks to follow.

This is one of those films where you can actually watch it and shake your head and say, "They just don't make 'em like they used to" and have it actually mean something.