Review of The Roaring Twenties (1939) by Randall A — 26 Apr 2011
A pitched battle in World War 1. James Cagney leaps over a ridge to find cover, crashing into Humphrey Bogart. Bogart: "Theres ten thousand shell holes around here and everybody's gotta come divin' into this one.
" This is three years before Casablanca, folks. The script for this film is a work of art. It's not like I haven't seen cold-blooded, hard-boiled tough guys spit daggers at one another, believe me I have, but this script makes the old tommy gun rhythm of gangsterisms sound like Shakespeare.
If you're going to put Cagney and Bogart in a gangster movie together, you'd better have enough one-liners to go around, and in this case the script almost over-delivers. Then there's the clockwork structure, the relentless pace, the inventive imagery in the transitional newsreel-style montages, this is the peak of the gangster film form.
If you've ever loved a gangster movie, you owe it to yourself to check this out.
This review of The Roaring Twenties (1939) was written by Randall A on 26 Apr 2011.
The Roaring Twenties has generally received very positive reviews.
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