Name of US 80s comedy film/VHS rise of early 20th century Irish gangs

Okay, it's over two years since I posted here and have still not found the name of this movie and it's driving me nuts.
I watched it twice on VHS, once before '93 and it wasn't so old then, then found it on VHS later and watched - i.e. I know it exists and I am positive of the time period.
It's an American made movie either released on VHS or maybe had a run, not sure. I have looked through over 1,500 comedy titles of the 80's and early 90's and also tried actors I think i remember in the movie with no luck.

It might have been sepia toned or in black and white but I remember 'sepia', and was the narrated story from one character's POV about the rise of newly arrived immigrants in Irish street gangs in either New York or a large city like Boston. I believe it had to be a mid to late 80's film and want to say it had some Brat Pack actor in it but I've looked at their film bios and cannot find this movie, but I know there were recognizable actors from that time period. This might have been some kooky film they did for fun, it had to have had a decent budget with the street scenes in it. Street scenes had horses, vegetable carts, turn of the century tenement housing, trucks like from the early 20's - 30's and lots of extras for crowds.

The story was narrated by this one main character about the lives of all the poor immigrant people in his neighborhood, was both 'historical', drama and hilariously funny. I think the narrator might have started out as a kid hanging out with older gang members and then himself getting involved more intensely and how that played out among his friends as they grew up. It had a kind of tongue in cheek flavor to it and I want to say there were old timey 'scene changes' using screens with old fashioned script like they used in silent movies.

It was definitely a funny movie and the one scene am positive I remember is of one of these 'known' actors of the 80's walking up the tenement stairs with his dirty clothes to the simple room of an old Irish washerwoman, and there's the voice over narration of who she was etc, and in the scene she flirts with the young man and saucily says "I go both ways ya know" in an Irish accent.

I thought it might have a title like Sidewalks of New York, or 'Once upon a Time ___....' 'East Side____...' but that could be contextual memory to the Eastern US location.
it is absolutely driving me crazy as I know it exists, it's not from the stone age, but appears to have vanished from the movie collective. Very odd!
If anyone knows anything, omg, you have no idea how much it would be appreciated!!!

I think that it could be something like American Me (1992), but I'm not sure, because I watched this movie only once in my life. Although it isn't comedy movie and I don't remember your scene.

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Hey thanks for replying! Unfortunately it's not that movie. It was definitely a comedy or at least a very humorous look told from the POV of one of the main characters and took place much further back in time turn of the last century.
I am gonna go nuts not being able to find this movie, I don't understand how a movie can just disappear like that. A friend had rented his favorite films for me to watch together and it was in with Ferris Buehler's Day Off, Top Gun, Fast Times at Ridgemont High etc. I guess I'll have to hit all films from the 70's next and hope it was some very late 70's release on VHS. It was def rented from a movie video store or whatever they were called back then lol, I know the sucker exists out there somewhere. Anyone in their late 50's 60's 70's could have watched it when it was first released, am counting on one of you out there to end my quest! This is frackin getting annoying! Thanks for trying to help solve the riddle!!!!

What a pity that I didn't find your movie, but I will be look for correct answer. Perhaps my familiars from Polish "message boards" will be know the answer, because I translated your post.

You farging iceholes. It's gotta be
Johnny Dangerously

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Your vulgarity aside, no, it's not Johnny Dangerously. There is a scene in JD where the mother says she "goes both ways" but this is not the movie am trying to find. Mine had an Irish washerwoman inside a rickety wooden tenement house in the ghetto flirting with the young man holding his dirty clothes.
JD is too modern, in color, and just...not it, but thank you for your exuberant reply!

Maybe Goodfellas (1990) ?

Hey there, that was a great movie but not it either. I combed IMDb and flickchart and still no luck. I'm starting to think this was some independent 'for our own fun' underground type release movie, but there should be a record of it you'd think.

I've watched Johnny Dangerously and Good Fellas, looked at every possible plot synopsis, key words and coming up empty. I don't recall it was ever released into cinemas and was definitely not a popular hit like Good Fellas which is a classic. When I suggested it long ago to two friends they'd never heard of it, and I'd never heard of it when my friend played it for me. Maybe I need hypnosis at this point lol.

I know it was the pov narration story of Irish street gang beginnings in the early 1900's with no modernity like in JD, it might have been entirely shot in sepia tone but definitely was partially.

It's getting to be 'long ago', wish I knew more how Hollywood operated with straight to VHS only releases and films possibly put together by actors themselves without a big studio push.

The thing about IMDb is their advanced search is not that great. There are plenty of movies not even shown on there that I do know the title and proper category for. Leaves room for doubt about having a full catalog, though they DO have treasures like 'She Devils of the SS' (1973) lol Thanks for the suggestion, I'm just happy people are even trying to figure it out, much appreciated!

I'll throw out Radio Days (with Seth Green as the kid), but it's Jewish-American and radio is a big part of the movie. It is a comedy with a gangster shooting in it.

Just about everything you mentioned in your original post - except the sepia tone - describes Johnny Dangerously, including Johnny's mother who makes a living doing wash in their walkup tenement at one point uttering this line in her Irish accent, unexpectedly flirting with her son's boyfriend...





Do you really believe there are two comedies from that era about a gangster's rise in the 1920s that features a washerwoman saying the line, "I go both ways"? There are not. There is only one and it is called Johnny Dangerously. "Did you know your last name's an adverb?"


And I wasn't cursing at anybody earlier, I was replicating the outrageous broken English of one of the characters.




If you want to continue to believe it is some mystery movie, of course you are welcome to. I would suggest rewatching Johnny Dangerously again. I suspect you will find it is the movie you are remembering and that you memory has painted it in sepia tone even though it is not. At the very least your memory has fused it with something else. But an immigrant gangster narrating his own rise from a poor boy to racketeer with the very specific line of going both ways is absolutely Johnny Dangerously. You mind has somehow given it the production values of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America, but trust me that one ain't a comedy. Unless one finds rape and betrayal funny.

Oh thank you but it's not that one either, I'm still looking!

WOW! Is this your movie 'in-forum posting' tone?
I HAVE watched the movie JD, it's not it, so rest your head and assumptions over that one. I went through all the clips on youtube and um no from the get go. The entire scene with the "I go both ways ya know" is totally and completely off. Completely. The JD mother's apartment was posh in comparison, the line was not spoken to a daughter in law but to a young man, there were no pearls around the neck and handbag clutched, no color, the entire scene is wrong wrong wrong.
There was no Dom Deluis as a Pope etc etc etc. JD was a slapstick comedy, this was a more understated humorous one which did not involve over the top gags and an in-color cast, not a big budget movie, did not have big names in it like Keaton, De Vito etc..
This was not an "immigrant gangster narrating his own rise from a poor boy to a racketeer" and that 'racketeer' being goofball Johnny Dangerously. The narrating portion was not done by a "successful racketeer".
My goodness, since you 'know everything', please don't bother responding again.

I was thinking that this sounds familiar and that it was something I've seen in the last few years. The movie I'm thinking of is actually Once Upon a Time in America, which I hated. There is an extended scene that goes back to character's childhood that was surprisingly comedic, considering the rest of the film. I think it was about an hour into the movie.

Oooooooooo that's a hot tip. I'll find that portion of the film. If it's sepia toned and has the only scene I remember then it very well could be. I don't remember anything gawd awful vis violence but might have just focused on the good comedic parts.
I can't shake the memory of some Brat Pack actor being in there possibly. Am trying to track down straight to VHS films that never hit cinemas, and also actor produced independent type films. Thanks for your suggestion! I'm on it!

The scene actually starts around the 35-40 minute mark but I'm not sure it's your movie. However I do suspect that the movie you're looking for isn't a flat out comedy, which is why you haven't found it. I can picture the scene you describe in my head.

Hmmmm! Now this is spinning me off into looking more closely at anything a Brat Packer might have made. I have wondered if perhaps that scene was in a Western and the Irish lilt flirt portion got me going on all things Irish. It's possible the old timey written in script scene change cards would fit with a Western.
It is maddening as my memory is so clear on that one scene. When I rented it for my brother in law and sister to watch I knew that scene was coming up and they laughed like crazy. Either I'm nuts or it's out there. I'm positive it was a much younger man she was flirting with, it was not JD's mother, it was not spoken to JD's female love interest. The entire scene was in a very tiny and cramped space (JD's mum's apartment was luxurious in comparison), the young man was embarrassed just wanting to get out of there and skedaddled. If THAT scene is in the JD movie then yeah!
I'll check out the De Niro flick, anything to pare down the possible pile. I'm still suspecting an indie-type straight to VHS. If recollection is correct even the sleeve the VHS was in was a kind of sepia/beige with the written script, something very non-flashy.
I had another quest years back where I knew I had seen a concert in a resort type setting (80's), and with the clues I had online search was not coming back with anything, nor any official 'group members' matching my recollection. It took some sleuthing and a friend's tip to check out one music list site and I found that indeed a certain group of musicians had played together 'unofficially' for a period of about two years and toured, they were all very big names too connected to other famous groups . I knew I wasn't crazy and knew who I had seen and listened to but just couldn't find anything online to back that up, but I got the name they used! I'm tenacious!

Could it be a scene from 'Far And Away' (1992)?

The Irish immigrant in turn-of-the-last-century America scenario fits in with your description....and Tom Cruise was one of those brat-pack types.

Just a suggestion. Perhaps someone more familiar with that movie could chime in here?

That's not a bad guess with part of the movie being in Boston. I hadn't remembered that. The time frame doesn't fit with it being in the 1890's and not the 20's/30's. Cruise is also a grown man, and no narration or signboards.

I posted the closest thing to that kind of scene in Once Upon a Time in America above to see if it would jog your memory. One of the young gangsters-in-training (by the way, the characters in OUATIA are Jewish immigrants, not Irish) finds out that one of the girls in the building will trade sexual favors for pastries. The payoff being later when the characters are grown we see she has become an overweight madame of a whore house. The youngest of the gang has yet to have sex, so he gets the fanciest cupcake he can and goes to lose his virginity with the girl. As he is waiting for her in the hallway he unwraps the pastry and tastes the frosting, then the cherry, then decides to eat the whole thing. It is a cute and somewhat comedic scene in the middle of a lot of brutality and death, that this character was still enough of a child underneath it all that he would rather have a cupcake than to fu*k. And for the record, the girl he is going to see does not say anything in the realm of, "I go both ways."


And yes, that is the actress who later played Seinfeld's mom at the door. Earlier the young DeNiro character discovers the sex-for-pastry price in the building's bathroom. Again, nothing like the line you remember is in that scene either.




Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America is 229 minutes long in its original theatrical presentation (the extended cut now on most DVDs is the even longer 250-minute version) and on VHS was a double cassette set. The U.S. box art looked like this and is sepia toned, even though the actual film is not...


If you watched a three hour and 49 minute movie at least twice and that one scene is the thing that you (mis)remember and have put it in a comedy would be like having a vague memory of seeing the original Star Wars (1977) and saying, 'I can't remember much about it but I know for sure there is like a crazy chess scene with holograms. I think it may be about competitive chess in a future society?'

But you should watch Once Upon a Time in America anyway. It's a good flick.

Jesus I didn't even notice Holden posted about that movie. The scene I'm thinking of has an older and I think bigger woman than the one in OUATIA, but I can't think of where it's from and it might not be the same scene the op is looking for anyway.