← Back to Reviews
in
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Director: Raoul Walsh
Writers: Jerry Wald & Richard Macaulay (screen play), Mark Hellinger (story)
Cast: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Gladys George, Jeffery Lynn, Frank McHugh
Genre: Drama
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Writers: Jerry Wald & Richard Macaulay (screen play), Mark Hellinger (story)
Cast: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Gladys George, Jeffery Lynn, Frank McHugh
Genre: Drama
An epic recounting of the rise and fall of Prohibition during the 1920s, and of three men who meet during WWI and later become involved in the bootlegging of illegal booze.
In 1939 Warner Brothers studio made The Roaring Twenties a film that pays homage to the early 1930's gangster films that made Warner Brothers a household name....and made stars out of two of their actors, who were famous for playing tough guy gangsters, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart.
The movie is the pinnacle of what Warner Bros had learned from their many gangster films. It takes a broad sweeping style and tells an interwoven epic story, all done in semi-documentary form. Remember this is made in 1939 but is about the roaring 1920s, hence it's a period piece. Voice over narrative and mock news reels give the film the effect of authenticity, something which Warner Bros was famous for with their 'ripped from the news headlines' movie stories.
The movie really gives a blow by blow account of how prohibition came to be and gave rise to the manufacturing and disturbing of alcohol. We see bathtub gin being made, we see how it gets into the speakeasies, and how it leads to escalating crime and violence.
Cagney is the lead and the story tells how these three young men who meet up in a foxhole during a bombing attack, dream of what they will do when they get back home. The scene is an important one as it foreshadows the personality and there forth the fate of the three men. Each man has quite a different path during the 1920s.
Bogart is second billed here. He had not reached top star status as he later would in 1941 with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. It's interesting to see Bogart in this early role, one can see his screen presence is already well developed...But he's playing a different character than we are use to seeing him as. Here he's a sniveling bastard, a real cut throat...and to the films credit they foreshadow that when Bogart lays into Jeffrey Lynn who plays the college boy nice guy at the start of the film. Bogart is good at being bad.
One of my favorite performances is Gladys George who plays the night club owner Panama Smith. Her character is modeled after the real life, colorful Texas Guinan, who ran a famous speakeasy in NYC during prohibition. Gladys George plays her character with a lot of heart and sadness too, as she's the ignored part of a love triangle.
The other part of that triangle is Priscilla Lane who's a fresh faced kid that falls for Cagney. He gives her no notice until he runs into her several years later, and she's all grown up. Then he's smitten with her. She sings a couple of brief songs, and yes that's her singing. She was a singer before turning to acting.
The Roaring Twenties is not a shoot em up flick, it's a retrospective look at prohibition, done up big scale, with a talented cast of Warner Brothers stars.
In 1939 Warner Brothers studio made The Roaring Twenties a film that pays homage to the early 1930's gangster films that made Warner Brothers a household name....and made stars out of two of their actors, who were famous for playing tough guy gangsters, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart.
The movie is the pinnacle of what Warner Bros had learned from their many gangster films. It takes a broad sweeping style and tells an interwoven epic story, all done in semi-documentary form. Remember this is made in 1939 but is about the roaring 1920s, hence it's a period piece. Voice over narrative and mock news reels give the film the effect of authenticity, something which Warner Bros was famous for with their 'ripped from the news headlines' movie stories.
The movie really gives a blow by blow account of how prohibition came to be and gave rise to the manufacturing and disturbing of alcohol. We see bathtub gin being made, we see how it gets into the speakeasies, and how it leads to escalating crime and violence.
Cagney is the lead and the story tells how these three young men who meet up in a foxhole during a bombing attack, dream of what they will do when they get back home. The scene is an important one as it foreshadows the personality and there forth the fate of the three men. Each man has quite a different path during the 1920s.
Bogart is second billed here. He had not reached top star status as he later would in 1941 with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. It's interesting to see Bogart in this early role, one can see his screen presence is already well developed...But he's playing a different character than we are use to seeing him as. Here he's a sniveling bastard, a real cut throat...and to the films credit they foreshadow that when Bogart lays into Jeffrey Lynn who plays the college boy nice guy at the start of the film. Bogart is good at being bad.
One of my favorite performances is Gladys George who plays the night club owner Panama Smith. Her character is modeled after the real life, colorful Texas Guinan, who ran a famous speakeasy in NYC during prohibition. Gladys George plays her character with a lot of heart and sadness too, as she's the ignored part of a love triangle.
The other part of that triangle is Priscilla Lane who's a fresh faced kid that falls for Cagney. He gives her no notice until he runs into her several years later, and she's all grown up. Then he's smitten with her. She sings a couple of brief songs, and yes that's her singing. She was a singer before turning to acting.
The Roaring Twenties is not a shoot em up flick, it's a retrospective look at prohibition, done up big scale, with a talented cast of Warner Brothers stars.