Rating: 
Summary: "Whaddya hear? Whaddya say?"
Review: "Angels with Dirty Faces" is one of the greatest gangster pictures of the 1930's, a decade which saw many great ones. Some people might be turned off by the old style acting (When people shoot, it seems more like they are punching). But I very much enjoyed this movie, and I'm only 14! (Some plot spoilers). James Cagney is "Rocky" Sullivan, who as a kid was driven to a life of crime by an arrest. Cagney gives what some consider his definitive gangster performance, which was awarded by the New York Film Critics as best actor, but was not awarded by the academy. Pat O'Brien is his childhood friend Jerry Connolly, who is now a priest. He is concerned with Sullivan's involvement on a group of kids, believing that he is influencing them in a life of crime. He vows to fight organized crime, even if that means crushing his friend. Before he was a major star, Humphrey Bogart was a supporting player who made a major impact. In here, he plays Sullivan's lawyer, who tries to knock off Rocky after his release from prison. There is also Ann Sheridan as Laury, a love interest to Sullivan, and there are also the Dead End Kids (Led by Billy Halop as "Soapy"). I will make this short and sweet. You must see this movie. If you want more, you must own this movie. Thank You.
Rating: 
Summary: SYMPATHETIC BUT WITH TONGUE IN CHEEK - AVERAGE TRANSFER
Review: A couple of Hell's Kitchen hell raisers - Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) and Jerry Connolly (Pat O'Brien) part company after being sent to reform school in Michael Curtiz's classic "Angels With Dirty Faces" (1938). For Rocky, the years of meditation transform him into a first class criminal with a bitter grudge and destiny to fulfill. For Jerry, the prospect of becoming a career criminal is enough to scare him straight into the priesthood.
The years pass and Rocky and Jerry are once more reunited; this time in their old neighborhood but on opposite sides of the law. In a sort of Father Flannigan twist, Jerry desires to have a positive impact on the lives of children who, like his former self, are on the fast track to nowhere. Rocky resurfaces as a ghetto gangster, exploiting Jerry's acquired goodness to suit his own end. Ann Sheridan surfaces thrillingly and to great effect as Rocky's wickedly playful girl Friday, Laury Ferguson.
The Dead End Kids, a troop of street urchins who became model citizens through celluloid worship and pop culture are in this one to - playing themselves for either saintly salvation or sinful self-destruction. Rapid and gunfire results. Director, Curtiz is in top form with this meshing of the light and the terrorized, inserting a winning combination of action and comedy that is engaging throughout.
Warner's DVD is not as successful. The gray scale is often dark or seemingly underexposed. Though it is, at times, nicely balanced, the image quality is rather inconsistent. Film grain and age related artifacts are spread throughout the print material which shows signs of various source materials being incorporated. Fine details are often lost in darker scenes. Whites are generally not clean, though at times they can be. Flickering and shimmering occurs during several key scenes. The audio is adequately balanced in mono. A featurette, commentary by historian Dana Polan and Leonard Maltin's hosting of "Warner's A Night At The Movies" are the extras you'll find. Polan's audio is a bit flat and disengaged from the material. Maltin's segment seems somewhat more rushed than on other Warner discs. This film comes highly recommended for content. The video presentation is better than average but far from perfect.
Rating:
Summary: The Angels: Their Dirt Washes Off
Review: ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES is no by the numbers gangster melodrama of the 1930s. It is a penetrating insight into a number of well-known character types. Director Michael Curtiz portrays a bulls-eye of distinct personalities with Rocky Sullivan centered on ground zero. James Cagney, who plays Sullivan with the bravura performance of a long and distinguished career, absolutely dominates each scene with his tongue and flashing arms. Sullivan is a recently released convict from Brooklyn who returns to the scene of his youth and finds that the local youth gangs have elevated him to heroic stature. He takes this adulation in stride; he has business to take care of. He plans to regain money taken from him by a former cohort in crime (Humphrey Bogart), or failing that, to kill him. Yet, despite his criminal life, there is much good within him. At one time early in life, the merest of chances pushed him down the wrong path of a one way street while allowing another (Pat O'Brien) to take the right one. His life after that was predictable: reform school, the criminal life, back to jail, a hard-nosed attitude about life. Now he walks the streets, attempting to have it all, money, a good-looking dame (sweetly played by Ann Sheridan), and the respect of his peers, even if those peers are the Dead End Kids. These kids form the first outer circle around Rocky. They are both literally and emotionally around him. In Sullivan's interactions with them, he is squarely centered, tossing out bills as if they were candy bars, smacking them on the head with his fedora hat, exhorting them with words to upgrade their lives. And they, of course, tough as they are, lionize him, protecting him and his property from the common enemy--the cops--, and setting in motion the wheels to wind up just like him. In the third and final circle orbiting Sullivan lie the trio of Sullivan's girlfriend (Ann Sheridan), his crooked business partner (Bogie) and the other boy whom fate pushed down the right path to grow up to be a priest (O'Brien).
Try as hard as he can, Rocky cannot escape the bulls-eye painted plainly on his forehead. His girlfriend badgers him to go straight. The Dead End Kids are contstantly in trouble, trying to emulate their hoodlum god. Bogie has sicced both his own hoods and the cops in a vain attempt to eliminate Sullivan. And Father Jerry (O'Brien) tells Sullivan up front that he will go after him using the power of the media. It would have been easy for Sullivan to despair and act meanly, but he adheres to his own moral code that demands that all debts be paid. To his surprise, when he is arrested by the police and is ready to face the electric chair, Father Jerry reminds him of one more debt to be paid. This debt is to kids like those who idolize him and expect him to, in Rocky's own words, 'to walk up to the executioner and spit in his eye.' Father Jerry asks a great deal of him, to pretend fear and die seen as a gutless coward. Some debts, Father Jerry reminds him, are tougher to pay than others. The movie ends with the Dead End Kids emotionally flattened, their hero as just another yellow punk who could not walk that last walk unaided. ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES is a character drama that uses crime and hero worship as a backdrop against which a flavor of a decade is portrayed. The angels at the close of this movie have been convinced that one of their own had been permanently covered with the dirt of cowardice. Yet the audience knows that the dirt of crime can be washed off if the one facing his destiny can only scrub hard enough.
Rating:
Summary: The Angels: Their Dirt Washes Off
Review: ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES is no by the numbers gangster melodrama of the 1930s. It is a penetrating insight into a number of well-known character types. Director Michael Curtiz portrays a bulls-eye of distinct personalities with Rocky Sullivan centered on ground zero. James Cagney, who plays Sullivan with the bravura performance of a long and distinguished career, absolutely dominates each scene with his tongue and flashing arms. Sullivan is a recently released convict from Brooklyn who returns to the scene of his youth and finds that the local youth gangs have elevated him to heroic stature. He takes this adulation in stride; he has business to take care of. He plans to regain money taken from him by a former cohort in crime (Humphrey Bogart), or failing that, to kill him. Yet, despite his criminal life, there is much good within him. At one time early in life, the merest of chances pushed him down the wrong path of a one way street while allowing another (Pat O'Brien) to take the right one. His life after that was predictable: reform school, the criminal life, back to jail, a hard-nosed attitude about life. Now he walks the streets, attempting to have it all, money, a good-looking dame (sweetly played by Ann Sheridan), and the respect of his peers, even if those peers are the Dead End Kids. These kids form the first outer circle around Rocky. They are both literally and emotionally around him. In Sullivan's interactions with them, he is squarely centered, tossing out bills as if they were candy bars, smacking them on the head with his fedora hat, exhorting them with words to upgrade their lives. And they, of course, tough as they are, lionize him, protecting him and his property from the common enemy--the cops--, and setting in motion the wheels to wind up just like him. In the third and final circle orbiting Sullivan lie the trio of Sullivan's girlfriend (Ann Sheridan), his crooked business partner (Bogie) and the other boy whom fate pushed down the right path to grow up to be a priest (O'Brien).
Try as hard as he can, Rocky cannot escape the bulls-eye painted plainly on his forehead. His girlfriend badgers him to go straight. The Dead End Kids are contstantly in trouble, trying to emulate their hoodlum god. Bogie has sicced both his own hoods and the cops in a vain attempt to eliminate Sullivan. And Father Jerry (O'Brien) tells Sullivan up front that he will go after him using the power of the media. It would have been easy for Sullivan to despair and act meanly, but he adheres to his own moral code that demands that all debts be paid. To his surprise, when he is arrested by the police and is ready to face the electric chair, Father Jerry reminds him of one more debt to be paid. This debt is to kids like those who idolize him and expect him to, in Rocky's own words, 'to walk up to the executioner and spit in his eye.' Father Jerry asks a great deal of him, to pretend fear and die seen as a gutless coward. Some debts, Father Jerry reminds him, are tougher to pay than others. The movie ends with the Dead End Kids emotionally flattened, their hero as just another yellow punk who could not walk that last walk unaided. ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES is a character drama that uses crime and hero worship as a backdrop against which a flavor of a decade is portrayed. The angels at the close of this movie have been convinced that one of their own had been permanently covered with the dirt of cowardice. Yet the audience knows that the dirt of crime can be washed off if the one facing his destiny can only scrub hard enough.
Rating:
Summary: don't see this for Bogie
Review: As a life-long Bogart fan, I couldn't pass up this VHS movie on the sale rack. I had seen it 25 years ago and I recalled that it was a mediocre role for Bogie. I was right about that; This is a James Cagney movie all that way. Nothing wrong with that; I became a Cagney fan watching a lot of those old Bogart movies. What really impressed me about this movie is the beginning. Cagney plays a character named Rocky Sullivan but the movie opens with Rocky as a teenager played by Frankie Burke. Young Mr. Burke does a better Cagney imitation than Rich Little ever did. Cagney does a pretty good job himself as he plays someone who learned the wrong lessons in the school of hard knocks. In and out of prison, we finally catch up with him as he's released from the Pen one more time. This time he goes back to his old New York neighborhood to collect on the $100,000 he stashed with his lawyer after his last big haul. The lawyer is the Bogart character who does everything to prevent Rocky from collecting his money. Along side this story is a romance with Ann Sheridan and a rekindling of friendship with his old partner who is now a priest. Pat O'Brien plays this role and does it like we'd expect to see Pat O'Brien playing a priest. However, next to Cagney's role, the main focus is on the "Angels" played by Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey and the Dead End kids. These kids are a bit much but they are important because they come to idolize Rocky Sullivan. Let's skip ahead here; Rocky gets even with Bogart and his gang, Ann Sheridan falls in love with him, and Father O'Brien takes time out from building a recreation center for boys so that he can fight corruption. Rocky is headed for the electric chair and Father O'Brien is concerned that his old friend will become a martyr to the "Angels". Rocky, who's not backed down from anyone so far in the movie, rudely declines to play the coward. Of course, at the last minute he does and that, I guess, is the saving grace for the "Angels". OK, this is fairly standard fare for Hollywood in the 30's but, in my estimation, this one goes a bit too far. The problem is the headlines the next day. In print that takes up a third of the front page we read "ROCKY SULLIVAN DIES A COWARD". Maybe it was a slow news day but I find it hard to think that's a New York City headline. Of course, we see the headlines because the "Angels" are reading the paper as we rejoin them. That's all it takes: they drop Rocky like a hot potato (pardon the metaphor) and follow Father O'Brien off to the new recreation center. I enjoyed the action, the acting and the basic plot up to the end. I just never bought into the ending
Rating:
Summary: don't see this for Bogie
Review: Humphrey Bogart's part is minor. ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES is a Cagney movie. Sure, it does seem dated. See it for the old boys' gymnasium, the boys playing basketball in their gym clothes, the trapezes hanging from the gymnasium ceiling above the basketball court. See it for Cagney helping the priest by refereeing a game, and punching the kids around when they commit fouls. Cagney looks good as Rocky Sullivan, famous gangster put away for years, only to return to the streets. Doublecrossed by two former allies, he guns them down, only to be hunted down by police. Cagney's the real McCoy. This is classic Cagney and not to be missed by fans of gangster movies. ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES: 5 stars
Rating:
Summary: The Ending and more
Review: I must have seen this film about 30 times while I was growing up. Realizing James Cagney was the best of his Generation. Every time I watched it I wanted the ending to be different. It had such an impact on me. Did he do it for the Kids? Did he just get Yellow at the last minute like the Guard said? A question we will never have answered.
Other scenes that were great was seeing the streets of NY( even though it was really the backlot). The scene of seeing Gagney coming into the church and hearing the Choir singing is memorable. As a young boy watching it for the first time in the 50's I fell in love with Ann Sheridan as well. A real knockout.
This film will go down in Film History as one of the best of it's kind.
Rating: 
Summary: A pattern of continual forward motion!
Review: Not just an exciting gangster movie, but also another textbook illustration of the form of slam-bang entertainment we just don't get anymore. In a time when so-called action pictures are stretching into two-and-a-half hour time slots--where simple-minded mechanical plots unfold and develop predictably only between longeurs of gratuitous violence and graphic bloodshed--this multi-layered crime actioner which unfolds at a breathless pace and movement never drops below adrenal levels, is more welcome than ever. Director Michael Curtiz--in his trademark style--weaves a pattern of constant forward motion! He has the perfect fast-talking, fast-swinging, vividly confident lead, James Cagney as Rocky Sullivan; and he has a supporting cast (including Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, Pat O'Brien, and the Dead End Kids) that can provide vibrant chemistry to a scene and snappy dialogue that keeps going off like firecrackers. Curtiz's choreography of actors, and his skill at keeping the cameras moving, packs the screen with continuous movement (indeed, at times, it may be a bit TOO rambunctious!). The story--an interesting spin on the gangster "anti-hero," so as to provide stylish social comment--is expounded with such break-neck velocity that the plethora of twists and turns reach a stunning climax is an hour-and-a-half! Studio sets that stand as a tribute to the old Hollywood expertise serve as a brilliantly seamless backdrop. Longtime Curtiz assosiate Sol Polito ("The Sea Wolf," "The Sea Hawk," etc.) styles a shadowy, gritty atmosphere with his lighting and lenses. Best of all, is the invigorating enthusiasm and terrific bravura provided by the entire cast and crew; two of those magic elements which seem to have all but disappeared from this modern cinema age.
Rating:
Summary: SENTIMENTAL GANGSTER CLASSIC
Review: Off-screen pals James Cagney and Pat O'Brien team up for the sixth time in ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938). Nominated for three Oscars", this classic stars Cagney as a kid from New York's Hell's Kitchen whose underworld rise makes him a hero to a gang of slum punks. O'Brien is the boyhood pal-turned-priest who vows to end Rocky's influence.
Extras: a 1938 newsreel, "Where the Stars Begin" musical short and "Porky and Daffy" cartoon. Also, the new featurette "Whaddya Hear? Whaddya Say?" The interesting commentary's by Dana Polan and there's a terrific audio bonus of the original radio broadcast starring Cagney and O'Brien.
Rating:
Summary: Great except for one thing
Review: Overall a great movie except for one major complaint that I had, although I realize I'm in the minority view here. The ending is just silly. There is no way Rocky would have gone out the way he did, pretending to be a coward--he would have died as he had lived--with courage and composure--however he might agree with Father Connolly about how he had lived his life. A better ending would have been for the father to have visited Rocky earlier. When Father Connolly arrives, he only has ten minutes to talk to Rocky before his execution. Had he arrived earlier, he could then have persuaded Rocky to write a letter to the "dead-end kids" gang who looked up to him that although he intended to die bravely, as he had lived--his life as a gangster was ultimately a failure and that he wanted the kids to know that and not make the same mistakes he did. They could even have published the letter in the paper, where it would have had equally dramatic an effect as the newspaper reports of Rocky's feigned cowardice during the electrocution scene. Had they done the ending like this, Rocky would still have redeemed himself in the end, it would have made far more sense, and I think it would have made for a much better ending.
|
