Is this the best gangster film from the old days?

For me, its a toss-up between this and "Angels with Dirty Faces."

I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!

Odd comment from "Empire" whoever they are. It's a well known film to anyone who watches classic films. It may be unknown to people who only are sniffing around the era looking at people's "top 100" lists are such silliness as that.

ROARING TWENTIES is a standout in many ways - it covers about 15 years in the history of the characters lives - approx 1918 to 1933. That's unusual. Plus most of the events it depicts werre still fresh in people's memories - much of the film is set only 15 years earlier. Much of the story involves characters that the author, newspaperman Mark Hellinger, knew personally. His written screen prologue and the opening narration set up the mood for much of the film. It's filled with high energy, great scenes and great dialog and memorable characters. It's not just a 'kill-fest' and I know people who have not liked the film.

It's pretty accurately regarded as the last great gangster film of the 1930s.

I've been watching it for years and I never grow tired of it.

And that fabulous WB studio orchestra and those orchestrations and great old songs!

*I saw some retro episode of One Tree Hill the other night that had scenes directly ripped or 'inspired' by THE ROARING TWENTIES. (Didn't help much , though!)

Sincerely,
Your Aunt Sadie from Jersey City
"My feelin's is gettin' hurt."
"Alright, Danny, alright"
"Like to laugh, eh?"
and good ol' Lefty who so politely lets one of the characters know that another character will kill her husband under circumstances which are about to possibly occur and finishes hiw warning with a friendly, "That's all", then smiles again and walks away.

and the classic Bogart line - (I am doing this from memory, so bear with me):
"Listen, "Havard", you came into this racket with your eyes open. You learned a lot and you know a lot and if you tell any of it, you'll go out with your eyes open, only this time they'll have pennies on them."

One could complain that it over-romanicizes the gangsters, but Warner and Cagney's White Heat ten years later would make up for it!

Ain't THAT the truth!

Actually, I loved the three early talkie gangster flicks you mention and, whenever I view them, I can tell that the studio was trying hard to make a better product than the run-of-the-mill of the day. Despite their technological limitations, Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni and even George Raft were all terrific in those pictures and their performances, alone, make the creakiness and the dated acting style of many of the supporting actors worth sitting through each of those movies.

But you're right. "The Roaring Twenties" was timed right--1939, the year when Old Hollywood hit its zenith with more memorable motion pictures than any year before or (arguably) since!

You could argue that Cagney, as Eddie Bartlett, isn't "over-romanticized" because he wasn't "born" to the life of a criminal and his sense of mercy and fair play were deemed weaknesses by his enemies/rivals and even his so-called friends (like Bogie's character).



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