The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Directed by Raoul Walsh

Film Review

The Roaring Twenties is the film that brought down the curtain on a decade of slick American gangster movies in consummate style, and is widely regarded as one of the best of the genre.  It's an epic film that spans the entire dizzy decade - from the end of WWI, through the years of Prohibition, right up to the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression.  The screenplay was drawn from the experiences of producer Mark Hellinger when he worked as a journalist in the 1920s.  (Cagney's character was based on the notorious real-life mobster Larry Fay.)  This, together with the newsreel-like inserts between the main narrative segments, gives the film an edge of documentary-style realism.  It was director Raoul Walsh's first gangster film; he was a last minute replacement for Anatole Litvak.

It may not have been the last gangster film to have been made, but The Roaring Twenties does effectively mark the end of a era.  In this and all subsequent films about 1930s American gangsterism, there is a distinct impression that we are looking back to some mythical age, a time far removed from our own.  During the 1930s, the gangster was less a myth and more an all too easily remembered fact of life, and so the films made during this decade have an authenticity and visceral immediacy which make them stand apart from any film made subsequently.

The Roaring Twenties was the first film to set the age of the American gangster in its proper historical context - between WWI and Great Depression.  Whilst not condoning criminal activity, the film does set out to explain the origins of the gangster scourge - as the result of unfortunate social, political and environmental factors.  Prohibition removed the supply of alcohol but not the demand, so all it achieved was the creation of a thriving underworld populated by increasingly greedy hoodlums.  Unemployed disaffected war veterans with experience of using weaponry became the foot soldiers in a new kind of war - organised crime relating to the sale and distribution of illegal alcohol.

It is a film which, despite its being in black-and-white, provides the most colourful and vivid portrayal of the Jazz Age - instantly and richly evocative of the world conjured up by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his great novels. Whilst paying homage to the gangster films of the recent past, the film brings in several other elements - melodrama, musical and comedy - in a concoction that is well-balanced and immensely satisfying.  The inclusion of many popular songs of the era (Melancholy Baby, I'm Wild About Harry and It Had to Be You) adds greatly to the film's appeal without making too big a distraction from the narrative.

Raoul Walsh's skilful direction succeeds in getting the best out of a fine cast of actors.  Particularly memorable is James Cagney.  In one of his most substantial roles, Cagney brings to his performance not just his familiar tough guy charm, but also a deeply engaging emotional depth and pathos; he is particularly poignant in the final sequences.  Incredibly, this was to be Cagney's last gangster film for a decade - he wouldn't return to the genre until White Heat in 1949, again directed by Raoul Walsh. 

The film also marks the third and final pairing of Cagney with Humphrey Bogart - they had previously appeared together in Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) and Oklahoma Kid (1939).  Whilst Cagney's character is very much the "good boy turned bad", Bogart's is just pure unadulterated evil.   At the time, Bogart was teetering on the brink of stardom; here we get a glimpse of the hard-edged, cynical characters that would define his screen persona and quickly establish him as one of Hollywood's most iconic actors.  Priscilla Lane may sing nearly all the songs, but it's Gladys George who gets the best lines and, after Cagney,  is the second best thing about the film.  A great screenplay, a great director and a great cast - just three reasons why The Roaring Twenties is essential viewing for any aficionado of the classic Hollywood gangster movie.

Film Synopsis

Returning to New York after World War I, Eddie Bartlett has difficulty finding honest work.  The introduction of Prohibition gives him his first break - he makes easy money by delivering illicit alcohol. With the proceeds of an increasingly lucrative bootleg operation, Eddie builds a successful taxi business.  He buys a nightclub where he finds a spot for Jean, an aspiring young singer he has fallen in love with.  He doesn't realise that Jean loves someone else, his lawyer, Lloyd Hart.  Eddie's fortunes begin to take a turn for the worse when he poaches an alcohol procurer, George Hally, from a rival racketeer.  Hally has no intention of remaining the junior partner in the operation for long...