Released: 1939

Dir. Raoul Walsh

     I remember seeing The Roaring Twenties for the first time on a Sunday afternoon, courtesy of our local PBS station just across the border. During the winter months WNED was airing the classic Warner Brothers films, and if I remember correctly, the focus was mainly on the films of James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. As luck would have it The Roaring Twenties starred both.

     I’d of course seen films from the golden age of Hollywood before, but somehow, the Warner Brothers movies are special. I probably have more Warner Bothers movies in my collection than any other studio. The Roaring Twenties was the first movie I watched, even before Casablanca, where I recognized the Warner look, and the Warner style of storytelling.  All the studios had their niche, their own style. MGM had a sheen, Warner’s had grit.

     Like the greatest Warner movies of the late thirties, Angels with Dirty Faces, the Adventures of Robin Hood, Dark Victory, Each Dawn I Die, The Roaring Twenties draws you in to the story, the sound stage and backlot sets disappear, and in our mind become real. A hallmark of a Warner Brothers film is the story is always moving forward, but not so fast you don’t get to know the characters and feel for them.  James Cagney is Eddie Bartlett, he may talk and move like Cagney, but he’s Eddie and you are in his world.

     The story revolves around Eddie and the Prohibition years, his disillusionment coming home from the war, no work, and having to turn to illegal means to make a buck. Eddie sees it as opportunity, as he knows the public will be craving alcohol. Over the years he becomes a big shot.

     At his core, Eddie is a decent guy, forced into extraordinary circumstances. As the Great War comes to an end, he has his life mapped out, return to his job as a mechanic, save up enough dough and open his own garage. However, as the narration states, Eddie’s returned to a different America, and Eddie is kicked into the curb. He’s forced to swallow his pride, while keeping his head up. You can’t help but root for Eddie. How could you not like a guy who can grind a cigar in some shmoes face and make him like it. Prohibition is his ticket to success; it will also be his undoing.

     When things go bad Eddie doesn’t betray his true feelings to the person he cares for the most, Jean a much younger woman who was his pen pal during the war.  It’s a case of unrequited love that is the most painful. He desperately wants her to love him, but she just can’t as she has seen what he has become. He sacrifices his love for her to spare her that kind of life and protect her, her husband and son.

     This of course leads to the inevitable conclusion. Now, there will be spoilers.

     Unfortunately for Eddie, his partnership with George Hally, Humphrey Bogart in one of his last of many supporting gangster roles before becoming a star, has gone sour. Hally is not the kind of guy you want to be in business with. He is a conscienceless, cool-blooded killer, who doesn’t take the future into account, and has become tired of being Eddie’s errand boy. Hally uses rival gangster, Nick Brown, played by Paul Kelly who can eat spaghetti like no one’s business, to bump off Eddie, but the scheme backfires and Nick gets the fatal dose of lead poisoning.

     Fortunately for Hally, whose been wise with is money, the stock market crashes, which wipes Eddie out. Eddie turns to Hally for help, Hally exploits the situation and seizes full control of the organization. Eddie hits rock bottom, prohibition has come to an end, thus ending Eddie’s chances of rebuilding what he once had. Eddie goes back to being a cab driver.

     Jean’s husband, Lloyd(Jeffery Lynn) has become Assistant District Attorney, and has the goods on Hally. Hally, not one to take things sitting down, threatens Jean and the family with violence and murder if Lloyd doesn’t back off. Thus, setting up the climax of the film.

     Jean tracks down Eddie on skid row, who’s with his only remaining friend Panama Smith(Gladys Smith), the person who truly understands and cares for Eddie. Jean hopes Eddie can help. Eddie won’t. He has his own ideas.

     Through out his early career as a supporting gangster, Humphrey Bogart had many shootouts with Cagney and Edward G. Robinson, Bogart getting the short end of the deal. The confrontation in The Roaring Twenties is my favourite. It’s crazy, quite literally, as a tuxedoed Bogart cries out ‘Crazy! Crazy!’ as Cagney pumps him full of lead, the last three shots being completely unnecessary, but very satisfying.

     Still, Eddie trapped deep in Hally’s lair, makes a daring escape, dispatching many of Hally’s goons along the way.

     Hollywood in the late 1930s was in the grip of a very stringent censorship code, and gruesome violence was forbidden. We’re all familiar with a guy being shot in the chest, he clutches his heart as if it’s attacking him. There’s no hole in his pinstripe suit, no blood gushing out, just the audiences’ imagination, and a tremendous suspension of disbelief. This holds true in The Roaring Twenties. As Eddie bursts out the door of Hally’s house, and down the sidewalk, a surviving goon plugs Eddie more than once in the back. However, when I first saw this scene, I felt every bullet. It is one of the greatest endings of a gangster film. It is tragic and visually poetic, and no matter how many times I see it, the scene stays with me long after the final fade to black.

     Now, I’ve glossed over many plot points, characters and relationships, I don’t want to completely spoil the experience for anyone who hasn’t seen The Roaring Twenties. I will say this, it is tremendously entertaining on different levels, and it offers a lot. Most importantly it takes you out of yourself for 106 minutes and does exactly what a movie should. If you’ve never seen The Roaring Twenties, or seeing it for the tenth time, enjoy.

The Roaring Twenties is available on DVD from the Warner Archive and airs from time to time on TCM.