Themes: Rise and Fall Stories, Love Triangles, Faltering Friendships
Main Cast: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Jeffrey Lynn, Gladys George
Release Year: 1939
Country: US
Run Time: 106 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Based upon an idea by Broadway columnist Mark Hellinger, The Roaring Twenties opens during World War I as doughboys Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney), Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn), and George Hally (Humphrey Bogart) discuss what they will do when the war is over. Bartlett wants to go back to repairing cabs, and Hart yearns to be a lawyer, but it becomes clear that Hally has less reputable plans in mind for himself. Come the end of the war, things are not as easy for veterans like Bartlett as they should be. He is unable to get his old job back and ends up driving a cab for little money. One night he is asked to deliver a package (which turns out to be whiskey) to an address that turns out to be a speakeasy. This starts him on a life of crime, as he gets deeper involved as a bootlegger. Things are not made easy by a rival bootlegger -- who turns out to be Hally. The two join forces and prosper. Hart shares in their prosperity, as Bartlett engages him to take care of his legal matters. Unfortunately, Hart is also interested in Jean Sherman (Priscilla Lane), a young woman that Bartlett has had an eye on for quite some time. He loses her to Hart at about the same time that his criminal empire crumbles, and he is reduced to driving a cab again while Hally continues to prosper with his ruthless ways. Eventually, Hart -- now a crusading prosecutor -- runs afoul of Hally, who tells Jean that he will kill him if he doesn't change his ways. Jean begs Bartlett to intercede with Hally; because he still is carrying a torch for her, Bartlett agrees -- but by doing so, he may have signed his own death warrant. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Review
Raoul Walsh was one of cinema's greatest action directors in both silents and talkies, and The Roaring Twenties was a breakthrough film for him. Though he had directed standard comedies and melodramas before the film, Twenties would secure him a reputation as a bankable action director at Warner Bros. in the late 1930s. James Cagney, one of the great leads of the gangster-movie era, turns in an assured performance in the film: his demise on the snowy steps of a church is one of the most famous death scenes in movie history. Humphrey Bogart has a memorable supporting performance, though he would not become a big star until two years after the film, in Walsh's High Sierra and John Huston's The Maltese Falcon. Cagney and Bogart appeared together in two other movies, the gangster melodrama Angels with Dirty Faces and the Western The Oklahoma Kid. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Max Parker - Art Director, Sam Bischoff - Associate Producer, Milo Anderson - Costume Designer, Dick Mayberry - First Assistant Director, Raoul Walsh - Director, Jack Killifer - Editor, Hal B. Wallis - Executive Producer, Jack L. Warner - Executive Producer, Ray Heindorf - Composer (Music Score), Heinz Roemheld - Composer (Music Score), Leo F. Forbstein - Musical Direction/Supervision, Noble Sissle - Songwriter, Isham Jones - Songwriter, Gus Kahn - Songwriter, Ernie Burnett - Songwriter, Geroge A. Norto - Songwriter, Joseph Young - Songwriter, John Siras - Songwriter, Jack Little - Songwriter, Perc Westmore - Makeup, Ernest Haller - Cinematographer, Eubie Blake - Special Effects, Edwin DuPar - Special Effects, Byron Haskin - Special Effects, Everett A. Brown - Sound/Sound Designer, Mark Hellinger - Screen Story, Richard Macaulay - Screenwriter, Robert Rossen - Screenwriter, Jerry Wald - Screenwriter
The Roaring Twenties is based on "The World Moves On," a short story by Mark Hellinger, a columnist who had been hired by Jack Warner to write screenplays.[1] The movie is hailed as a classic in the gangster movie genre,[2][3] and considered a "homage" to the classic gangster movie of the early 1930s.[4]
After the World War I armistice, Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn) goes back to practice law, former saloon keeper George Hally (Humphrey Bogart) turns to bootlegging, and out-of-work Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) becomes a cab driver. Eddie builds a fleet of cabs through delivery of bootleg liquor and hires Lloyd as his lawyer. George becomes Eddie's partner and the rackets flourish until love and rivalry interfere. Gladys George plays a night club hostess loosely based on Texas Guinan. [5]
^Shaw, Andrea (1996). Seen that, now what?: the ultimate guide to finding the video you really want to watch. Simon and Schuster. pp. 10-11. ISBN9780684800110.
