ROARING TWENTIES, THE
"He used to be a big shot." Former World War I Army buddies Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) and George Hally (Humphrey Bogart) cross paths years later while employed in New York's bootlegging business, first as friendly rivals, then as uneasy associates and finally as sworn enemies. This milestone gangster movie, punctuated with march-of-time newsreel montages from World War I through the Jazz Age to the 1929 stock market crash and the election of FDR, suggests "the world has changed" as a riposte to SCARFACE's "the world is yours" from the decade's dawning. Raoul Walsh's dynamic direction finds its apotheosis in the energetic Cagney, further intensified by Ernest Haller's fluid, sweeping camerawork. Gladys George gives a moving and memorable performance as Panama Smith, a nightclub hostess who pines for Cagney, while he only has eyes for singer Jean Sherman (Priscilla Lane). DIR Raoul Walsh; SCR Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay, Robert Rossen; PROD Hal B. Wallis. U.S., 1939, b&w, 106 min. NOT RATED
AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 106 Minutes
Opening Date: Friday, June 02, 2023
Genre: Film noir
