The Roaring Twenties: Raoul Walsh: 1939

This is one of Martin Scorsese’s favourite films. Although, according to film anecdote, when Marty was asked for a list of his top ten films – he had to be physically restrained at 157. It is not difficult to see why this would be a well beloved though there’s no way of knowing where it is in his list. It is overlooked and under appreciated as it falls inevitably under the shadow of Cagney’s White Heat and Angels with Dirty Faces

It stars Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney – Warner Studio lead players sharing the screen (which they did three times) here, at different points in their careers: Bogart is second fiddle to Cagney but would go on to reach the top spot in High Sierra. Cagney was tired of this genre by the time The Roaring Twenties was released. Warner Bros invented the Gangster genre with its release of Little Caesar in 1930 starring Edward G Robinson

(an actor notoriously afraid of gunfire) as well as the release of the first Scarface with Paul Muni 1932. It is within this context that we have ‘The Roaring Twenties.’ It would be 10 years later that the more famous ‘White Heat’ would hit the theatres. His next venture after this was Yankee Doodle Dandy – a very different film for Cagney. He was though a serious actor and liked to be stretched. It is worth seeing this for Cagney’s portrayal of a ‘good guy’ gangster at odds with his associations, his love for the wrong woman and with the conditions of the times during the war and much later when prohibition was repealed.

Warner Bros were especially good at social drama. This charts the rise, and then fall of its main protagonist Eddie Bartlett against the socio-economic backdrop of firstly post WWI, the roaring twenties – and then the Depression. It does so whilst using the clipped dialogue Warner Bros were famous for as well as splicing into the drama authentic footage of the eras it portrays. They often would use real stories from the press to add to the sense of realism. Paul Kelly, playing the part of Nick Brown was convicted of murder and was a real live criminal not long after the film was finished.

The female leads are good as well, pitching the ‘good girl’ singer that Eddie falls for (played by Priscilla Lane) against the speakeasy hostess - a harder spirit who is with him at the end. ‘Panama Smith’ is based on a well heeled nightclub maitre‘d’ called ‘Texas Guinan.’ The real star here though is the writer – Mark Hellinger, a crime writer that turned his hand to script writing. He provides the on screen narrative to set the tone right from the beginning. The newsreel journalist voiceover does the rest. Inevitably, it carries ludicrous amounts of melodrama in the use of language – but that is the appeal:

After the war…..

‘Soldiers returning find a different ‘front’ and the same old struggle - the struggle…. to survive!’ V/O

The three men that figure in the movie are squaddies at the start with the war to level the differences between them. George is the criminal (Humphrey Bogart), Lloyd is the goody two shoes Harvard lawyer and Eddie, (Cagney), is the everyman mechanic and can’t get his job back after the war is over. As the voiceover above says, the challenges facing these men once home are profound. The drift into crime is pre-empted by legislation: it is 1920 and for 2 more weeks a man can have a drink….

‘An underworld boss is moving in on a source of revenue, the magnitude of which no-one can guess…..’ V/O

At this juncture, Eddie teams up with Panama – great turn played by Gladys George as the sort of woman a man would want in a crisis. Hard as nails but with an evident soft spot for Eddie. 30’s/40’sWarners did these women really well. Bette Davis’s Marked Woman – & Joan Crawford’s Mildred Pierce fit the prototype. Panama runs a speakeasy and Eddie runs the cabs that run the bootleg to customers to…

…‘become part of another army, The Liquor Army – that stands between an unpopular law and an unwilling public.’ V/O

The profits soar and business booms. Montages of dollar signs, women doing the Charleston and champagne corks going off fade in and out of the screen….

The beginning of the end comes for Eddie when he meets and falls in love with Jean Sherman – an older version of the kid who used to send him letters during the war. It is the first of a series of bad moves that prove unwise for Eddie – all the while he has Panama acting as some kind of Jiminy Cricket in his ear. The doll of his heart falls for Lloyd the lawyer ‘they speak the same language’ as Panama points out. Jean works at the club now, as a singer but does the worst rendition of ‘It Had to Be You’, ever. Her ‘Melancholy Baby’ is passable at best so it is hard to see what Eddie sees in her.

The second bad move is to take up with George (Bogart) – who works for the notorious Nick Brown (the real live murderer Paul Kelly) who runs a syndicate Eddie want to muscle. George/Eddie’s collaboration falls foul when George kills a policeman during a stakeout. This turns up the heat and Nick Brown ambushes Eddie as a result. Ultimately though, it is external forces that put the nails in the coffin…..

Oct 29^th ‘Black Tuesday’

‘Men stare wild-eyed at the spectacle of complete ruin’, ‘nightclubs and speakeasies are the first to suffer……’ V/O

Cue footage of Roosevelt elected (newspaper headlines)

Prohibition Repealed!!!!

A down at heel Eddie catches up with the now married Jean in a cab. He is the driver. She and Lloyd are married living an American idyll with a four year old son. Lloyd works for the District Attorney’s office and receives threats from George – still racketeering. Protecting them Eddie receives his comeuppance and dies on a set of church steps – in Panama’s arms….

Passing policeman: ‘Who is he and what was he to you’

Panama: ‘I never could figure’

Policeman: ‘What was his business?’

Panama: ‘He used to be a big shot.’

This movie seems relevant now given the economic conditions and inevitable comparisons made by the pundits to the Depression. It is fun to imagine a life voice over providing the contextual backdrop to the contemporary socio-economic landscape.

Gail Spencer