Where he plays Rocky Sullivan, captured by the police in a classic scene, cornered in an empty buidling with just a revlover. The tear gas, the police on megaphones, the appeal to surrender by his boyhood friend turned priest– a scene imitated to the point of cliche, but here done perfectly.
angels-with-dirty-faces-cagney
It’s 1920 and Rocky (Cagney) is caught trying to rob a train. After committing other crimes Rocky is sent to reform school. Rocky get’s out after 14 years and the story gets hot after that. Angels teams him ( again ) with Bogart, Pat O’Brien, George Bancroft, Ann Sheridan AND the Bowery Boys ( known in Warner Brothers dramas of the day as The Dead End Kids.)
It’s classic iconic, Cagney, directed by Michael Curtiz and filled with fantastic, stark cinematography. The use of shadows to show urban fixtures like fire escapes, basements, clotheslines strung between seedy tenements. Cagney’s death march, defiant and unyielding as he walks to the electric chair, is chilling; the closeup on his face is something out out Fritz Lang; and without giving away the catharsis, his screams are nothing short of blood curdling.
Yes, the movie does end on a sappy, almost saccharine note, but look at when it was made.
Altogether, a really fine movie, a bit dated but evidence of the ruly consummate actor Cagney was. Watching Cagney and Humphrey Bogart act together sends chills up my spine.
-Ian Wallace
Here is a great one sheet poster from the movie.
Love the website, great design. I think Putty nose deserved it he was a rat and rats should get what’s coming to them. Buh BYEEEEE putty nose!