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.

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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.

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Side” (garbage) but not one copy of The Roaring Twenties. It’s sad the current state of film is terrible, when was the last GREAT movie? Sometime in the mid 90′s? People are not delving into the classics. James Cagney, Edward G Robinson, Bogart should always be relevant but they really aren’t any more. There are 3 million online searches per month for the search terms “Snooki” but only about 14k worldwide for “James Cagney”. People don’t know what quality is anymore and mediocrity reigns.

cagney and edward g robinson

The 1931 movie Smart Money was the only movie with both James Cagney and Edward G Robinson appearing together. Why didn’t they appear together more often? The Public Enemy was actually shot before Smart Money but not released. Edward G Robinson was the bigger star at this point in time hence the leading role was Edward G Robinson’s. The interaction between the two in this movie was excellent, it’s a shame this was the lone chance they got to act together. Great flick tho, hard to find a lot of the old James Cagney movies on tv but that’s what Amazon is for.

James cagney as putty nose begs for his life.

All you Cagney fans remember Putty Nose from the 1931  move The Public Enemy. But did Putty nose have to die at the hands of Cagney? Did he really deserve it? let’s analyze it. When Cagney and his buddy are still kids they steal watches for putty nose and it seems putty short changes them. When they are even older in 1915 Putty Nose offers them a part in a Bigger job. They screw it up one of the gang is killed and upon returning to putty nose he has left town and leaves them high and dry. It seems Cagney’s character is bitter towards putty nose for leading them toward a life of crime. Then when they meet later in the movie Cagney kills Putty in a very effective scene that only William Wellman could provide. Justice has been served. But really wasn’t it a bit much? Would a sound thrashing have sufficed? We think so, In fact killing Putty really served no purpose at all. In contrast the Edward G Robinson character “Rico” in Little Caesar had quite a bit of heart and couldn’t go through with killing his buddy near the end of the movie.

Classic bad guy gangster pose from the great James Cagney