The Roar of the Gangs

Ms. Spenser requested The Roaring Twenties (1939), and I am always happy to watch James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart directed by Raoul Walsh. 

It starts in a shell hole in WWI. Cagney dives in and lands on Bogart. After they get sorted, Jeffrey Lynn jumps in as well. We see that Bogart is a bastard,  Lynn a nice college boy, and Cagney just a plain-spoken good Joe. 

Back in the states, Cagney finds that he can't get his old job back, so he starts hanging out with his old taxi driving buddy Frank McHugh. He even looks up the gorgeous dame who was his penpal during the war and finds out that she is in high school - he hightails it, saying he'll be back in two or three years. 

He does some delivery work from the McHugh's cab, unwittingly becoming a bootlegger. He gets busted delivering to a speakeasy hostess named Panama (Gladys George), and calls on his old pal Lynn, now a lawyer, to help out. He gets George off, but not Cagney. Cagney now decides to be a bootlegger for real. He uses Lynn as his mouthpiece and buys taxis as a front. 

He's doing pretty well when he notices his old penpal, Priscilla Lane, dancing in a chorus line. He takes her to her home to the wilds of Long Island, and though she tries to be standoffish, he overwhelms her with charm. When he finally lets her go at the door, he says he'll call her. She replies, "In two or three years?" he responds, "More like two or three hours." I don't remember where, but I think someone called this the most romantic scene in all cinema. 

He decides to take her to Panama's place and make her a star. She's not really cut out for the life, but he's crazy about her. He doesn't notice that George is crazy about him, and that Lane seems to click pretty well with decent guy Lynn. Then he hijacks a load of good liquor from a rival bootlegger, and runs into Bogart. Instead of fighting, Bogart offers to team up with Cagney. Although he doesn't trust him, he goes along.

Then Black Tuesday hits, and he loses everything. I guess you can see where this is going.

I thought I had seen this, but I was probably thinking of Bullets or Ballots. But I did recognize the "More like two or three hours" scene. Maybe a couple of others as well - did I see this in college, maybe? Anyway, it's a great one - great writing, snappy delivery, and an ending that I think has been borrowed over and over. For example, when Belmondo is shot at the end of A bout de souffle, he keeps running, staggering for a long time before dying. like Cagney here (SPOILER). 

All in all, a gangster classic.