The Roaring Twenties: The Biggest Shot of Them All

This is my contribution to the James Cagney Blogathon, hosted by The Movie Projector. Click HERE for more, more, more about Mr. Cagney, the man who could do it all.

Simply Irresistible

Before I dive into this film, let me first say that, in my book, James Cagney could do no wrong. I love almost every one of his films, and the ones I don't love have nothing to do with Jimmy's performance. He was my first movie-crush and you know those crushes never die. Never before or since was there one actor with so much talent, charm, intensity, menace, humor and total charisma. He was one of a kind.

The Roaring Twenties

While ostensibly a Warner Brothers gangster film, 1939's Roaring Twenties is really a buddy movie. True, the ties of buddy-dom are pushed to the limit, but the bonds of friendship formed in the trenches of World War I is the key to one man's rise and one man's fall.

Bonding in the Trenches

Eddie Barlett (James Cagney), George Hally (Humphrey Bogart) and  Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn) are foxhole buddies who return home to find the world has changed. After the Armistice, Lloyd comes home to a shaky law practice and Hally, once a saloon keeper, joins the ranks of the bootleggers in the wake of the newly passed prohibition law. Eddie returns home and finds his previous job as a garage mechanic gone. At the suggestion of his friend Danny (Frank McHugh - what would a Cagney film be without him?), Eddie starts driving a cab. Eddie soon hooks up with speakeasy proprietress Panama Smith (a terrific Gladys George), and they go into the bootlegging business together. Eddie builds up a fleet of cabs for liquor runs and even hires old buddy Lloyd as his lawyer, just to keep him out of trouble. The buddy trio is reunited when Eddie gets involved in a nasty gang war with Nick Brown (the almost always nasty Paul Kelly) and he and Hally join forces.

When the one you love loves someone else...

Eddie is sweet on Jean, but Jean is sweet on Lloyd

Of course, a love story kind of gums up the works. Panama loves Eddie, but Eddie loves Jean (Priscilla Lane), who was his wartime pen pal. Meanwhile, Jean loves Lloyd. Eddie gets Jean a job singing at Panama's club, but once Jean and Lloyd set eyes on one another, it's curtains for Eddie.

Now, Eddie is such a nice bootlegger (he drinks milk) and Hally is such a nasty one, you know that their partnership won't last. Hally, the heartless so-and-so, shoots the night watchman at a liquor warehouse, even though he recognizes him as his old sergeant. This pushes the basically decent Lloyd to the limit and he quits the racket. But, we all know you can never just walk away.

While Eddie rises in the rackets, he still has to contend with Nick Brown. In an effort to arrange a truce, Eddie sends his pal Danny to make peace, but Brown sends Danny's dead body back to Eddie as his response. Eddie plans a reprisal, but Hally, jealous of Eddie's power, tips off Brown, who sets a trap. Eddie kills Brown, but now he knows he can no longer trust Hally.

Now, you'd think Eddie would stay focused on saving his skin, but when Jean tells him that she and Lloyd are going to marry, he falls apart. There's nothing better than a love-sick tough guy with a tender heart. Loosing everything in the 1929 crash, he is forced to sell his fleet of cabs to Hally, who leaves him just one (to drive).

Eddie has hit the skids

And so, the mighty have fallen. Eddie is now driving his cab, drinking booze instead of milk and eating his heart out. One day Jean enters his cab and although he initially gives her the cold shoulder, he eventually wishes her and Lloyd, now with the District Attorney's office, and their young son, well. When Eddie learns that Hally has threatened to kill Lloyd unless he drops his case against him, Eddie appeals to Hally to call it off. When Hally refuses  Eddie shoots him. As he flees, he is mortally wounded by one of Hally's men. This sets up one of the greatest death scenes ever filmed. Eddie, wounded, staggers and collapses on the snowy steps of a church. As he lays dying, the ever-faithful Panama runs to him and cradles him, Pieta-like, in her arms. When a cop asks her who he is, her answer is only "he used to be a big shot."

Cagney's unforgettable death scene

As usual, Cagney doesn't get a leading lady worthy of him, although Gladys George, as the lovelorn floozy Panama, is unforgettable. This would be Bogart's last appearance with Cagney and he is his usual despicable self before bigger and better roles beckoned.

Based on a story by Mark Hellinger and directed by Raoul Walsh, this film was an homage to not only the 1920s, but to the great Warner Brothers gangster films of the 30s. Almost a decade after the 20s had ended, Hollywood finally could come to grips with those years and the effect the first World War had on a lost generation. Never again would Cagney's gangster be so sympathetic, so pure, so fundamentally decent. The Roaring Twenties was a fitting tribute to all of those dirty rats that started with The Public Enemy's Tom Powers and ended with Eddie Bartlett's poetic death on the steps of a church.