For all the old cinema I watch, including silents, I don't feel like I've seen many depictions of the 1920s themselves. Not in a way that makes me think of their moniker, anyway. For ages, "the Roaring Twenties" has brought to my mind The Great Gatsby first and foremost, with maybe a touch of Midnight in Paris. Little did I know how close it could be to the Depression for one sector of society.
The film actually begins in World War I and ends in the early '30s but mostly stays true to its title. Like in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, it's not easy for veterans to return to civilian jobs, but it is easy for them to get mixed up in criminal endeavors, even by accident. That's what happens to Eddie (James Cagney) when, as a struggling cab driver, he agrees to a shady delivery on the side, only to have cops find alcohol on him. The night club owner to whom he tried to deliver, "Panama" (Gladys George), bails him out and encourages him to stick with the speakeasy business. Over the years, he builds an empire of bathtub gin and taxis, with on-and-off help from two wartime comrades, Lloyd (Jeffrey Lynn) and George (Humphrey Bogart). But they never did see eye to eye on everything....
Arguably Eddie's biggest weakness is his fondness for one Jean (Priscilla Lane), who had sent him her pretty picture in the war. When they first meet, she's infatuated but too young for him -- one of several opportunities for a little comic relief. Years later, he finds her fetching on stage and invites her to sing at the speakeasy, hence my addition of the "musical" tag. Of course, between maturity and an understanding of what kind of guy Eddie has become, she no longer feels the same attachment to him. Panama keeps dropping hints that she's more his type, but he never quite picks up on them.
It's a little odd to open with a war of nations and move on to something more like a gang turf war. Seeing the three men in the trenches does give us some warning of their differences: Lloyd has little stomach for violence, George teases him for that, and Eddie makes peace between them. I should have realized just how mean George could be, nursing the worst grudge against a sergeant that I've seen this side of Full Metal Jacket. Alas, director Raoul Walsh did not sell me on one of the battle scenes, particularly with the men alternately making small talk and shooting from a warehouse. Not even bothering to duck when they turn to chat. Did real soldiers ever do that?
Whenever time has to move along, a highly dramatic narrator chimes in with heavy disclosure of events. It reminds me a bit of contemporary newsreels, one of which is included on the DVD for "Warner Night at the Movies." At least I learned a few things from those occasions.
For that matter, I learned something from the movie as a whole: Prohibition-funded criminals weren't just a thing of the early '30s. By 1924, scenes were looking like the ripped-from-the-headlines stories of The Public Enemy and Little Caesar.
OK, I should qualify that statement. Eddie's business does not turn to violence nearly as early on as we see in most gangster flicks. I think it's about half over before we see him attack anyone in a post-war context. The gradualness of his corruption thus serves as a potential strong point for the story.
If there's one thing you can always count on in this genre and era, it's the protagonist paying the price. But for once, he's halfway noble about it. It's no dying moment of awesome like in White Heat -- kind of embarrassing, in fact -- but he does become a hero of sorts.
Maybe I've said more than enough. Maybe the combination of Cagney and Bogart is all it takes to get you interested. So what if it's talky and not always well directed? It's fun.
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