The Roaring Twenties (1939)

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....

The Enforcer (1951)

No, it has nothing to do with the threequel to Dirty Harry. It is a crime thriller about a series of murders with a gritty cop as the protagonist, but that's about where the similarity ends. Its alternate title is Murder, Inc.

In an unspecified U.S. city, Assistant District Attorney Martin Ferguson (Humphrey Bogart) has encountered plenty of evidence that Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane), presently in jail, runs a ring of hit men, but evidence that will work in court is in short supply. In particular, witnesses have a habit of dying suspiciously before they can reach the stand. With mere hours to go before the trial, Ferguson struggles to ensure that Mendoza won't walk.