Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
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Angels with Dirty Faces Movie Review
Angels with Dirty Faces is a 1938 crime film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring James Cagney, Pat O’Brien and Humphrey Bogart. It’s such a phenomenal genre film.
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“Whadda ya hear!
Whadda ya say!“
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The film chronicles the fictional rise and fall of the notorious gangster William “Rocky” Sullivan. After spending three years in prison for armed robbery, Rocky intends to collect $100,000 from his co-conspirator, mob lawyer Jim Frazier. All the while, Father Jerry Connolly tries to prevent a group of youths from falling under Rocky’s influence.
That story is familiar now, but this film probably gives us the best such plot of two friends who went down separate paths. One is now Father and the other is still a criminal. Their relationship is fantastic and very nuanced and even though the film has solid crime elements, the reason why it’s so great is because it doesn’t rely on crime action too much, but also is successful as a strong, thematically rich drama about morality, loyalty and particularly emphasizing the importance of good influence on children.
Humphrey Bogart is unfortunately underused here which was frustrating to witness. Rarely do you get to see Bogart and Cagney together in one film and here they missed the opportunity to fully make use of both of them together. That’s my only major gripe with the film along with those annoying Dead End Kids who are important to the story, but are overly loud and unlikable. I would have much preferred more Bogie in their favor.
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But Pat O’Brien is fantastic in what is one of his best roles. He really gave a strong, subtle and respectable performance. However, this is James Cagney’s vehicle as he not only steals the show, but gives his career-best performance undoubtedly. He is very charismatic, suave and funny as he always is, but his character is more complex this time around and thus the role required more diverse acting from him which is exactly what he did. He stole those emotional moments near the end and arguably gave one of the decade’s most defining male performances.
I disliked some of the boys’ overly extended sequences which were necessary for the plot, but still overly long. But other than those, the film is very well paced and the highlights are all the dialogue scenes between the two main characters which are complex and nuanced, yet very realistic. The standout is the ending which is incredibly moving and simply beautiful. It shows us that Rocky Sullivan still has a good heart in him and he set a good example for children by going yellow before dying and thus influencing them to stay away from the mob scene. That’s why I love this movie so much. It isn’t afraid to go to emotional and message territories which is what most crime films simply won’t do and why I’m not a fan of most of them.
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Angels with Dirty Faces is very well shot, scripted, scored and so well made across the board. It’s also phenomenally directed by Michael Curtiz who entirely deserved his Oscar nomination for this movie. Rowland Brown’s script is sophisticated and among the best in the genre so the fact that he lost the Oscar to the mediocrity that is the ‘Boys Town’ script is ludicrous. The same goes for Spencer Tracy’s win over James Cagney’s amazing, much better and much more important performance. Again, this goes to show the cluelessness of the Academy even back in the thirties.
I would have preferred more Humphrey Bogart instead of those necessary, but annoying Dead End kids as Bogie surely is ridiculously underused, but other than that gripe, Angels with Dirty Faces is a major classic in the crime genre with absolutely fantastic script from Rowland Brown, a strong turn from Pat O’Brien and an amazing, career-best performance from James Cagney who shamefully lost an Oscar for this great role. The film works so well largely owing to a more sophisticated, emotional take on the genre with a moving ending and well explored themes of morality, loyalty and the dangers of bad influence on children.
