jacobs-greenwood This is an excellent film about three World War I Army buddies whose lives change dramatically when they return from the war and get involved in crime, to varying degrees.Eddie (James Cagney) initially works as a cab driver sharing his old friend's (Frank McHugh) taxi. But, through a speakeasy owner, a woman named Panama (Gladys George), Eddie gets involved in the illegal alcohol business (e.g. during Prohibition). Initially, George (Humphrey Bogart), another of the soldiers, is his "first lieutenant" in the criminal enterprise, but later he becomes a rival racketeer. The third former soldier, Lloyd (Jeffrey Lynn), becomes a lawyer who, through Eddie, helps Panama beat a rap.Priscilla Lane plays Jean, a young girl Eddie corresponded with during the war when, unbeknownst to him, she was still in high school. Later, when Eddie's become "successful", he funds her singing debut, held in Panama's establishment. Though Eddie wants Jean for himself, she has eyes for "honest" Lloyd ... much like Panama has eyes for Eddie.These intrigues as well as the conflicts between Eddie and George make for an exciting picture which ends unforgettably!Directed by Raoul Walsh, this Mark Hellinger story was adapted by Jerry Wald, Richard Macauley, and Robert Rossen.

Syl James Cagney steals the film as Eddie who fought and survived World War I. He returns home to New York City. He gets involved with the bootleggers during prohibition in the roaring twenties. The film shows the rise and fall of a man like Eddie. Humphrey Bogart acts in the film as well. Priscilla Lane and Gladys George play the female love interest. Raoul Walsh directed this film. Even though it was shot in a Hollywood sound stage, the film has a very urban feel to it. James Cagney was terrific as Eddie. He was really a brilliant actor who could break your heart or steal it. He brings depth and dimension to Eddie's character.

Tad Pole James Cagney as Boot-Legger kingpin Eddie Bartlett drinks "cow juice" exclusively as he rises to the top of the illegal booze biz, but fuel's his downhill slide with "the hard stuff" when She does him wrong. Priscilla Lane is perfectly cast as Eddie's teasing Femme Fatale Jean, while Humphrey Bogart is not much more than a window dressing piece of furniture only to be used by Jean to flatten her no longer convenient love triangle. Bogart's big moment comes less than five minutes into this ROARING TWENTIES tale, when he gleefully guns down a German teenager three seconds before an Armistice ends WWI. Like many "Great War" heroes, Sgt. Bartlett is all but forced at gunpoint by the U.S. government into a life of crime. As I heard a couple weeks ago on the Coast-to-Coast overnight news program, American President Hoover had future U.S. WWII generals Eisenhower, Patton, and MacArthur expend this country's leftover supply of poison gas to liquidate thousands of WWI vets (plus their wives and kids) when they came to Washington, DC, to lobby for restoration of their pension "guarantees" which Hoover had embezzled. (These were the original "I can't breathe" demonstrations.)

u2nspenserfan I'm not going to go too much into detail on the plot of the Roaring Twenties - it's pretty standard "gangster rises to the top" fare. The things that made this movie special to me were the performances, two in particular.The most prominent character in the film is Cagney, a streetwise cabbie who's lost his job - and really his place in the world - following World War I. He gets into the bootlegging business more or less by mistake, but then stays in it and determines to make a success of it. It's typical strong Cagney gangster fare.The first of the special performances to me was Humphrey Bogart's. This is a younger Bogart, not yet the gangster with a heart seen in High Sierra or the world-weary Bogie seen in Casablanca and many subsequent films. No, this younger Bogart is cunning, but is mostly a fearsome gun-toter seething with contempt for the world. I imagine he didn't have to go far to find inspiration. Warner Brothers didn't consider him a leading man at this time and had him in a string of mostly low-budget films, including an awful Western musical flick called Swing Your Lady the year before. Adding that he was in a reputedly wildly tempestuous marriage with Mayo Methot at the time, he had a deep well to draw from for the contempt and fire this role called for.The second special performance, and my favorite, is that of Gladys George as Panama. Panama is as tough and smart as any male club owner, a streetwise pitchwoman who doesn't flinch when the bullets fly. On the other hand, she's got a tender heart and a torch that quietly burns for Cagney despite his shortcomings and infatuations with other women. It is one of my favorite female roles of the '30s - it seemed that kind of nuance was generally reserved for the male lead. She has some real powerhouse moments in this film.So, a 9/10 for me - standard '30s gangster plot buoyed by some special performances.