Prohibition crime-drama full of nervy street-smarts and overheated bravado. James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart (making somewhat uneasy screen-partners, particularly in their early scenes) play World War I buddies who meet up again years after returning home; Cagney has become a big-time distributor of bootleg gin, while Bogart, the strong-arm for a racketeer, has the idea that if he and his old pal team up, they'll be unstoppable (there's really no reason for Jimmy to say yes, except for old times' sake). Cagney's character gets the interesting story arc over trigger-happy Bogie, and his loyalty to nice-girl songbird Priscilla Lane and friendship with affable cohort Frank McHugh is rather charming. Some of the rapid-fire dialogue is juicy and a pleasure to listen to but, unfortunately, the characters fall too soon into cliché, and the cynical comedic edge developed in the first-half disappears altogether (most likely due to the myriad of script-writers who worked on the project). Director Raoul Walsh's montages showing the passage of time--and the loss of morals in America--comes off like finger-wagging, shaming the audience for its reckless behavior, which is the last thing you'd expect in a snarling meller from Warners. **1/2 from ****
Review of The Roaring Twenties
