Angels With Dirty Faces

Starring:James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, George Bancroft, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsly, Joe Downing, Edward Pawley, Adrian Morris, Frankie Burke, William Tracy, Marilyn Knowlden, The Robert Mitchell Boy Choir, George Taylor, A.W. Sweatt
Director: Michael Curtiz, Bobby Connolly, Robert Clampett
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Another great James Cagney movie
Great Nostalgia!
A very New York movie
"Whaddaya Hear, Whaddaya Say?"
"Always remember: Don't be a sucker" - Rocky Sullivan

Angels With Dirty Faces
Starring: James Cagney , Pat O'Brien , Humphrey Bogart , Ann Sheridan , and George Bancroft
Director: Michael Curtiz , Bobby Connolly , and Robert Clampett
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Crime & Criminals | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Murder & Mayhem | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

The Public Enemy
White Heat
The Roaring Twenties
Dead End
Little Caesar

ASIN: B0006HBV28
Release Date: 2005-01-25

Customer Reviews:

Another great James Cagney movie.......2007-05-29

This is a superb movie. James Cagney was awesome. Dead end kids are all dead now, I think. Very good old time movie. It actually had a moral to it's story. Today's filmakers and actors should take note.

Great Nostalgia!.......2007-04-16

I purchased this movie for my husband, who collects antique radios. We merely wanted to see the bar-radio. We enjoy all things Art Deco and vintage, particularly 20-40's. We realized that we were really enjoying the movie! It's a bit sappy, but weren't all movies from the era?

A very New York movie .......2007-04-08

(To Kristopher Haines) you asked "What did audiences see in these kids?" Many kids in the northern cities saw themselves, or knew of wise guy tough kids just like the Dead End Kids. They also knew or knew of a 'Father Connelly' who would try and set neighbourhood tough kids on the right path in life.

If you were a New Yorker you might have been similar to one of the kids depicted in this film yourself. In 1938 many actors & actresses in motion pictures were from New York, thus Hollywood made movies with the New York viewing audiences in mind. That's why the movie going public liked their antics.

After the war when the East End Kids evolved into the The Bowery Boys their fan base grew even larger. Today they have a substantial following amongst old movie fans, and yes many of these fans are from the Tri-State area (NY/CONN/NJ), Philly, Boston, Providence, Chicago etc, since those fans related to the Boys growing up, or watching their re-runs on TV.

[[ASIN:630695001X Key Largo/Angels With Dirty Faces]]
The Warner Gangsters Collection (The Public Enemy / White Heat / Angels with Dirty Faces / Little Caesar / The Petrified Forest / The Roaring Twenties)

"Whaddaya Hear, Whaddaya Say?".......2007-03-14

Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) was always a troublesome kid, but what do you expect from a guy who grew up in the slums? The only difference between him and the man who became the preacher (Pat O'Brien) is that Rocky got caught stealing and the preacher didn't. So Rocky went to juvenile detention and graduated to the slammer thanks to his ties to bigshot gangsters. He agreed to take the fall for them at the advice of his lawyer (Humphrey Bogart) at the promise that he'd jump right back in with them when he got out. What a sucker he was.

When Rocky gets out, he finds that his old friends have turned on him and used up his money. He doesn't take lightly to that and uses his intelligence to outsmart them time after time. In the meantime, upon returning home, Rocky meets up with some childhood friends including the preacher and a girl he used to pick on (Ann Sheridan). He also meets the new town hoodlums (The Dead End Kids) and becomes their idol. However, Rocky's life was never destined for a happy ending.

This film is incredibly powerful because it comments on so many modern issues. Is the criminal a victim of his own free-will or of his environment? And in being a criminal, does that make him all bad? Also, the relationships between the characters are great because they're so well established. Cagney is perfect in the role, a street-wise, easy-going guy you can't help but love despite his imperfections. Also notable are the Dead End Kids, especially Leo Gorcey whose strong personality and looks are very similar to Cagney's.

This is an excellent film that transcends the gangster genre.

"Always remember: Don't be a sucker" - Rocky Sullivan.......2007-01-11

This crime/drama concerns two childhood friends that both grew up in Hell's Kitchen back in 1920th. Jerry Connelly (O'Brien) became a parish priest and the other, Rocky Sullivan (Cagney) - the career criminal. The Angels of the title are the neighborhood boys whom Father Jerry tries to save from lives of crime and who have come to idolize the tough, fast, furious and cool guy Rocky. Yes, Cagney's Rocky was a criminal but one could not help rooting for him in every scene of the movie which he stole from the rest of the cast. Cagney is riveting as Rocky. When he talks, you want to listen, when he walks, you want to follow. Who would blame the Dead End Kids for wanting to be like him? Father Jerry does not blame them but he tries his best not to let that happened...

"Angels with Dirty Faces" is a great movie, a true classic that combines an excellent crime movie with the characters like crooked lawyer (Humphrey Bogard) and corrupt politician (George Bancroft) with whom Rocky formed a doomed business alliance and a very human and compelling drama of two best friends, the choices they made, the roads they took and where the roads brought them. Great directing, writing, acting from everyone and absolutely brilliant performance from James Cagney.

4.5/5

The Warner Gangsters Collection (The Public Enemy / White Heat / Angels with Dirty Faces / Little Caesar / The Petrified Forest / The Roaring Twenties)

Average customer rating:

The prototype of a well-done boxed set
FIve classic gangster flicks
Kudos for one of the best boxed sets ever
Fabulous value, hours of fun
Great Value collection

The Warner Gangsters Collection (The Public Enemy / White Heat / Angels with Dirty Faces / Little Caesar / The Petrified Forest / The Roaring Twenties)
Starring: Leslie Howard , Bette Davis , Genevieve Tobin , Dick Foran , and Humphrey Bogart
Director: Archie Mayo , Mervyn LeRoy , and Raoul Walsh
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Classics | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

( W ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 1 (The Asphalt Jungle / Gun Crazy / Murder My Sweet / Out of the Past / The Set-Up)
Warner Bros. Pictures Tough Guys Collection (Bullets or Ballots / City for Conquest / Each Dawn I Die / G Men / San Quentin / A Slight Case of Murder)
Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 2 (Born to Kill / Clash by Night / Crossfire / Dillinger (1945) / The Narrow Margin (1952))
Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 3 (Border Incident / His Kind of Woman / Lady in the Lake / On Dangerous Ground / The Racket)
Kiss of Death (Fox Film Noir)

ASIN: B0006HBV3M
Release Date: 2005-01-25

Amazon.com

For a knock-out combination of timeless entertainment and vintage studio history, you can't do much better than The Warner Brothers Gangsters Collection. In the 1930s and '40s, Paramount specialized in glossy comedies, MGM popularized lavish musicals, Universal produced signature horror classics, and Fox scored hits with sophisticated dramas. But it was Warner Bros. that generated controversy--if not always box-office profits--with so-called "social problem" films, and that meant gangsters. When viewed in their pre- and post-Prohibition context and in chronological order (Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, 1931; The Petrified Forest, 1936; Angels With Dirty Faces, 1938; The Roaring Twenties, 1939; White Heat, 1949), these six films definitively capture Warners' domination of the mobster genre, and to varying degrees, they all qualify as classics.

With its stilted visuals and pulpy plot, Little Caesar remains stuck in the stiff, early-sound era, but it's still a prototypical powerhouse, with Edward G. Robinson's titular "Rico" setting the stage for all screen gangsters to follow. The Public Enemy made James Cagney a star (who can forget him smashing a grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face?), and Humphrey Bogart repeats his Broadway success in The Petrified Forest, a stagy adaptation of Robert Sherwood's play, still enjoyable for Bogey's ever-threatening malevolence. Then it's a Cagney triple-threat in Angels (with Pat O'Brien), racketeering in The Roaring Twenties (with Bogart), and especially the jailbird classic White Heat, with a fiery finale and an exit line ("Made it Ma! Top o' the world!") that epitomized Cagney's iconic, tough-guy image. In many ways Cagney was Warner Bros., and this Gangsters Collection pays enduring tribute to him and the important films that forged the studio's rugged reputation. --Jeff Shannon

Description

The Public Enemy showcases James Cagney's powerful 1931 breakthrough performance as streetwise tough guy Tom Powers. When shooting began, Cagney had a secondary role but Zanuck soon spotted Cagney's screen dominance and gave him the star part. From that moment, an indelible genre classic and an enduring star career were both born.

As a psychotic thug devoted to his hard-boiled ma, James Cagney - older, scarier and just as elctrifying - gives a performance to match his work in The Public Enemy as White Heat's cold-blooded Cody Jarrett. Bracingly directed by Raoul Walsh, this fast-paced thriller tracing Jarrett's violent life in and out of jail is also a harrowing character study. Jarrett is a psychological time bomb ruled by impulse. It is among the most vivid screen performances of Cagney's career, and the excitement it generates will put you on top of the world!

In Angels with Dirty Faces, Cagney's Rocky Sullivan is a charismatic ghetto tough whose underworld rise makes him a hero to a gang of slum punks. The 1938 New York Film Critics Best Actor Award came Cagney's way, as well as one of the film's three Oscar nominations. Watch the chilling death-row finale and you'll know why.

"R-I-C-O, Little Caesar, that's who!" Edward G. Robinson bellowed into the phone. And Hollywood got the message: 37-year-old Robinson, not gifted with matinee-idol looks, was nonetheless a first-class star and moviegoers hailed the hard-hitting social consciousness dramas that became the Depression-era mainstay of Warner Bros.

Little Caesar is the tale of pugnacious Caesar Enrico Bandello, a hoodlum with a Chicago-sized chip on his shoulder, few attachments, fewer friends and no sense of underworld diplomacy. And Robinson - a genteel art collector who disdained guns (in the movie, his eyelids were taped to keep them from blinking when he fired a pistol) - was forever associated with the screen's archetypal gangster.

A rundown diner bakes in the Arizona heat. Inside, fugitive killer Duke Mantee sweats out a manhunt, holding disillusioned writer Alan Squier, young Gabby Maple and a handful of others hostage.

The Petrified Forest, Robert E. Sherwood's 1935 Broadway success about survival of the fittest, hit the screen a year later with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart magnificently recreating their stage roles and Bette Davis ably reteaming with her Of Human Bondage co-star Howard. Sherwood first wanted Bogart for a smaller role. "I thought Sherwood was right," Bogart said. "I couldn't picture myself playing a gangster. So what happened? I made a hit as the gangster." So right was he that Howard refused to make the film without him...and helped launch Bogie's brilliant movie career.

In The Roaring Twenties, the speakeasy era never roared louder than in this gangland chronicle that packs a wallop under action master Raoul Walsh's direction. Against a backdrop of newsreel-like montages and narration, it follows the life of jobless war veteran Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) who turns bootlegger, dealing in "bottles instead of battles." Battles await Eddie within and without his growing empire. Outside are territorial feuds and gangland bloodlettings. Inside is the treachery of his double-dealing associate (Humphrey Bogart). It would be 10 years before Cagney played another gangster (in White Heat), a time in which gangster movies themselves became rare. "He used to be a big shot," Panama Smith (Gladys George) says at the finale, marking Bartlett's demise...and signaling the end of Hollywood's focus on the gangster era.

Customer Reviews:

The prototype of a well-done boxed set.......2007-05-14

Kudos to Warner Home Video for the loving treatment they gave these six classic films from their vaults. Every film gets the Warner Night at the Movies treatment with a newsreel, a trailer, a vintage short subject, and a cartoon each from the year in which the movie was made. Plus there are commentary tracks for all of the films. I liked watching each film through first without the track, and then listening to them with the track turned on for insight into the stars and the style of the film. In addition to this you get the following featurettes:

Little Caesar - "End of Rico, Beginning of the Antihero"
Public Enemy - "Beer and Blood: Enemies of the Public"
Petrified Forest - "Menace in the Desert". There is also a radio adaptation featuring Humphrey Bogart, Tyrone Power, and Joan Bennett.
Angels with Dirty Faces - "Whaddaya Hear? Whaddaya Say?". This also has an audio-only radio production.
The Roaring Twenties - "The World Moves On"
White Heat - "Top of the World"

It's interesting to compare the three stars of these movies - Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, and Humphrey Bogart - and their styles in each of these movies. "Little Caesar" and "Public Enemy" were made when prohibition was still in effect and gangland crime was still a big problem. Thus Robinson and Cagney each play remorseless criminals with no redeeming values whatsoever. Robinson's Rico is less physical than Cagney's Tom Powers, though. You believe that either one of them would shoot you without a second thought. However, Cagney's Powers is scarier because the real fear is that he would beat you to a pulp for the fun of it and THEN shoot you.

"The Petrified Forest" is not your typical gangster film, with Leslie Howard's vagabond being the real star in what amounts to an improbable romance set against the backdrop of the desperation of the Great Depression which the desert setting seems to signify. This 1936 film has Bogart as Duke Mantee, a gangster on the run, in what amounts to a supporting role. However, you do get to see all of the traits that made Bogart great when he got the opportunity to seize the lead in later roles. And to think they almost cast him as the filling station attendant in this one!

In 1938's "Angels with Dirty Faces" and 1939's "The Roaring Twenties" Cagney is again playing the lead gangster and Humphrey Bogart plays a supporting role in both films. With prohibition long over, though, these movies make Cagney's gangster more three-dimensional, showing him to even be a self-sacrificing character at times as well as a killer. Both movies bother to show that had circumstances been a little different, he might not have even become a criminal in the first place.

1949's "White Heat" shows the influence of film noir that was so popular in the 40's an 50's. Here, Cagney's gangster persona has come full circle back to the viciousness of Tom Powers in "Public Enemy". The big difference is that in this film Cagney's mother is no cream puff. She is, in fact, probably a bigger criminal in thought if not in deed than Cagney's Cody Jarrett. This final gangster film of the six shows technology and thus the law gaining on the criminal, with electronic gadgets and undercover lawmen with college degrees in psychology replacing the determined hard-boiled detectives and beat cops of the past. It very much looks forward to the Dragnet series that is to emerge in the 50's.

In summary, this is just a terrific package and basically acts as a complete course on the gangster film as genre. All studios should stand up and take notice of how Warner Home Video put this set together. Highly recommended.

FIve classic gangster flicks.......2007-01-31

Five classic gangster films from the glory days of Warner Bros.

Granted, "gangster film" isn't the most appropriate description of 1936's "The Petrified Forest," the film based on Sherwood Anderson's talky philosophical play, but if not for the dynamic presence of Humphrey Bogart as Duke Mantee, the "prestigious" production starring Leslie Howard and Bette Davis would likely now be relegated to the same vault that stores "She Loved a Fireman" (with Ann Sheridan) and other forgotten drek from the same period. It was this film that established Bogart as a valuable supporting player on the Warner lot, a position he would occupy until 1940's "High Sierra" made him a top star.

James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson would achieve stardom almost a decade earlier than Bogart with their breakthrough roles in 1931's "Public Enemy" and "Little Caesar" respectively. Directed by William Wellman, the former film holds up quite well despite the somewhat wooden performances of the supporting cast, whereas the latter is too stagy for its own good and remains of interest primarily for Robinson's dynamic performance.

1938's "Angels with Dirty Faces" and 1939's "The Roaring Twenties" are notable for pairing Cagney with Bogart, as adversaries in the former, and as partners, at least for a time, in the latter. Both are highly entertaining with "Angels" benefiting from the casting of the Dead End Kids.

The best film in this set, however, is 1948's "White Heat" with Cagney as Cody Jarrett who makes it to the "top of the world" only to have it blow up in his face. Jarrett ranks with Cagney's portrayal of George M. Cohen in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" as his finest performance.

Brian W. Fairbanks

Kudos for one of the best boxed sets ever.......2007-01-19

While all 6 titles in this set are worthy ones, the four Cagney entries are the ones that are the real jewels and make his claim to the throne of king of the classic gangsters. "White Heat" features his finest and most memorable characterization, a masterpiece of curdled mother love. Warner Brothers is currently giving Criterion a run for its money as the best producer of lovingly restored and well-packaged films on DVD.

Fabulous value, hours of fun.......2006-12-29

It doesn't get much better than this. Settle down with some popcorn, snuggle into your most comfy chair and get ready for hours of entertainment. The transfers of these DVD's are exceptional, especially on The Roaring Twenties and Angels with Dirty Faces. The quality of the other films is slightly less impressive, but still quite acceptable. Remember we're dealing with 75 year old films in the case of Little Caesar and Public Enemy. The audio transfers are also quite good.

The heart of the set is the magnificent 1949 classic, White Heat. This is my favorite gangster movie because of the psycopathic character, Cody Jarret. What a portrayal! Never in movie history has their such a intricately neurotic, mommy-obsessed, gun-toting murderer as Cody. Nobody else but Cagney could have pulled off this performance, which hasn't lost a beat in the intervening 55 years. The interplay between Cody and his mother is the stuff of legend. There isn't one unnecessary or boring moment in White Heat, it is magnificent.

One great thing about this release is that a new generation can grow to love and appreciate the talent of James Cagney. He dominates these films and he's as fresh and lovable as he was back in the 30's. His screen presence jumps out at you and even when he plays a thug, ya gotta love him. His charisma is palpable.

The weak movie here (and one which doesn't quite fit), is Petrified Forest, with Bogie's breakout performance. I would have preferred a George Raft movie in its place. Bogart's performances in the Cagney films is always as a cringing second banana and it's interesting to watch how Jimmy utterly dominates their screen pairing. They made three movies together and it's no surprise that Cagney guns down Bogie in every one!

Little Caesar now seems dated and the supporting cast is generally forgettable, especially the insipid Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Edward G. Robinson is fabulous, as he always was, but the movie suffers the malady of most early talkers: overacting or over direction.

The extras on this DVD set are exceptional, especially the "Warner Bros. at the Movies." These contain a newsreel, a short, a cartoon and finally, the feature film itself. It allows the viewer to vicariously live through the 1930's. A real pleasure! My highest recommendation.

Great Value collection.......2006-07-24

Since Warner Brohters were famous for their gangster films, a boxed set of the most famous was logical and welcome. This set contains the best and most famous of those fims. More detailed reviews of each film can be viewed under their individual titles. By way of a quick summary:

- In 1930, "Little Ceasar" is the film based on the story of Al Capone which made Edward G Robinson a star but the film is antique and almost unwatchable today except for Robinson's towering performance.
- "The Public Enemy", made in 1931, was James Cagney's starmaking role and is very well directed by William Wellman.
- "The Petrified Forest" from 1936 is a film version of the play using Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart from the original Broadway production. Bogart plays a gangster holed up in a remote gas station taking hostage the occupants. The film has a poetic quality which dates it significantly.
- From 1938, "Angels with Dirty Faces" is one of the best of the gangster cycle with Cagney's award winning performance and a great cast, superbly directed by Michael Curtiz.
- In 1939, "The Roaring Twenties" just about the last in the cycle before film makers turned to the war, has an epic and documentary quality and summarises the whole prohibition era. It is very well made.
- In 1949, Cagney returned to the genre for one last role, maybe his best in "White Heat". His gangster now is psychopathic and the film has qualities similar to the popular film noir of the period.

The prints of the films are excellent with the exception of "Little Ceasar" which definitely shows its age. The extras include good featurettes about each film and if you view them in chronological order, you can pick up the continuity on the commentaries - 2 pre Hays Code implementation in 1934, 3 post code and pre war and 1 post war. There are many other extras including cartoons, newsreels and trailers as part of "Warners Night at the Movies". The package is outstanding value.

DVD:

DVD

Short 3: Authority (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: Andromeda - Season 1 Collection

Foggy Petronas Racing - Against All Odds