The Roaring Twenties is a mid period James Cagney gangster picture
which co-stars Humphrey Bogart in the third and final film in which the two
screen legends shared billing. The film takes on the epic task of depicting the
rise and fall of a big shot gangster from his humble beginnings in the trenches
of The First World War, through the heights of the prohibition era, the
crippling Stock Market Crash and the subsequent repealing of the Volstead Act.
This is a film which never feels epic in scale and instead closely follows its
protagonists within their ever changing world. It’s also a film which has few
standout moments and although considered a classic of the genre, dragged and
felt much longer than it truly is.
The romantic elements of the
story felt forced and the film was on more solid ground during the
rat-tat-tat-tat, fast talking, “What’s the big idea” back and forth of the
scenes set in the underworld speakeasies or liquor distilleries. Pricilla Lane is
excellent in her early scenes as a wide eyed, inexperienced girl next door but
suddenly seems swamped when placed inside the illegal world of the bootlegger.
Her voice is sweet sounding and she can certainly hold a tune but she’s at sea
when unaccompanied by an orchestra.
What I really enjoyed about The Roaring Twenties was the
relationship between Cagney’s good guy gone bad, Eddie Bartlett and Bogart’s
bad guy gone worse, George Hally. This was one of Bogart’s final typecast
gangster roles and it’s still a little unsettling to see him play such a
villain given the characters of his most famous roles. Here though, you have no
doubt as to his character following an early war scene in which he happily
kills a teenaged German mere minutes before the armistice. Bartlett is less cut and dry and initially
attempts to make good in the world but he finds the world has moved on during
his years in the trenches and an honest living is something that’s hard to
find. The way in which he turns to his bootlegging lifestyle is natural and
well written. The political and satirical undertones are also never far from
the surface in these scenes and bubble up from time to time in a pleasing
manner.
Cagney lights up the screen with
his villainous behaviour and rolled up sleeve attitude but it’s really towards
the climax that his acting prowess shines though. He plays down and out
superbly and is offset nicely by Bogart’s shark like Hally. The ever changing
power struggle and one-upmanship in their relationship, coupled with deep
mistrust, helps to keep the film flowing through some of its duller moments.
Considering the film whizzes through over a decade of history in fewer than two
hours, I felt that the pacing was a little slow. The dialogue was generally
very good but it sometimes took a long time for a scene or sequence to get
going. Some rather uninspiring direction from the normally reliable Raoul Walsh
also seems to slow things down. In addition to this are some fairly mundane
action sequences which featured slapdash choreography and looked a little too
amateurish for a film with such talent both in front of and behind the camera.
Like the central character, the
film redeems itself in its final moments and it’s the ending where the best
action and drama is to be found. Cagney excels in these late scenes and the
movie beautifully pulls all the strings of the plot together, satisfying the
Breen Office and audience alike. Had the remainder of the film been pitched the
same, I would have enjoyed it a lot more than I did.
6/10
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