Angels with Dirty
Faces is a Hays Code era gangster film which stars James Cagney as Rocky
Sullivan, a notorious gangster with a good side. Rocky grew up what appears to
be the Lower East Side with his friend Jerry
(Pat O’Brien) getting up to all sorts of misdemeanours and petty crime. One day
the boys are being chased through a train yard when Jerry slips and falls in
front of a moving train. Rocky saves his friend but as the boys make their
escape Rocky is caught and sent to reform school which leads to a life of
crime. Years later Jerry is a Priest and having been released from a stint in
jail Rocky returns to the old neighbourhood to claim his share of loot from his
crooked lawyer Frazier (Humphrey Bogart) but Frazier ain’t taking too kindly to
Rocky walking back up in here, you get me, you mutz.
The film features a great central performance from Cagney as
well as some brilliant set design and cracking dialogue. It feels a little
diluted when compared to earlier pre-Code films but you get the picture of the
world in which the characters are living. What is obvious although sometimes
too obvious is the message. Sometimes it’s not who you are but where you are
that makes you and the film’s black and white telling of this idea is laid out
very clearly.
