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Much has been said about Lew Ayres being miscast in this film, but I don't agree. The notion that a pretty young boy can't be a gangster is belied both by Ayres' performance and by history itself--Pretty Boy Floyd, anyone? (I should add, however, that Jimmy Cagney, in his autobiography, agreed with those who believed Ayres was too pretty to play a convincing gangster!)

This film is so much better than you'd think, and that is due not only to fine performances by Ayres and Cagney (make that, a WONDERFUL performance by Cagney, who really does ignite the screen), but also to impressive direction by Archie Mayo. I confess I usually think of Mayo as a pretty journeyman director, but maybe I've only seen his later work and "talkies" spoiled him. If you were to watch this film without sound, you'd be hyper-aware of the wonderful camera set-ups and editing, particularly during the prison break, when the screen is filled with jump cuts of men's legs running. Of course, without the sound, you'll miss the great period dialogue (a gangland ambush offers Ayres the opportunity to "walk into a handful of clouds").

TCM shows this film from time to time, and you really shouldn't miss it. It's well-written, well-directed, has great performances, and the closing lines (displayed as a printed page of the source story on the screen) are as poignant as anything you'll ever read.

I first wanted to viddy this interesting piece of sinny because it offered a pre-PUBLIC ENEMY look at James Cagney. Imagine my surprise to find out it is also Dwight Frye's first talkie! Yes, the man who would find fame as Renfield in DRACULA and Fritz in FRANKENSTEIN appears in this film too. Billed way at the bottom of the opening credits as simply "gangster", Dwight's character is called "Monk" and is one of the first people we meet in the film. That old cliche of the gangster who carries a tommy-gun in a violin case got started with this film and Dwight is the fellow toting the lethal instrument. When he strolls out of a pool room with his violin case under his arm he offhandedly comments "I'm gonna teach a guy a lesson." with a sardonic smile on his face. The lines "Take a guy for a ride" and "Put a guy on the spot" originated with this film too. Lew Ayers, fresh from ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is the real hero, or should I say anti-hero, of the movie and Cagney exhibits the screen personality that aimed him directly at the bullseye of Hollywood stardom but being a lifelong fan of character actors, I now like this film for Dwight Frye's brief, but memorable, appearance.

This pre-Code gangster movie is interesting primarily because of James Cagney, who is in a supporting role, that of a gangster's right-hand man. His boss is played somewhat improbably by 21- year-old Lew Ayres, who is hard to believe as he threatens rival gang members to fall in line under his authority. However, fall in line they do, that is, until Ayres decides he's had enough and decides to retire. (Yes, the pretty boy baby-face had had enough of the game, when it looks like he hasn't started shaving) When he's gone, all hell breaks loose for reasons we can't really fathom, prompting them to attempt to reel him back in by kidnapping his kid brother, who is away at a military school.

Ayres is one of the casting issues; the other is the policeman played by Robert Elliott, who is far too lethargic as he delivers his lines. The script is actually pretty good, and there are some lines that are wry and just perfect for the genre and time period. The ending is drawn out, however, and it's too bad the story surrounding the love interest (played well by Dorothy Matthews) who marries Ayres but secretly loves Cagney isn't expanded on, though the scene where she coyly slips off her wedding ring to encourage him is nice. The movie hits you over the head with an anti-crime message, but as you think about the actions of the police officer, coercing statements and selectively deciding who to protect, you have to wonder how effective this message was. Anyway, the net of all of this is a reasonably entertaining movie, but nothing to write home about.

This was only Cagney's 2nd movie, just before a string of movies the following year which would cement him as a star, most notably, The Public Enemy, and he's such a natural with great screen presence. As a footnote, I found it ironic that while Ayres in the movie lauds Napoleon, his brother's military training, and war in general, Ayres in real life was a conscientious objector during WWII, making him very unpopular at the time, though he served with honor in the medical corps instead.

Louie Ricarno (Lew Ayres) leads a bootlegging gang in Chicago with his right hand man Steve Mileaway (James Cagney). With ruthless charisma, he brings the other gangs under control. It's a time of peace in the crime world. He marries his girlfriend Doris and even supports children's charity. He tries to retire and go straight. Events conspire to pull him back into the muck.

It's James Cagney's second film. If only they knew. Ayres is a pretty boy. He's fine as a leading man but even at this early stage, Cagney has the gangster vibe over many of his fellow actors. If they had a crystal ball, Ayres and Cagney would switch places. This is pre-Code and it has a good amount of violence. It's three years after The Jazz Singer. This early gangster talkie has many elements of the genre's classic tropes. It is one of many early Warner Bros gangster movies which would launch a studio and a genre into the brave new world.

To see this movie on the Big Screen(like my Father,his uncles, and my Grandfathers did)would have been a treat. Well,not in my Dad's instance,because when my Dad saw the film on the Screen, it was shortly after Bogart's death and Cagney was already a long since established star.But still a treat nonetheless. Anyway for the Old oldtimers,they had to have the attitude:"This Cagney guy is gonna be around. Can't wait to see him again." Cagney always made his surroundings crackle with anticipation and uncertainty. You never really knew what was gonna happen. Doorway to Hell took risks. Real life gangsters dared Hollywood to make this movie because it hit close to home, for them. It's an interesting film to watch because of the miscasting. A thing William Wellman took note of during the filming of "Public Enemy", and had Cagney and the Lew Ayres clone "switch roles"...because "this Cagney guy has that gutter quality that this story needs to become effective". A must see movie.Especially for the buffs.

I like Lew Ayres--he proved himself a versatile actor in everything from the Dr. Kildare series to "Johnny Belinda" to "Holiday" (which he steals from Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn) to his moving early work in "All Quiet on the Western Front." In this, a prototypical Warners gangster flick, at 21, he's a bit young to convincingly play a mob boss who lords it over a sea of bootleggers and other crooks; when he snarls, you're just not sure they'd cower in response. Plus, his right-hand man is being played by Cagney, and he crackles and grins and burns up the screen. That said, it's an interesting early talkie, happily pre-Code (Cagney has an affair with Ayres' wife, a calculating Dorothy Matthews, and the screenplay doesn't over-judge them for that), directed by Archie Mayo with some striking compositions and a slam-bag prison-breakout climax, and with some thoughtful work by Ayres. He's just not quite the commanding, charismatic protagonist you'd like him to be.

This was better than I had expected. Maybe not quite up there with Public Enemy and the original Scarface, but not that far behind.

The acting is pretty good for an early talkie. Cagney is great as usual as the head gangster's top henchman. Lew Ayres acts well as the head guy, "the Napoleon of crime", although he's perhaps a little too cleancut looking for the role.

The story is good, and rather dark. Mobster Louie Ricarno, after uniting all the gangs in Chicago under one organization, tries to quit crime. But things fall apart in his absence, and he's forced to return for purposes of revenge. The ending is nicely grim and while there might be enough of a "crime doesn't pay" moral to keep the censors happy it doesn't rub it in your face. There's some good gangster violence along the way.- a number of well-done hits, and an over- the-top scene that resembles a full-scale battle.

Two other things struck me as memorable: The adulterous relationship between Cagney and his boss' wife. At one point, she takes off her wedding ring, and then they "go somewhere".

The police captain, O'Grady, is a rather ruthless character. He blackmails Cagney into a false confession for a crime he didn't commit, by threatening to tell Ayres about his affair with Ayres's wife! Later, he lets Ayres's rivals bump him off, rather than prosecute him and risk an acquittal. It also is implied that O'Grady's rejection of bribes is more the exception than the rule among police officials.

It pays to watch this movie closely, as there is a lot that is implied and innuendoed.

Just because it's not THE PUBLIC ENEMY or SCARFACE it's often looked down on. That's so unfair - this is not just typical of Zanuck's Warner Bothers, it's one of their best - certainly one of the best films from that year. After just a few magic minutes you are there yourself in 1931. You are tasting the dust of the streets.

If like me when you see that a film is directed by Archie Mayo you're predisposed to expect something lifeless, slow and pedestrian, you will be pleasantly surprised by this. This is actually directed remarkably well - he really brings this to life and gets you engaged with the story. With its naturalistic acting, excellent fluid camerawork and great use of sound effects, you'd never guess that this is a year older than PUBLIC ENEMY. You don't expect something this good from Archie Mayo!

It's less explicitly violent than it's contemporaries, like THE GODFATHER decades later it uses your own imagination to fill in the gaps because a lot of the action is implied or happens off-screen. That's a clever and subtle approach which really works.

The plot itself also has some similarities to Copola's epic inasmuch that it focuses on the characters rather than the action. You care about these people. Lee Ayres' character Louie who becomes the boss of all the gangs could almost be a prototype for Al Pachino's Michael Corleone.

And that brings us to Lew Ayres. He is both the best and worst thing about this picture. Worst because he's so young. He looks like he's just graduated from law school rather than a hardened criminal. It makes no sense that such a pleasant young man could evoke such fear and dread in the other gang leaders in the city. Whereas in THE GODFATHER we're told why the rival gang leaders grow to respect Corleone, in this they just do and it seems weird.

But I also said that Lew Ayres is the best thing about this film too. Once you've become absorbed into this you somehow overlook this gaping credibility chasm because he's such a fabulous actor. Just because the actor is only 22 doesn't mean his character is only 22. He is utterly believable. He's both engaged, likeable but also genuinely menacing as well and although you know you shouldn't, he makes you root for his character completely. This is one of the great performances of that year.

Finally of course there is another familiar actor in this ... yes that famous gangster actor ..... Noel Madison playing Ricarno's rival Rocco. He reprised this role in the brilliant Jessie Matthews comedy GANGWAY and stayed in England for a while making a little niche for himself playing the sort of American which we over here used to think all Americans were like.

The Doorway to Hell is yet another step up the ladder for James Cagney as the Brothers Warner discover that the guy they signed for a one shot deal to repeat his stage role from Penny Arcade was in fact future star material. He was certainly unlike some of the classical emoting stars from the silent period, unlike anything that ever had been on screen before.

Lew Ayres is the lead in this film, Cagney's his chief henchman. Ayres is an ambitious guy who's determined to bring a little organization to the bootleg booze business in his city. And then as soon as he gets it going, he quits. He wants to spend time on the golf course and with his new wife. The wife, Dorothy Matthews, is bored with early retirement mainly because she's been two timing Ayres with Cagney and Cagney's not around.

The story is pretty silly in any number of ways. First the various mob heads resent Ayres taking over, then they resent when he leaves. Secondly, it's not made clear at all why Cagney isn't capable of running this thing by himself, he sure looks capable enough. And the plot where two of the gangsters have the brilliant idea to kidnap Ayres's little brother from military school to bring him back is frighteningly stupid.

Ayres, Cagney, Matthews and the rest muddle through this dumb mess. Ayres was already a star due to All Quiet on the Western Front. And Cagney you had no doubt was going to be a star if the right vehicle was found for him. Even if Cagney had been in Ayres's role, I'm not sure The Doorway To Hell would have been it.

Doorway to Hell is geared towards the baby-boomers and maybe those in their late 40s. Lew Ayres and James Cagney are the big draw for this movie. The plot is a typical mob movie for this time (30 s and 40s). Doorway to Hell is a good late night movie to watch with a beer (if you drink) or a cup of hot cocoa along with a relaxing bowl of popcorn. The movie moves along at an okay pace, but let's face it -- it is not an action movie. It is a movie with flavor. The movie provides an enjoyable way to pass the time and not over excite you nor scare you into nightmares. I particularly enjoy watching James Cagney in mob movies. It is a role well suited to him.

Fine early talkie that belongs along side Little Caesar and The Public Enemy as the gangster films that set the rules for the genre. Unlike those films however this film gives us a smart gangster who tries to get out while on top only to be dragged back in.

Based on the movies TCM showed tonight. Hollywood has filmed this story of an Al Capone-type organizing the Chicago beer racket roughly 25 times. But The Doorway to Hell appears to be the first. The benefit is that the main character is a fresh-faced Lew Ayres instead of some moon-faced, accent-faking, scene chewer like Rod Steiger (Al Capone, 1959), Robert DeNiro (the Untouchables, 1987), Paul Muni (Scarface, 1932), etc. Ayres presents a character who is naive, ambitious, likeable, lamentable, misguided, fraternal, conflicted, and a whole lot of other things. The grit is supplied by James Cagney, who is refreshingly restrained in an early role. Even the top cop is portrayed in a welcome deadpan, coming across as a guy just doing his job, rather than the selfless crime-fighter that usually infects these movies. My minor complaint is the sped-up frame rate during the brewery shootout and the attempted kidnapping. I'm willing to write it off as a remnant of the silent era. Overall, interesting camera work, sharp dialogue and believable performances make this early gangster film worthwhile viewing.

A fairly good early talkie gangster flick. I caught this film on TCM late last night and was thoroughly entertained by it. It only had a few faults typical of films of the early talkie period.

The basic story is about a young mob boss Louie Ricarno(Lew Ayres) who through intimidation unites the gangs in the city for which he collects his percentage and piece reins in the city under his stewardship. He then gets married to Doris(Dorothy Mathews) and retires to Florida to write and play golf he leaves the syndicate in the hands of his right hand man Steve Mileaway(James Cagney) but soon the gangs are again warring and Louie for family reasons must return to the city and deal with the situation.

The film is well directed and the acting particularly Cagney's is a forerunner of his future career as a film tough. I think Ayres did a decent job in the lead role remember he was only 22 when he made this film but he is able to make Louie feel like he is the boss of the city. There is also a great gang fight scene at a local brewery this is one part where Archie Mayo gets a little lazy and only shoots the great action from one camera location at long distance. This could have been a great scene if he would have got up close and personal.

Grade B

"Doorway" stars Lew Ayres as mob boss "Louie", with co-star Dorothy Mathews. This one was right at the beginning of Ayres film career. He comes across so meek and mild mannered, it's pretty hard to accept him in the role of mob bigshot. (Ayres was an objector during wartime, re-inforcing that notion.) Mathews only had about sixteen roles, and most of those were uncredited anyway. In the story, Louie wants to combine all the various gangs, and be the kingpin of the whole durn thing. When Louie goes out of town, the various hoods and gangs act up, and trouble begins to brew. Interesting side note -- James Cagney is way down in the cast list...This appears to be his first or second role, and he clearly steals the show. You can tell he's going on to bigger and better things. Louie tries to quit as boss of the gangs, but as every mob story tells us, you can never quit the gang! This one is ok. very typical mob film. has actors that will go on to many good things. Directed by Archie Mayo... this was actually nominated for Best Story oscar.

... even though many people complain that the role should have gone to Cagney. Ayres' baby-faced good looks and polished exterior were supposed to clash with the reality of the gangster that he was - that is part of the whole point of the film.

Ayres plays Louie Ricarno, a gangster who has decided to take the warring gangs of the city and run them like departments of a corporation of which he, of course, is president. In spite of some beefing by the other gangsters at first, in the long run this ends the in-fighting and all the gangsters make more money in the bootleg booze business and like the arrangement. Ricarno makes more money than any of them and this enables him to marry his dream-girl, retire, and live the life of a gentleman in Florida. At something like the tender age of 25 he is even writing his memoirs. However, he has two problems. First, you can take the girl out of the speak-easy (his wife) but you can't take the speak-easy out of the girl. Secondly, once Louie is retired, the same old in-fighting starts up again among the gangsters he left behind and they yearn for Louie to return and restore order. When he refuses, a couple of the gangsters cook up a plan to force him to return that goes horribly wrong and ends up killing someone close to Louie. Full of vengeance, Louie does return home, but not to restore order.

Cagney here has a minor role as right hand man to Louie and one-time boyfriend of Louie's now bored wife Doris. He's perfect in the role since his openly wise-guy exterior is in sharp contrast to Ayres' gee-whiz personna, in spite of the fact that they are equally violent.

Louie is a sympathetic character in many ways. He isn't someone who just picked crime as a career. Instead he grew up in poverty, lost his parents at a young age, lost two siblings to typhoid from bad milk, and just doesn't know any other way to live than dog eat dog. This doesn't excuse what he does, but it is something of an explanation. In this sense this film is ahead of its time in complexity. Also interesting is Louie's almost-friendship with Captain Pat O'Grady, the cop that is determined to get Louie and his gang off the street once and for all.

At their best, gangster films are fun, gritty and uncompromising with a good amount of edge in the dialogue and thrills in any action they have. The best of them also have emotional power. Have highly appreciated gangster film for a while now, and there are many brilliant ones at this time and especially since. Naming them would be unfair. Another big reason to see 'Handful of Clouds' was the great James Cagney in an early role. Archie Mayo was an interesting if curious choice for director.

On the most part, 'Handful of Clouds' is solid stuff and has a good deal going for it in its favour. Can totally understand the criticisms that have been held against it and actually agree with a couple of them, but it serves its purpose well and much of it is very interesting. Cagney makes a big impression in his supporting role and Mayo, an always competent if not always distinguished director, does a surprisingly good job here too.

Much is done right. Cagney dominates every part of his screen time and gives 'Handful of Clouds' the punch that it could have had more of elsewhere. He provides tension and passionately engages with his role. The photography is effective in its atmosphere, the moody lighting also adding a lot, and there is a nice variety of shots that stops it from feeling like a filmed play like some early talkies suffered from. Any reservations as to whether Mayo's style would be too lightweight is quashed by his no-nonsense approach to the material and its brio.

'Handful of Clouds' has some decent acting besides Cagney too. Dorothy Matthews is both charming and calculating and her chemistry with Cagney (with the relationship being remarkably risque) is interesting, while Robert Elliott doesn't overdo the ruthlessness of his character without descending into boredom. The script has edge, but the poignancy of the closing lines stand out too. The story does have some grit and tension, especially at the end.

On the other hand, for my tastes Lew Ayres does hold back too much in the lead role and lacks the dark tension necessary. In general, 'Handful of Clouds' could have afforded to have gone for it more, the pulling no punches feel that the best gangster films have isn't quite there enough.

At times, the editing could have done with more fluidity.

Concluding though, while not exceptional it is solid and worth watching. 7/10

This Cagney vehicle has us believe that a gangster on top of the heap is trying to get out of the rackets and go straight. I'm sorry, but I already own the Brooklyn Bridge from a previous purchase I made. I have never heard of ANY major gangster from ANY era of US history who has tried to go straight after achieving a high level of success in crime. This is purely a Hollywood fantasy that only the most naive individuals would even consider. Cagney is fine, of course, but the plot is just so unbelievable, that one cannot really enjoy his performance. Fortunately, Cagney went on to do much better films in the future.

James Cagney was one of the greatest film actors of all time. He exists in the rarified company of such exceptional performers as Spencer Tracy, Cary Grant, James Stewart and George C. Scott, all of whom made outstanding contributions to the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Cagney's impact on film was apparent from the outset of his career. It was profound, astonishing and immediate---beginning with his very first movie (Sinner's Holiday)--a cinematic success derived from Cagney's earlier Broadway hit Penny Arcade. The fast-talking brash young man up from the streets of New York made an instant favorable impression on the 1930 moviegoing public, but the Warner Brothers (WB) studio executives were slower than the public to grasp just what a dynamic new superstar he was soon to become. Only some time after Cagney was rushed into his second film (The Doorway to Hell or TDTH), did it become apparent to all concerned that featured player Lew Ayers and supporting actor James Cagney probably should have switched roles. Twenty two year old Ayres, a boyish looking sensitive actor fresh from his breakout part as the gentle pacifist soldier in All Quiet on the Western Front, was widely considered to be one of Hollywood's most idealistic and likable young actors. And Cagney, nine years older than Ayres, was becoming widely noticed for the earthy, street-smart urban youth characters that he so convincingly brought to life. Watching TDTH 95 years after it was first released presents us with a clear example of how the studio system with all its virtues still could make an apparent casting misjudgment as to which one of these two actors should play the underworld mob boss and which should get the role of his loyal devoted lieutenant. This production decision likely affected the film's potential narrative power and thus may have worked against TDTH from becoming the huge hit it should have been.

One year and three films later, WB would face a similar dilemma. When the classic The Public Enemy went into early production, Edward Woods was originally cast in the more important role of Tom Powers and Cagney was to play his buddy Matt Doyle. However, unlike TDTH, it became immediately apparent to the studio executives that Woods and Cagney should swap roles---and they did. The rest is history.

TDTH was an important film for WB, as it allowed them to develop many elements of cinematic language that later came to characterize the "gangster film" at the studio. Since such films became a very important aspect of WB movie output from the 1930s onward, TDTH has major historical significance notwithstanding the aforementioned casting decision made at the time. In addition, it was sharply directed by Archie Mayo and is quite entertaining on its own terms.

Mayo was a highly talented WB contract director. He helmed such important and successful films as The Petrified Forest (that made Humphrey Bogart a star), Black Legion (an early powerful story about a KKK-like organization) and Bordertown (starring Paul Muni and Bette Davis)---to name but a few.

There were some other interesting actors in the cast of TDTH. Robert Elliott ( who played a police captain in TDTH) also appeared in the original version of The Maltese Falcon as Miles Archer---a part made more famous in the later classic John Huston version when essayed by Jerome Cowan. And Noel Madison, who played a gangster in TDTH, appeared as Ricardo Cortez's brother in the later fondly remembered family drama Symphony of Six Million.

TDTH is little known today---being overshadowed by its famous contemporaries Scarface, Little Caesar and The Public Enemy. However, TDTH can stand on its own merits as a great gangster film from WB's Golden Age of Hollywood. It deserves to be revisited by modern movie audiences.

Doorway to Hell, The (1930)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Early gangster picture from Warner tells the rise and fall of Louie Ricarno (Lew Ayres) who started up a beer racket before retiring yet he gets back in after his youngest brother is killed by rival gangs. This film suffers from some technical issues like many films from this era in terms of sound recording but overall it's a pretty entertaining little film, although it's been forgotten today due to Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, which were released the following year. There's plenty of action and tough talk but Ayres is really the wrong guy for the lead. For starters, he looks like a kid so he never comes off too threatening and whenever he pushes the other gangster around it just makes them look like wimps. Ayres also comes off laughable during the scenes where he's trying to show outrage and anger. James Cagney steals the film as Ayres' sidekick and he's his typical, high energy self. Dwight Frye also has a small role here, which was the first of his career.