Gli angeli con la faccia sporca

"Angels With Dirty Faces" was James Cagney's first film for Warner Bros. following his two year contract dispute. During that time he appeared in two films for the poverty row studio Grand National. With a few concessions to The Production Code (introduced in 1934) it is nonetheless one of the great all time gangster films. The touch of legendary director Michael Curtiz is evident throughout.

The story begins in the 1920s with two boyhood pals "Rocky" Sullivan (Frankie Burke) and Jerry Connelly (William Tracy) in the Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood of New York. Rocky gets arrested by the police and is sent to the reformatory after a botched break in while Jerry escapes. While in prison, Rocky learns the evils of gangsterism from within and forges a life of crime and growing up to be James Cagney. Meanwhile Jerry has become a priest in the Pierson of Pat O'Brien.

Rocky returns to the old neighborhood and becomes involved with a group of teenagers (The Dead End Kids) who are headed in the same direction as Rocky. Fr. Jerry prevails upon Rocky to help him straighten the boys out before its too late. Rocky also meets up with a girl from his childhood, Laury Ferguson (Ann Sheridan).

Meanwhile we learn that Rocky has served three years in jail to protect his former partner and lawyer Jim Frazier (Humphrey Bogart). He has also entrusted Frazier with $100,000 from an earlier caper. Rocky goes to Frazier to demand his money and learns that Frazier is now involved with crime boss Mac Keefer (George Bancroft) and that they plan to cheat him out of his money. Hey, nobody double crosses Rocky.

Cagney is typical Cagney, bold, brash and cocky as Rocky. O'Brien as the Irish priest was a role he was born to play. Sheridan looks lovely but has little to do. Bogart, who was still 3 years away from major stardom, does well as the yellow back stabbing lawyer. The Dead End Kids - Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Punsley) would move to a "B" series (without Hallop) after their Warner contract expired in 1939. The performances of Frankie Burke in particular and William Tracy as the young Rocky and Jerry are excellent.

"Angels With Dirty Faces" is probably best remembered for its ending. don't miss it.

Michael Curtiz has made some great films, yet the only one that tends to be well received among film fans is his contender for the best movie ever made - obviously Casablanca (and Robin Hood, to a lesser extent). However, the man has a wealth of other influential classics under his belt that don't tend to get the recognition that they deserve, and Angels With Dirty Faces is one of those films. To sum the film up easily, one would say that it is a crime drama. However; like the best crime dramas, this one has multiple themes that elevate it from being merely a film about crime, to being a character study, a portrait of what it is that makes a hero and a condemnation of criminals on the whole. The story follows Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connolly; two young New York thugs, the former of which is caught by the police and sent to a reform school, where, ironically, he learns to be a criminal. The latter escapes punishment and goes on to become a priest. The story follows these two men as they meet up as adults and have an effect on the lives of the kids of their old neighbourhood.

The focus of the film is always centred on the neighbourhood. This allows Curtiz to show us the effects that Rocky's criminal endeavours have on the kids of the neighbourhood more effectively. This sort of narrative would be employed in later films, such as the critically acclaimed 'City of God', and works well here too. The way the film shows how impressionable young kids can be influenced by adults works brilliantly, and Curtiz is able to continue this theme up until the powerful ending. James Cagney would later go on to achieve major fame in the incredible 'White Heat', but here he shows us what the quintessential New York gangster would be like. His performance, in short, is incredible and easily ranks among the best gangster roles of all time. The rest of the cast do well in their roles, with distinct New York accents helping to firmly place the audience in the city that the film is taking place in. Furthermore, the film is economic in the way it's plotted and it's also very exciting, and therefore guaranteed to delight it's audience.

Angels With Dirty Faces is an absolute cinema classic and quite why it isn't more famous is anyone's guess. Although not quite as good as Casablanca, this is a major notch in Michael Curtiz's filmography and I wouldn't have any qualms with recommending this to film fans at all.

This film certainly has an attractive cast with three Hall-Of-Fame actors and the very pretty Ann Sheridan.

James Cagney, my favorite actor of classic films, once again steals most of the scenes. He just dominates the screen and gets you very involved with his character, especially at the end. Pat O'Brien plays his normal somewhat-liberal and likable priest role and Humphrey Bogart is convincing as the crooked lawyer. Bogart was the bad guy in most films until he became a big star a couple years after this film.

The "Dead End Kids" are a pretty tough bunch. Seeing them play basketball is quite a sight - more like rugby. It must be one of the highlights of this entertaining film because I remember it so well....it was so different from any other basketball game I've ever seen!

The shootout-and-chase scene near the end was well-done with some great film-noir photography and the ending of the movie is quite memorable. Frankly, the first time I saw this I thought it was overrated but after the second viewing - and then seeing a nice transfer on DVD - I changed my mind. It is anything but overrated.

Had a lot of high hopes for 'Angels With Dirty Faces'. There are many great gangster films out there, some cinematic milestones, and when one talks about actors that excelled in this type of film James Cagney is somewhere near the top of the list. Really like to love a lot of Michael Curtiz's, a great and very versatile director, films, especially 'Casablanca', 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' and 'Mildred Pierce' and even lesser efforts are watchable.

'Angels With Dirty Faces' blew me away. It is up there with the best gangster films of all time to me and many others, which is evident from how massively influential it is and how often it's imitated. 'Angels With Dirty Faces' is also one of Curtiz's best films, well certainly among my favourites of his as of now anyway, one of Cagney's finest hours and has an ending (justifiably near-universally lauded) that left a huge impression on me emotionally.

It is a wonderful looking film, Curtiz's films were always well made and his visual style was actually pretty unique at the time. While the production design is atmospheric and the lighting very artistic and moody, it was the cinematography that left me spellbound. Not just the stunning composition and how much it enhanced the atmosphere but also the use of camera angles, very varied kinds without being gimmicky and it is always fluid and ambitious.

Max Steiner's score swells sumptuously and thrillingly and is very haunting and effectively dramatic. Without being intrusive or strident. Curtiz's direction is exemplary, the classy stylishness and boldness evident throughout. It shines especially at the end, well pretty much everything shines at this point. The script is gritty and lean yet also sophisticated and sincere. Some of it is quotable too.

The story has so much great with it too. It is fast paced and appropriately tough as nails, while also having emotional impact. The chemistry between Cagney and Pat O'Brien and Cagney and Humphrey Bogart have sincerity and hard boiled tension and the moral, one still having a lot of truth now, makes its point without beating one around the head. The shoot out is thrilling and suspensefully staged, and the Dead End Kids' moments have heart and levity, but the highlight dramatically is the ending. Can't begin to tell you how powerful it is, my gut was practically wrenched watching it and after my heart was ripped into two. The characters are interesting, even though Rocky was very flawed it was hard to hate him.

Cagney is magnificent and shows why his reputation as an icon in gangster films is richly deserved. It is an intense and bold yet oddly likeable performance and one of his best, his acting at the end is some of the best he ever did. O'Brien is sincere and a powerful contrast while Bogart plays a weasel of a character pretty chillingly. The Dead End Kids add a lot too.

Altogether, brilliant. 10/10

This is one of my favorite classics, with extraordinary acting of James Cagney, one of the best actors starring crime films, and his friend, Pat O'Brien, who once again played the role of a priest. In fact, O'Brien in his real life studied to become a priest, but later he quit for becoming an actor. The seed of criminality is here well shown, but not its causes. Why are these children finally criminals? It was not the intention of the director Michael Curtiz to go deeply into the problem, instead he treated it religiously. Men are products of the society where they live, obviously, some escape from bad examples while others continue to be spoiled for the whole life. Rocky Sullivan (Cagney) was the case, a spoiled child with some principles of friendship only, and hard with his enemies. His best friend (o'Brien) hopefully became a priest and took the life differently, trying to help and improve the behavior of the children in the community where he lives. Why one went in one way different to the other? this is not suggested in the film. We have only the facts and then you must figure out the reasons of such behaviors. Interesting film, anyway, with good acting of Humphrey Bogart too, who was a perfect actor for playing the roles of the villains, and always nice Ann Sheridan did it well too.