I first saw The Roaring Twenties on the big screen at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco in 1976. They called it a Salute to Warner Brothers; I salute them then and now for introducing me to one of my favorite films. It was the first of 10+ viewings of the film, which I find oddly comforting notwithstanding the movie’s milieu.

In many ways, The Roaring Twenties is the ultimate Warner Brothers movie. It’s loaded with excellent performances from actors who worked together frequently and knew how to play off one another. That’s why they called it the Warner Brothers stock company. That’s why I’m calling the cast members by their own, not their character, names. I know, I always do that, but I have a fancy justification this time. Humor me.

The Roaring Twenties begins with a Great War meet cute. Humphrey Bogart is in a foxhole and under fire. He’s soon joined by James Cagney and Jeffrey Lynn.

After a snarky exchange, the three soldiers from New York City become fast friends who will meet again after hostilities cease and Prohibition begins.

Times are tough on the home front. Cagney was an auto mechanic before the war but his job has been filled. He drives a cab and stumbles into bootlegging. Being Jimmy Cagney, he’s a natural gangster so he rises and thrives. He even makes his own booze alongside his perennial sidekick, Frank McHugh.

Cagney and Bogart have a re-meet cute on a ship carrying booze. Cagney is there to hijack the cargo; Bogart works for the guy whose booze it is. He decides the future belongs to the bold. Who’s bolder than Jimmy Cagney?

Since it’s a 1939 movie, The Roaring Twenties has a romantic subplot. Priscilla Lane is a nice girl from the suburbs who was Cagney’s pen pal during the war. She was too young for him when first they met but they run into each other backstage at a show in which she’s a chorus girl. He is smitten. She is not but accepts his help and support.

Cagney and Lane form a romantic quadrangle with Gladys George as Panama Smith and Cagney’s foxhole friend Jeffrey Lynn who is now his lawyer. Cagney and George belong together as do Lane and Lynn; it takes time for that to happen.

By the middle of the movie, Cagney has become a big shot with a fleet of taxis to compliment the booze biz. Bogart fumes as he’s relegated to second banana status. It’s what happens when you’re third billed. The stock market crash presents Bogart with an opportunity to take over the gang. Cagney needs money to cover his brokerage account, Bogart buys him out with a sneer and a snarl. Everything his character does in this movie is done with a sneer and a snarl.

Cagney is left with one cab. He began the movie as a milk drinker, but turns to the demon alcohol as his fortunes plummet. His bootlegger stock company has dissolved, Lane and Lynn go straight after Frank McHugh was whacked by a rival gangster. Gladys George finally gets her man but they’re both on the skids:

Jeffrey Lynn becomes an assistant District Attorney. He’s on the verge of taking Bogart down. Bogie doesn’t like that and threatens his former friend. Priscilla Lane is now married to Lynn, but she goes to Cagney for help. It’s a chance for him to redeem himself and to take down an enemy. It’s an offer he can’t refuse.

As you can see, Bogart goes yellow and begs for his life like your basic bully, but he’s doomed. So is Cagney who is gunned down by one of Bogie’s gunsels but not before he has perhaps the greatest death scene in cinematic history.

When the cop asks Gladys George who the dead guy is, she utters the film’s classic closing line, “He used to be a big shot.”

The Roaring Twenties features the ultimate Jimmy Cagney performance. It’s big, brash, and bold but it’s also nuanced, which is a hard trick to pull off. Cagney’s facial expressions are to die for, literally and figuratively.

Bogart does a great job as the ruthless rat bastard, George. Another standout performance is by the other George, Gladys. Panama Smith is a standup broad. When someone calls her an “off-key Canary” it always irks me. Yeah, I know, I irk easily but I stand by my defense of this standup dame.

The movie was directed by Raoul Walsh who keeps the action moving at a breakneck pace without sacrificing characterization. That was one of his specialties as a top Warner Brothers director.

The movie is based on a story by longtime NYC newspaperman Mark Hellinger who also produced. His vision was executed expertly by Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay, and Robert Rossen. Rossen went on to bigger things as the writer-director of Body and Soul, All The King’s Men, and The Hustler. Holy distinguished resume, Batman.

Grading Time: This is an easy one for me. I give The Roaring Twenties 4 stars and an Adrastos Grade of A.

It’s time to posterize your life or some such shit.

We begin with a quad:

Here are side-by-side long sheets with a French poster on the right:

Vive le Cagney.

A trip to the lobby is in order right now:

Befitting a big budget gangster film, there are a plethora of color lobby cards for this black and white movie.

The next two cards are from a re-release. How do I know? Bogart is second billed, that’s how.

That last lobby card is a curtain call. It’s almost curtains for this post but we have a trailer to watch:

The last word goes to a pre-Noir Alley Eddie Muller: