Angels With Dirty Faces
by Michael Curtiz
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Product details
Actor: Ann Sheridan, George Bancroft, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Pat O'BrienDirector: Michael Curtiz
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
Release Date: 1997-02-11
Audience Rating: Unrated
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
VHS Movie Reviews of Angels With Dirty Faces
Movie Review: "'morning gentlemen. Nice day for a murder."
Summary: 4 Stars
Slightly dated and just a little too sentimental towards the end ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES is still a great movie mainly due to James Cagney's high-powered performance as life long criminal Rocky Sullivan.
After his latest prison stint Rocky returns to his old neighborhood looking to get in on some of the action. Childhood friend and now priest, Pat O'Brien, is glad to see his old buddy but worries about Sullivan's influence on the local kids who idolize his violent ways.
Sullivan's aggressive behavior doesn't sit too well with local bosses George Bancroft and Humphrey Bogart, so before too long the lead gets to flying.
The scenes with Cagney (which are the majority of the film) are great, but the stuff with The Dead End Kids is annoying. They acted like a bunch of wannabe tough guys doing a "Three Stooges" routine. Ann Sheridan, while not being on the screen near enough, is beautiful. I've always found her to be one of the hottest women of the Golden Age.
Followed, in name only, by ANGELS WASH THEIR FACES starring Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan.
Cagney and O'Brien also starred together in HERE COMES THE NAVY (1934), CEILING ZERO (1935), DEVIL DOGS OF THE AIR (1935), THE IRISH IN US (1935), BOY MEETS GIRL (1938), THE FIGHTING 69TH (1940), TORRID ZONE (1940) and RAGTIME (1981).
Also if you look fast enough you'll notice Harry Hayden as the pharmacist during the drug store attack. Harry starred bit parts and supporting roles in close to 250 films including MR.SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, HIGH SIERRA (another pharmacist), NOTORIOUS, THE KILLERS, FURY, OUT OF THE PAST and 7 movies by the great Preston Sturges.
D: Michael Curtiz (MILDRED PIERCE, LIFE WITH FATHER)
William `Rocky Sullivan - James Cagney (EACH DAWN I DIE, MISTER ROBERTS)
Father Jerome `Jerry' Connelly - Pat O'Brien (SOME LIKE IT HOT, BOMBSHELL)
James `Jim' Frazier - Humphrey Bogart (THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, HIGH SIERRA)
Laury Ferguson - Ann Sheridan (THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, KINGS ROW)
Mac Keefer - George Bancroft (STAGECOACH, EACH DAWN I DIE)
Movie Review: The Ending and more
Summary: 5 Stars
I must have seen this film about 30 times while I was growing up. Realizing James Cagney was the best of his Generation. Every time I watched it I wanted the ending to be different. It had such an impact on me. Did he do it for the Kids? Did he just get Yellow at the last minute like the Guard said? A question we will never have answered.
Other scenes that were great was seeing the streets of NY( even though it was really the backlot). The scene of seeing Gagney coming into the church and hearing the Choir singing is memorable. As a young boy watching it for the first time in the 50's I fell in love with Ann Sheridan as well. A real knockout.
This film will go down in Film History as one of the best of it's kind.
Movie Review: Three roads , three fates
Summary: 5 Stars
Three friends will be carried for those strange twists of fate in a priest a good man and a criminal.
Curtiz established as a young promise in 1938 with this famous work .
Cagney and Bogart are terrific.
An incandescent noir film .
Movie Review: One Of Cagney's Finest & One Of My All-Time Favorites!
Summary: 5 Stars
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
The silhouette of "Rocky Sullivan" (played by James Cagney) struggling with the guards as he is being strapped to the electric chair is one of the most moving moments ever filmed. Was he scared and frightened? Was it a selfless act so that the "Dead End Kids" wouldn't end up in a similar situation? I strongly recommend you watch the film and decide for yourself.
Two friends grow up together on the Lower East Side of New York. One turns to a life of crime and the other turns to God and the priesthood. Having just been released from prison "Rocky" returns to the district where he grew up to collect money owed to him by his corrupt lawyer James Frazier (played by Humphrey Bogart). While he is there he calls in on his old friend Jerry Connelly (played by Pat O'Brien) who is now a priest. He is working with a group of young boys (The Dead End Kids) trying to keep them on the straight and narrow and away from crime. Rocky's infamy as a gangster assures him of being popular with the boys who idolise him, however, it is because if this popularity that Fr. Jerry asks him to pretend to be scared as he is taken to the chair. He doesn't want the boys to follow in his footsteps and end up in the same situation. Rocky refuses and walks to the chair without a flinch. On reaching the chair he cries out and struggles.
Did he do it for the boys? I think so. Was the priest a hypocrite? I think so. Father Jerry wouldn't accept money from Rocky for the building of a new gym for the boys because the money was corrupt. However, he was willing to allow the boys to have a false impression of Rocky as a coward.
All-in-All, This Gets 5 Stars Out Of A Possible 5 In My Book.
Movie Review: don't see this for Bogie
Summary: 5 Stars
Humphrey Bogart's part is minor. ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES is a Cagney movie. Sure, it does seem dated. See it for the old boys' gymnasium, the boys playing basketball in their gym clothes, the trapezes hanging from the gymnasium ceiling above the basketball court. See it for Cagney helping the priest by refereeing a game, and punching the kids around when they commit fouls. Cagney looks good as Rocky Sullivan, famous gangster put away for years, only to return to the streets. Doublecrossed by two former allies, he guns them down, only to be hunted down by police. Cagney's the real McCoy.
This is classic Cagney and not to be missed by fans of gangster movies. ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES: 5 stars
Summary of Angels With Dirty Faces
Gangster Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) returns from prison to make a name for himself in the crime world. He's soon discovered by the Dead End Kids, who idolize him, and childhood pal Father Jerry Connolly (Pat O'Brien). The good Father has taken a different turn from Rocky and is struggling to bring the Kids around; while still friends with Rocky, he tries to persuade him to steer clear of the gang of urchins. Rocky runs afoul of the law, however, when he guns down his former partners Frazier (Humphrey Bogart) and Keefer (George Bancroft) after they betray him over a cut of crime-related profits. Seen as a whole, Angels with Dirty Faces may seem dated to many viewers, but its ending is still enough to bring chills. Director Michael Curtiz infused this gritty 1938 effort with an amazing amount of energy and pacing; the Dead End Kids, in their screen debut, supply a fair amount of comic relief along with their dramatic roles. It's also worth noting that at the time, the notion of a criminal being a product of his environment was a controversial one. The swaggering bantam-rooster role played by Cagney, one of the screen's greats, helped define how he would be perceived (and parodied) for years to come. This movie easily stands along with The Roaring Twenties and Little Caesar as one of the most important, archetypal gangster films of the '30s. --Jerry RenshawMystery & Thriller Video
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