After two years (and two also-ran indies) away from Warner Bros., James Cagney returned to the studio for a dozen films over five years. About half were classics, though not the first out, BOY MEETS GIRL/’38 with frequent co-star Pat O’Brien: noisy, fast-paced & mirthless. Then this top-tier gangster meller, also with O’Brien, about two tenement delinquents, one who gets caught and goes from Juvie Jail to hoodlum icon; one who gets away to become neighborhood priest. Now, the hood is back on the streets, a hero to a new crop of toughs and a corrupting influence his old pal the priest has to stop. Director Michael Curtiz , constantly on the prowl in a surprisingly lux production, jumps right in with Sol Polito’s panoramic opening shot of the whole damn neighborhood. A jaw-dropping camera move repeated 15 years on, after a reel’s worth of prologue backstory. Ann Sheridan’s the girl in the picture; Humphrey Bogart & George Bancroft the slick mob connection ready to gyp Cagney out of a hundred grand; and The ‘Dead End’ Kids hanging out to see if their mob idol will turn ‘yellow’ when the electric chair fires up. Fine as the whole film is (it runs like a clock), the end chapter, with O’Brien asking Cagney to sacrifice his rep for the sake of the kids, and Cagney breaking down in pitiable fashion (is he faking it?), is a thing of Golden Age Hollywood beauty.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/DOUBLE-BILL: Who’da thunk there’d be another big movie hit that year for Delinquent Boys and an understanding Priest? More admired at the time, now all but unwatchable, BOYS TOWN saw Spencer Tracy beating Cagney for Best Actor Oscar®. Seen one after the other, the two films offer a perfect overview on the differing outlooks of M-G-M and Warner Bros.
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