(1938) 4.5 Fred Beldin Young viewers unfamiliar with 1930s era gangster melodramas might think that this classic is full of well-worn clichés, but Angels With Dirty Faces is the kind of film that brews up the bromides for others to dispense. Decades of homage, satire, and straight-up rip-offs have ensured generations of folks who have never seen a James Cagney film but always recognize an impersonation ("You dirty rat!"). Angels With Dirty Faces has aged well, still delivering plenty of excitement and hard-boiled action alongside its touches of hokum: the kindly priest of the ghetto parish, the cold killer with a soft spot for kids, and the long-suffering neighborhood girl who loves them both. The cast is packed with future icons at work. A pre-legend Humphrey Bogart plays against type as a conniving, cowardly lawyer, still three years away from The Maltese Falcon, and four years from his defining role in Casablanca (also helmed by Angels director Michael Curtiz). Pat O'Brien had made several films with Cagney prior to Angels in which he often served as his cast mate's foil, but this is the first time O'Brien played a priest, a persona he'd be associated with for years to come. The Dead End Kids didn't premiere with Angels, but they're still in their prime, too raw and tough here to be full-fledged comic relief; it would be a few years before their scrappy personas aged into buffoonery as the Bowery Boys. Then there's Cagney, at the height of his firebrand power, swaggering and sneering with charisma to burn. One never doubts that Cagney could survive a swarm of bullets in the climactic gunfight, as he wages a one-man war against both cops and crooks. Angels With Dirty Faces seems to acknowledge its star's glamour and the possibility of his gangster image celebrated and worshipped by impressionable youth. When Father Jerry asks Rocky Sullivan to feign cowardice as he walks to the electric chair, it's to prevent the naïve Dead End Kids from hailing him a martyr who spits at authority up to his last seconds on earth. Sullivan finally puts on the act, begging and pleading for life, and loses all credibility in the eyes of his onscreen admirers. Despite the film studio's intention of "social commentary," however, the audience in the theater watching Angels may feel this final cop-out makes the character even more appealing. After all, Rocky Sullivan shows great fortitude by "turning yellow" in the face of death; it was something he loathed to do, but chose because of his affection for the Kids and his friendship with O'Brien. Who wouldn't want to be that cool?

cast-crew for Angels With Dirty Faces on AllMovie

Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)

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Angels With Dirty Faces

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Questionable for Children
Suitable for Teens

genres

Drama

sub-genres

category

Feature

directed by

Michael Curtiz

countries

USA

released

1938

run time

97 min.

produced by

Warner Brothers

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cast

James Cagney: Rocky Sullivan

Pat O'Brien: Rev. Jerry Connolly

Humphrey Bogart: James Frazier

Ann Sheridan: Laury Ferguson

George Bancroft: Mac Keefer

Billy Halop: Soapy

Bobby Jordan: Swing

Leo Gorcey: Bim

Gabriel Dell: Pasty

Huntz Hall: Crab

Bernard Punsly: Hunky

Edward Pawley: Guard Edwards

Adrian Morris: Blackie

Frankie Burke: Rocky (as a boy)

Marilyn Knowlden: Laury as a Girl

Ted Offenbecker: Older Boy in Poolroom

Robert E. Homans: Policeman

Frank Coghlan, Jr.: Boy in Poolroom

William Tracy: Jerry as a Boy

Charles Wilson: Buckley, the Police Chief

Brian Burke: Convict

James Spottswood: Record Editor

Wilbur Mack: Croupier

William Pawley: Bugs the Gunman

Dan Jesse

Charles Marsh

Poppy Wilde: Girl at gaming table

Elliott Sullivan: Police Officer

Harris Berger: Basketball Captain

Earl Dwire: Priest

Ralph Sanford: City Editor, Press

Earl Gunn

Claude Wisberg: Hanger-On

Dick Rich: Gangster

James Farley: Railroad Yard Watchman

Lee Phelps

Dead End Kids

Harry Hayden: Pharmacist

Vince Lombardi

Lotta Williams: Woman

Al Lloyd

Charles Trowbridge: Norton J. White, Press Editor

Roger McGee

Galan Galt: Policemen at Call-Box

Dutch Hendrian

William Worthington: Warden

Steven Darrell: Gangster

Sonny Bupp

Charles Sullivan: Gunman

Mary Gordon: Mrs. Patrick McGee

Belle Mitchell: Mrs. Maggione

Al Hill

George Offerman: Adult boy

William Crowell: Whimpering Convict

Oscar O'Shea: Guard Kennedy

Emory Parnell

Theodore Rand: Gunman

Frank S. Hagney

Chuck Stubbs: Red

Carlyle Moore, Jr.: Reporter

Pat O'Malley: Railroad guard

Donald Kerr

Jack Perrin: Death Row Guard

Wilfred Lucas: Police officer

Joe Devlin: Gangster

Thomas E. Jackson: Press City Editor

Eddie Brian: Newsboy

Jeffrey Sayre

Jack Goodrich: Reporter (uncredited)

John Dilson: Chronicle Editor

Dick Wessel

Alexander Lockwood

Billy McClain: Janitor

Joe Cunningham: Managing Editor

Lane Chandler: Guard

Sidney Bracey

A.W. Sweatt: Boy

John Marston: Well Dressed Man

David Durand: Boy in Poolroom

John Hamilton: Police Captain

Vera Lewis: Soapy's Mother

Jack Mower: Detective

Jack C. Smith: Railroad Guard

Dan Wolheim

John Harron: Sharpies

George Taylor

Ben Hendricks, Jr.: Guard

William Edmunds: Italian Storekeeper

George Sorel: Headwaiter

Joseph Downing: Steve

crew

Michael Curtiz: Director
Sam Bischoff: Producer
John Wexley: Screenwriter
Rowland Brown: Screenwriter
Warren B. Duff: Screenwriter
Sol Polito: Cinematographer
Leo F. Forbstein: Musical Direction/Supervision
Max Steiner: Composer (Music Score)
Owen Marks: Editor
Robert M. Haas: Art Director
Orry-Kelly: Costume Designer
Everett A. Brown: Sound/Sound Designer
Sherry Shourds: First Assistant Director
Perc Westmore: Makeup