Angels With Dirty Faces is a milestone film for the careers of both James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. Up to now they had been successfully teamed by Warner Brothers in a whole series of buddy films. In fact it is my contention that they popularized that particular genre. Here they are childhood friends, but as adults, adversaries due to the course in life they took.
Cagney came off suspension from Warner Brothers and agreed to do this film as his comeback of sorts. At first glance it seems just like another gangster flick, just what Cagney had been trying to get away from. But by force of personality and a superior script, Cagney turned the role of Rocky Sullivan into a classic and got his first Academy Award nomination.
As for O'Brien, this was his first clerical role. Usually O'Brien is the fast talking manager, press agent,etc. When playing a priest Pat O'Brien slows the pace of the dialog down to a crawl and it works. He greatly expanded his range here and there were many other classic clerical roles to come.
Cagney's a notorious gangster who's just been let out of prison after a three year stretch, taking a fall for his crooked attorney, Humphrey Bogart. Bogart was supposed to guard his $100,000.00 Cagney had squirreled away from illegal activities in the Twenties. Bogart's got a new partner now in George Bancroft and neither of them wants to cut Cagney in on anything.
Let's just say that Cagney in the usual Cagney fashion makes both of them wish they'd played it on the square.
Father O'Brien's concern is that notorious criminal Cagney is becoming a hero to some of the neighborhood kids in his parish. But he also can't forget that the two of them had been boyhood pals and that Cagney's first brush with the law was over a petty crime that O'Brien was equally guilty of. This is shown in a small prologue with three players portraying, Cagney, O'Brien, and neighborhood girl Ann Sheridan as kids.
Young Frankie Burke is astounding in his portrayal of the young Cagney. He has him down perfectly, he becomes Cagney. Angels With Dirty Faces is worth watching for him alone.
Those other juvenile actors with Warner Brothers at the time, The Dead End Kids, play the kids from the parish who come to idolize and idealize Cagney. O'Brien has one tough time trying to make them see that Cagney's life is not the way to go in life.
Angels With Dirty Faces still has a powerful message for today and film aficionados should see it because of that and because it was a key turning point in the careers of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien.
Cagney came off suspension from Warner Brothers and agreed to do this film as his comeback of sorts. At first glance it seems just like another gangster flick, just what Cagney had been trying to get away from. But by force of personality and a superior script, Cagney turned the role of Rocky Sullivan into a classic and got his first Academy Award nomination.
As for O'Brien, this was his first clerical role. Usually O'Brien is the fast talking manager, press agent,etc. When playing a priest Pat O'Brien slows the pace of the dialog down to a crawl and it works. He greatly expanded his range here and there were many other classic clerical roles to come.
Cagney's a notorious gangster who's just been let out of prison after a three year stretch, taking a fall for his crooked attorney, Humphrey Bogart. Bogart was supposed to guard his $100,000.00 Cagney had squirreled away from illegal activities in the Twenties. Bogart's got a new partner now in George Bancroft and neither of them wants to cut Cagney in on anything.
Let's just say that Cagney in the usual Cagney fashion makes both of them wish they'd played it on the square.
Father O'Brien's concern is that notorious criminal Cagney is becoming a hero to some of the neighborhood kids in his parish. But he also can't forget that the two of them had been boyhood pals and that Cagney's first brush with the law was over a petty crime that O'Brien was equally guilty of. This is shown in a small prologue with three players portraying, Cagney, O'Brien, and neighborhood girl Ann Sheridan as kids.
Young Frankie Burke is astounding in his portrayal of the young Cagney. He has him down perfectly, he becomes Cagney. Angels With Dirty Faces is worth watching for him alone.
Those other juvenile actors with Warner Brothers at the time, The Dead End Kids, play the kids from the parish who come to idolize and idealize Cagney. O'Brien has one tough time trying to make them see that Cagney's life is not the way to go in life.
Angels With Dirty Faces still has a powerful message for today and film aficionados should see it because of that and because it was a key turning point in the careers of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien.