There are many reasons this overrated film is so unbearably horrible such as: corny story with corny characters (who are the most hackneyed clichéd stereotypes imaginable), the pathetic Dead End Kids who are relentlessly irritating, Pat O'Brien's saintly smugness, Bogart's absurdly unrealistic pantomime villain.....and a real waste of talent.
Admittedly the first ten minutes when we're introduced to Rocky and Jerry as kids is actually pretty good - ok, it's very good: gorgeous atmosphere, beautifully shot - you can almost taste the dust blowing up from those filthy stinking streets. The actors playing the younger versions of Rocky and Jerry are both brilliant - it's a shame they didn't stick around for the rest of the film because when the 'grown-ups' take over it just evolves into the most sickly sweet cliché infused mechanically written drivel you could imagine interspersed with segments from old gangster flicks.
Warner Brothers seemed to be trying to revive their own earlier penchant for gritty gangster films with this and their next offering the following year, THE ROARING TWENTIES but the originality, the sparkle and importantly the nearness in time to the actual events happening there and then had been lost (ROARING TWENTIES was however a fairly good attempt - unlike this!) In the early thirties their pictures had teeth, their message-infused in-your-face melodrama could chew out your heart and spit it into the gutter. Back then they had Daryl Zanuck driving the ship - by 1939 he'd moved on but could still punch us in the stomach with the likes of THE GRAPES OF WRATH. With this however Warners had lost their moral compass and were just trying to make a quick buck.
Besides Pat O'Brien doing one of those awful parodies of a clergyman taken up to level 11 on the sanctimonious scale, the truly worst aspect of this picture is the so-called Dead End Kids. They're simply terrible and seem to take up about 50% of the screen time. If you managed to endure the worst film of 1937 (DEAD END) which 'discovered' them then possibly you might disagree but if you are a normal human being, this bunch of jumped up pretentious yobs will annoy the hell out of you. I know that in reality they really were a rough and tough bunch but they were also stage actors (and not very good ones) so come across as exactly what they are: a bunch of drama school boys pretending to be Brooklyn street kids. Their affected shenanigans feel extremely patronising.
And another thing...did Michael Curtiz know Ann Sheridan was in this picture? Her presence is completely irrelevant. Her relationship with Rocky could have been an interesting one. There's hints that Father Jerry had 'reformed' her and that her growing toxic infatuation with Rocky threatens to reverse all the good the priest had done but that story goes nowhere. There's no spark or connection between her and Cagney whatsoever. Focusing on that could have made this a really interesting drama but Rocky doesn't seem interested in her at all, he seems more interested in hanging out with a bunch of teenage boys. There is however absolutely nothing sordid about that, he is simply a big kid himself so is comfortable to be in the company of similarly immature people.
And finally to Mr Cagney.... In this he's playing Jimmy Cagney the gangster movie star - he's not a real person so you can't care anything for him. This particular character has got no distinctive characteristics at all - he is just doing a turn for his fans doing what they wanted to see. The relationship he has with Father Jerry, his childhood friend is also unbelievable. You'd expect better from Michael Curtiz but compare its execution with the brilliantly realistic relationship we see between Tony and his brother Frank Jr., the priest in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and this feels so amateurish and contrived.
Even the famous ending makes you feel nauseous as Father Jerry looks up to heaven and smiles as the sound of angelic choirs are heard. How audiences back in '39 lapped up this sickly vile treacle completely astonished me (and that's by someone who cries at the end of GOODBYE MR CHIPS!!!)
Admittedly the first ten minutes when we're introduced to Rocky and Jerry as kids is actually pretty good - ok, it's very good: gorgeous atmosphere, beautifully shot - you can almost taste the dust blowing up from those filthy stinking streets. The actors playing the younger versions of Rocky and Jerry are both brilliant - it's a shame they didn't stick around for the rest of the film because when the 'grown-ups' take over it just evolves into the most sickly sweet cliché infused mechanically written drivel you could imagine interspersed with segments from old gangster flicks.
Warner Brothers seemed to be trying to revive their own earlier penchant for gritty gangster films with this and their next offering the following year, THE ROARING TWENTIES but the originality, the sparkle and importantly the nearness in time to the actual events happening there and then had been lost (ROARING TWENTIES was however a fairly good attempt - unlike this!) In the early thirties their pictures had teeth, their message-infused in-your-face melodrama could chew out your heart and spit it into the gutter. Back then they had Daryl Zanuck driving the ship - by 1939 he'd moved on but could still punch us in the stomach with the likes of THE GRAPES OF WRATH. With this however Warners had lost their moral compass and were just trying to make a quick buck.
Besides Pat O'Brien doing one of those awful parodies of a clergyman taken up to level 11 on the sanctimonious scale, the truly worst aspect of this picture is the so-called Dead End Kids. They're simply terrible and seem to take up about 50% of the screen time. If you managed to endure the worst film of 1937 (DEAD END) which 'discovered' them then possibly you might disagree but if you are a normal human being, this bunch of jumped up pretentious yobs will annoy the hell out of you. I know that in reality they really were a rough and tough bunch but they were also stage actors (and not very good ones) so come across as exactly what they are: a bunch of drama school boys pretending to be Brooklyn street kids. Their affected shenanigans feel extremely patronising.
And another thing...did Michael Curtiz know Ann Sheridan was in this picture? Her presence is completely irrelevant. Her relationship with Rocky could have been an interesting one. There's hints that Father Jerry had 'reformed' her and that her growing toxic infatuation with Rocky threatens to reverse all the good the priest had done but that story goes nowhere. There's no spark or connection between her and Cagney whatsoever. Focusing on that could have made this a really interesting drama but Rocky doesn't seem interested in her at all, he seems more interested in hanging out with a bunch of teenage boys. There is however absolutely nothing sordid about that, he is simply a big kid himself so is comfortable to be in the company of similarly immature people.
And finally to Mr Cagney.... In this he's playing Jimmy Cagney the gangster movie star - he's not a real person so you can't care anything for him. This particular character has got no distinctive characteristics at all - he is just doing a turn for his fans doing what they wanted to see. The relationship he has with Father Jerry, his childhood friend is also unbelievable. You'd expect better from Michael Curtiz but compare its execution with the brilliantly realistic relationship we see between Tony and his brother Frank Jr., the priest in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and this feels so amateurish and contrived.
Even the famous ending makes you feel nauseous as Father Jerry looks up to heaven and smiles as the sound of angelic choirs are heard. How audiences back in '39 lapped up this sickly vile treacle completely astonished me (and that's by someone who cries at the end of GOODBYE MR CHIPS!!!)