Release date: October 23, 1939
Running time: 104 minutes
Starring: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Gladys George
Directed by: Raoul Walsh
Purportedly based on true events The Roaring Twenties starts off stating thus as a reminder to avoid these events in the future. It’s an odd way to begin a film that would already be mired in Hayes Code restrictions that would require such a film to portray these types of consequences anyway. This type of moralizing by writer Mark Hellinger permeates the screen from start to finish, embellished is faux newsreel footage to mark the passing of time and further emphasize the films anti-criminal messages.
The film can be summed up as the rise and fall of a big shot. Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) starts the film out as a principled and conscientious soldier fighting in WWI. The same cannot be said for fellow soldier George Hally, a man who has no scruples about gunning down young enemy soldiers mere minutes before the signed truce. He also has major issues with authority figures. Once the war is over Eddie finds that he cannot pick up his life where he left off. His job is not waiting for him and work is scarce. Prohibition begins and Eddie, now working as a cab driver, unknowingly delivers a package of liquor to Panama Smith (Gladys George) and is arrested. After a short stint in jail Eddie and Panama join together in the bootlegging business, using a fleet of cabs to do the delivering and hiring Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn), another soldier who served with Eddie during the war, to be his lawyer. Eddie rekindles a relationship with Jean Sherman (Priscilla Lane), a woman he corresponded with during the war, who is now working at a nightclub. He provides her a batter position in a Cabernet and intends to marry her once he has saved enough money to quit the rackets. But as with Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part III, quitting organized crime is never that simple.
The film takes the viewer through the entirety of the 1920’s, commenting on everything from prohibition to inflation, short skirts and other trivial things. At times it seems to want to comment on everything happening at the time, including the films of the era, many of which Cagney had been in. Cagney’s Eddie Bartlett is a better realized character than most of the gangsters and bootleggers from earlier films, though. He is a well rounded character full of conflicts. He has strong moral values yet struggles with a wicked temper. He has no objections to hiring criminals into his organization but turns one away who won’t admit to his guilt. He also refuses to indulge in his own merchandise. “A dress salesman doesn’t have to wear dresses.”
Eventually he has to pair up with George, who has graduated from saloon keeper to bootlegger himself, in order to provide a higher quality of hooch. But it becomes apparent right away that the violent and amoral George Hally can only make things turn for the worse for Eddie. Late in the film once prohibition is repealed and the stock market crashes George forces Eddie out of his primary assets, his cabs, and leaves Eddie destitute and out of work. Jean has fallen for Lloyd and now Eddie is back to where he was immediately after the war. It all ultimately ends with the fall of our two leads, George and Eddie, in the only way a film like this could end back in the 30’s. It is no surprise yet is no less riveting to watch. A powerhouse performance by James Cagney in what would become one of his greatest films provides a backbone to what easily could have been another gangster film of the 30’s. Instead, we have a riveting drama about crime and corruption and how even the best of characters can succumb to it if put in the right situations under the right circumstances. This is a cautionary tale that, while a little heavy handed at times, still resonates and deserves the distinction of a bona fide classic.
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