Angels With Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938): USA

Reviewed by Richard Feilden. Viewed on DVD.

Whadda ya hear! Whadda ya say! While gifting his impersonators with a line and mannerisms upon which they would feast for years, James Cagney crafted a wonderfully nuanced screen presence in Angels with Dirty Faces and earned himself a Best Actor nomination in the process. Directed by Michael Curtiz, who would go on to give the world Casablanca, this tale of a good boy who fell in with the wrong crowd should be on everyone’s must-see film list.

Rocky Sullivan (Cagney) is a wise-cracking latch-key kid, hanging around on street corners and causing minor mischief with close friend Jerry (Pat O’Brian). When an opportunistic theft goes wrong, Rocky, the ‘boy who couldn’t run as fast’, is caught, while Jerry escapes. Insisting on taking all the blame, Rocky is sent to a remand school and he spirals into a life of crime. Fifteen years later Rocky returns to his old neighbourhood but can’t help falling back in with the wrong crowd even as Jerry, now a priest, does his best to save his soul.

Filmed four years after the Production Code took a firm grip on Hollywood’s productions, Angels with Dirty Faces skirts and flirts with the limits imposed upon it. By avoiding actually showing Rocky ever committing a violent crime, the audience can feel sympathy towards the good boy fallen on hard times, something expressly forbidden by the code. And even where the film is forced to fall into line (a life of crime cannot go unpunished) it strengthens the film, rather than diminishing it, giving the film a wonderfully ambiguous, yet heart wrenching, climax.

Of course, Cagney’s charm and physical presence doesn’t hurt the film. His boxing and dancing background blessed him with quick feet and hands, allowing him to give the film a comedic edge when dealing with fights amongst the gangs of boys who also inhabit the film. Indeed, legend has it that Cagney punched one of them in the face when his deliberate adlibbing threw the boy and the other actors off. He is the embodiment of the American anti-hero, flaunting the law where it is necessary to achieve the ‘right’ end, a loner who finds a purpose in helping others. The pairing works perfectly with the moral, upright Jerry, willing to sacrifice everything to protect his young flock. The film adds depth to the priest by ensuring that the audience realizes that he has chosen his path not because he was too weak to take any other, but because he felt it was the right one to take. No one in this film grew up an angel, but redemption is there for all.

The supporting cast is also well worth your time. From a pre-leading-man Bogart playing a slimy mob lawyer to the Dead End Kids, a group of child actors whose on screen personas seem to have not been too far removed from their off screen ones, there are no weak points here. Ann Sheridan also proved her mettle in this film as Rocky’s love interest, her first major role.

If you haven’t caught up with this film yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. If anyone tells you that black and white films are dull, and you don’t want to throw Casablanca or His Girl Friday back in the DVD player again, treat yourself to this one.