I love this movie so much

Simply Perfect

Simply A Masterpiece

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The title implies a fun movie, but in fact is depressing throughout. The movie starts out with three infantrymen in a trench, with Bogart rather than Cagney proving to be the nasty psychopath who genuinely loves killing. The war ends and Cagney finds he cannot get his old job back in the automotive repair shop after two years' absence. He gets a job as a taxi driver, unaware that he is part of a liquor bootlegging racket, and is caught and arrested...and later is essentially forced into working in this racket. He prospers and his war buddy becomes his lawyer, but wants out when a mutual friend gets killed. Then there is the other war buddy who is a rival in the rackets...Unlike "The Public Enemy", Cagney does not voluntarily join the rackets, and is never happy while in them. Arguably one of the strongest gangster movies which is not a morality play as such.

This is primarily Cagney's film, Bogie not appearing until halfway through. Cagney and Bogie, ex-GI buddies, both get into the bootleg liquor business, initially separately, then as partners, before their breakup toward the end. Lloyd, also a GI buddy, is a lawyer and helps them hurdle legal problems, until they kill a couple of warehouse guards. They have a few altercations with Paul Kelly, as a competing bootlegger. Eddie(Cagney) has a romance dilemma. He's in love with a wholesome pretty girl(Pricilla Lane), who sings in a speakeasy, and tries to marry her, but she doesn't love him nor the people he associates with. The older Gladys Georgia hosts a speakeasy, is quite personable and pretty. She has more in common with Cagney, and, in the end, is the only one who comforts him. Has a good feel for the Prohibition era, with several gun battles. Raoul Walsh directs.

Prohibition crime-drama full of nervy street-smarts and overheated bravado. James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart (making somewhat uneasy screen-partners, particularly in their early scenes) play World War I buddies who meet up again years after returning home; Cagney has become a big-time distributor of bootleg gin, while Bogart, the strong-arm for a racketeer, has the idea that if he and his old pal team up, they'll be unstoppable (there's really no reason for Jimmy to say yes, except for old times' sake). Cagney's character gets the interesting story arc over trigger-happy Bogie, and his loyalty to nice-girl songbird Priscilla Lane and friendship with affable cohort Frank McHugh is rather charming. Some of the rapid-fire dialogue is juicy and a pleasure to listen to but, unfortunately, the characters fall too soon into cliché, and the cynical comedic edge developed in the first-half disappears altogether (most likely due to the myriad of script-writers who worked on the project). Director Raoul Walsh's montages showing the passage of time--and the loss of morals in America--comes off like finger-wagging, shaming the audience for its reckless behavior, which is the last thing you'd expect in a snarling meller from Warners. **1/2 from ****

This might be the biggest WB gangster production of the 30's, and have Cagney and Bogart in it, but it is one corny and dated movie with cardboard characters and an inept script. The WWI scenes are ludicrous. After the first hour mark it gets better but not enough. Cagney when annoyed punches people while Bogart draws his gun. This style of filming might have worked in the early 30's but by 1939 seemed outdated, even though I can understand this film marks the end of an era and should be seen with sympathetic and nostalgic eyes. Lane does not belong here, and I couldn't wait for her to leave, which she doesn't since I later find out she is an integral part of the story. Why she is such an attraction as a singer is beyond me, and we get at least 2 musical numbers from her. The shootout at the Italian restaurant is also ridiculous: Cagney and his people go in looking for the foe, wide open, no strategy. This movie however did something for me: after watching the dining scene I went to the kitchen and made me a big plate of spaghetti with extra cheese.