Before Pacino sent a bunch of Columbians flying back from his door after launching a grenade at them, before Michael Corleone picked up a gun and avenged his father, even before a certain crew robbed an airport, there was the old era of gangster films. James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and even Bogart were the tough guys then. This year, Warner Bros. released a six film boxset, which is probably one of the best sets you can get if you're a gangster film fan.

Little Caesar - (Mervyn LeRoy;1931;USA) - ****
A gangster rises up the ranks and muscles out other criminals, while the police hope to bring him down.
Everyone knows Rico, the main character in Little Caesar. Even if you haven't seen the film, you've seen references used throughout cartoons or sitcoms, and even other films. This was one of the early gangster films in sound, and influenced generations ahead of it. Edward G. Robinson is very charismatic as Rico, whose name may even be responsible for the famous anti-organized crime law. The direction isn't overly special. It's a fast paced film, but it's also a very memorable one. A classic rise and downfall. Mother of mercy....is this the end of Rico?
#93

The Public Enemy - (William A. Wellman;1931;USA) - ****
Tom Powers rises from being a young punk to a bootlegging gangster.
In the same year as Little Caesar, there was an even greater gangster film. James Cagney gets his big brake here as Tom Powers. Out of all the roles I've seen him in, this is Cagney's most hateful role, at least for me, and that's perfect for the genre. Powers is a very arrogant and mean-spirited man, and it's hard to like him. Wellman doesn't direct a flawless film, in fact he does seem to forget Harlow's character. However, the rest of his direction is very admirable, from the great camera angles, character positions, and whole atmosphere that surrounds the film, from it's gritty realism to it's more memorable moments, like the rain scene. The ending especially is a shocking end, and well directed. I ain't so tough...
#87

The Petrified Forest - (Archie Mayo;1936;USA) - ***1/2
Several people, including a waitress, intellectual, jock, old man, middle-aged couple, and a group of outlaws are stuck in a gas station while vigilantes search for the outlaws, and a sandstorm appears.
This is the oddball in the boxset. Not a full-on gangster film, but mostly a drama, mostly dialogue. What reason is this in the box? Humphrey Bogart's breakthrough performance as Duke Mantee, the outlaw based on John Dillinger. Bogart even uses Dillinger's mannerisms, which is the most memorable thing about him. Rather then when he speaks, it's his body language that speaks loud, from his handcuff arm stance, to his penetrating stare. Leslie Howard and Bette Davis are also very good as the focus of the film. One man, whose time has past, who feels his reason for being lies in this talented woman he meets. Although it is melodramatic, it's classic Hollywood.

Angels with Dirty Faces - (Michael Curtiz;1938;USA) - ****
Two friends grow up in Hells Kitchen, one a gangster, the other a priest. After Rocky's released from prison, Father Connelly begins to see the negative impact his old friend has on the local kids.
My favorite from the box. This and The Roaring Twenties are both great social commentaries. In this case, it's the gangster's influence on others. Two friends steal and cause trouble together. When they are chased by police, Cagney's Rocky Sullivan is the one who gets caught. His friend grows up to be Father Connelly. When Rocky returns from prison, he becomes a hero to a group of young punks, who prefer stealing, rather then basketball. Cagney is great here again, with his mannerisms taken from people he knew, including the famous line. Whaddya hear, Whaddya say?
#27

The Roaring Twenties - (Raoul Walsh;1939;USA) - ****
After WW1, a soldier turns to bootlegging when he can't find work.
1939, arguably cinema's best year. This is one of the better films, which is the best social commentary in the box. It depicts the hard times of the 1920's. We start with WW1, and when Cagney's Eddie Bartlett returns home, he finds himself in the middle of a hard time in America. He can't find work, and must turn to bootlegging booze. Rather then his other characters, Cagney's Bartlett doesn't seem to have grown up a punk, but rather fell into it. However, nothing lasts forever, and the end of the roaring twenties also brings the beginning of the Great Depression. Raoul Walsh, who also directed White Heat, gives an excellent direction, using both gritty realism and a documentary-ish feeling to depict the hard times. Definitely the best in the box. He used to be a big shot.
#32

White Heat - (Walsh;1949;USA) - ****
An epileptic gangster with a devotion to his mother goes to prison for a minor offense to avoid a larger one, while his friends betray him from the outside.
The second best in the box, and Cagney's best performance from what I've seen. Now, rather then playing a regular gangster, Cagney is Cody Jarrett, a psychopath who also has epilepsy related headaches. He also has a deep love for his mother, who is the only one who has his trust. This role is definitely a change of pace from Cagney's past roles, and is more meticulously acted. Raoul Walsh brings another great direction to this film, which all leads to a memorable, explosive ending. Made it ma! Top of the world!
#89

The transfers are as great as they can be. Each DVD has the same type of features give or take some. Trailers, a small 15 minute give or take a minute featurette on the film you're playing, and a Leonard Maltin Warner Night at the Movies feature. A MUST HAVE for ANY film-buff.

THE BEST
1) The Roaring Twenties
2) White Heat
3) Angels With Dirty Faces
4) The Public Enemy
5) Little Caesar
6) The Petrified Forest

MY FAVORITES
1) Angels With Dirty Faces
2) The Roaring Twenties
3) The Public Enemy
4) White Heat
5) Little Caesar
6) The Petrified Forest

Superb review Vercetti, you deserve a medal!

However, didn't some of the DVDs have commentary tracks or am I mistaken?

Thanks, and oh yeah, I forgot the commentary tracks. I haven't been able to listen to them yet though.

Lincoln Hursts commentary is great for "The Roaring Twenties" and the Eric Lax commentary for "The Petrified Forrest" is one of my favorites.

Great review, DV. This is a must buy for me.

Great reviews DV! I'd love to get the set but they have released each movie seperate over here, assholes... :rolleyes:

Excellent review DV.

This is a fantastic collection of some really classic movies. Worth every penny.


Don Cardi

wow I need to get that DVD I love old gangster movies like
them and the warner bros. monster movies too

Great movies, every one of them.
One of my faves isn't on the list: It's "Key Largo," with Bogey, Bacall, Lionel Barrymore and Robinson at his absolutely most vicious--makes his Little Caeser look like a choirboy. Claire Trevor won an Oscar. It's a Warner film, too.

Blackout. Please tell me the name of that movie. (Me and my bad memory, its probably going to be a movie I've seen more than 1000 times )


Great reviews !

Blackout. Please tell me the name of that movie. (Me and my bad memory, its probably going to be a movie I've seen more than 1000 times )


Great reviews ! [/b][/quote]ARG. Goodfellas you fool! :p

Blackout. Please tell me the name of that movie. (Me and my bad memory, its probably going to be a movie I've seen more than 1000 times )


Great reviews ! [/b][/quote]ARG. Goodfellas you fool! :p [/b][/quote]I thought about Goodfellas but you went from Scarface 1983, to Godfather 1972, and then you said EVEN BEFORE (as if its the oldest movie from the bunch)...so I thought you meant a pre-1972 movie

Ah, I did say that. :p

Giving me the " :p " eh? - Just keep in mind that I and the boys are candidates for hanging...and if any one of you make the wrong move, Im gonna [pause 3 secs] kill the whole lot of you

Turn Bull, Key Largo with Bogie, Eddie G. and Bacall was released several years ago with the release of Warner Bros. first Boart Box Set.

On that note, do you consider it a gangster film however? I think it can be more attributed to Film Noir, but I guess a case can be made for it to be a Gangster picture.

Could go either way, Mike. On the one hand, it's unmistakeably about gangsters holed up and luxuriating in being gangsters. On the other hand, the whole look, feel and dialog are definitely film noir.

Yes, you are both correct about Key Largo. It is Gangster AND film noir.

Here is a copy and paste of a post I made some time ago - these are all pre-60's movies.
The last section of the list is where I listed the crime films/film noir combos :


-------
-------

Greatest (pre 60's) Film Noir (including some Noir/Gangster combos) :

I Am a Fugitive From A Chain Gang (1932)
Fury (1936)
The Letter (1940)
Rebecca (1940)
High Sierra (1941)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Laura (1944)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Gaslight (1944)
To Have and Have Not (1944)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Spellbound (1945)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Gilda (1946)
Notorious (1946)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Dark Passage (1947)
Nightmare Alley (1947)
Key Largo (1948)
The Lady From Shanghai (1948)
White Heat (1949)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Vertigo (1958)

Western/Noir Combo :

The Gunfighter (1950)
High Noon (1952)

Greatest pre 60's Crime/Gangster films :

Little Caesar (1930)
M (1931, Ger.)
The Public Enemy (1931)
Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932)
G-Men (1935)
The Petrified Forest (1936)
Dead End (1937)
Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
Each Dawn I Die (1939)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
They Drive by Night (1940)
On the Waterfront (1954)

Crime films already mentioned for their Noir elements :

Key Largo (1948)
White Heat (1949)
High Sierra (1941)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

(Note how the "Film Noir" sub-genre has affected the Gangster genre as well in the 40's)

-----
-----

:D

You know - this is Cagney's "Play it again, Sam"

Cagney never said that - the right quote is in my sig.

However, in the movie "Each Dawn I Die" - someone else is telling Cagney "You dirty rat" but its really fast so you'll have to pay attention.

Yeah I know that. I have a Dean MArtin Variety show where Jimmy Stewart is doing impressions.

"Yo-yo-yo-you di-dirty raaat!"

Mike, film noir is not a genre separate from other genres, like the Musical and Western being different from one another. Film noir is more of a (coincidental) stylistic approach to the medium, just like the roman noir of Chandler, Hammett and Cain which preceded it in print form. Therefore, many genre films--indeed, mostly the Gangster films of classic Hollywood, since they most lend themselves to the style--are also seen as film noir.

Regarding the reviewed films, I can't wait to see them. I have White Heat in my room ready to watch, but other than that, I haven't come across the others to buy. Yet.

Mick

Acctually, I must contend this with you. Film Noir is such a distinclive style that I must place it seperately from other genres. Just opinion though.

I'm dying for the next Gangsters set.

A style often befits a genre, but style itself is not a genre.

Hitchcock, an auteur with one of the most distinctive directorial styles, was not a genre. Although there are films merited with the adjective of "Hitchcockian," his films themselves spanned various genres.

On another, related, note: would you place 3D films (House of Wax, etc) in a stand-alone genre?

Mick

Meh... I suppose not but however why should I? It doesn't have any distinctive stlye that seperates it from the horor genere at all. All the did was add 3D.

Film Noir gave us real like environments depicting the seedy underbelly of the urban life. It has the femme fatale, etc.

House of Wax didn't really have anything...

Your point is a good one, Mike, and rips apart the lack of thought I put into my post.

But, as you know, I feel film noir is not a genre. Perhaps it may be best to describe it as the closest thing to a genre without being a genre. It has its own codes and conventions, aesthetic style, narrative devices (flashbacks, voiceovers), gender representations, and other social ideological stances. But it was never a genre in the same vain as the other three American categories of the studio system, the Gangster, Musical and Western. Nobody ever said "I'm making a film noir; nor did any promotional poster read "the latest film noir!" I think it was Wilder himself who said he never classed his films as such, but just went out to make a good film, or a thriller, or whatever.

It was the French critics who first coined the term film noir, at the end of World War II, when American films from Wilder, Huston et al. poured into French cinémas for the first time. That, then, means (assumingly) that the "genre" was one of coincidental origin. Which of course marks the likes of M (1931) and other noir films which predate this period (see Fame's fairly comprehensive list above) even more remarkable, and marks Lang as, in terms of being ahead of his time, even more of a visionary than Welles. But of course noir stems, stylistically, from the German Expressionist period, so Lang's influence doesn't seem so surprising (indeed, M may act as a go-between for noir and Expressionism).

I'm rambling, and getting grossly off-topic.

Thanks for reading,
Mick

Capo's right. The film-noir is a stylistic movement, no different from Italian neo-realism or the French New Wave. Like other respective movements, the film-noir is generally limited to one country, during one time-frame. The term film noir, meaning black film, was not coined until the movement was over halfway done. The high-point of the movement was after WWII was just finished, during the beginning of the cold-war and the genre represented the uncertainty of the United States and its future existence. Which is why there really is no such thing as "neo-noir," because they don't represent or depict the same things that traditional noirs do (and they usually aren't shot in black and white!).

For anyone interested, this Tuesday on TCM these will be playing.

Angels With Dirty Faces - 6:15 PM
The Roaring Twenties - 8:00 PM
White Heat - 10:00 PM

Don't miss them!

IMO, Film Noir is not a genre, however it is somewhat a branch of Crime and Mystery, or in other words sub- genre.

I also dont think it is a cinematic movement as is the French New Wave. It was an on-going film style that ironically got its name in 1946 (by Frank Nino) tho it has been around for more than 15 years. A 'movement' is more of a "revolutionary" change, rather than a quiet but noticable growing of branch and the following of its tone and characterization.

Capo already mentioned the "Style" which is one of the components which define Film Noir. Other 3 notable components are "Tone" , "Mood" , and "Point of view" - all of which categorized what we know today as Film Noir.

As for German Expressionism - those were indeed the bigger roots for the film noir branch (Capo already mentioned "M" and I would like to add another notable example called "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" from 1919).
German Expressionism (20's and 30's) aside, another root was the French sound films of the 30's. All the noticable themes and elements of noir in Europe that were imported to Hollywood by filmmakers who were forced to immigrate (Lang,Wilder etc)

"Roots" aside, they were many "influences" on the noir branch. Such as Italian Neorealism and even writers from within the U.S as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.
Names like "The maltese falcon" or "The big sleep"come to mind. Even "The Thin Man" which is regarded as one of the best screwball comedies is filled with noir elements.