Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) Review

Juror #3 says:  This was the 1930's movie I was most excited to watch when we assembled our list.  I absolutely love the premise - two boyhood friends take separate paths in life with one becoming a priest and the other a criminal.  The criminal is revered by the same children in the neighborhood that the priest is trying to mentor.  In the end, with the criminal sentenced to the electric chair, the priest asks his longtime friend to give up the only thing he has left, his reputation as a tough guy, and die a coward...for the children.  As much as I loved the premise (and the ending didn't disappoint), I felt the overall production value was lacking.  The directing was poor and the story ended up more fragmented than it should have been.  I would absolutely love if this movie was remade, as the motif is timeless.  I rate it 3/5.


girl by locker says: I'm not sure what it is, but I have had a lot of high expectations this era, perhaps because it is the golden age of Hollywood. We recently watched "Angels with Dirty Faces" and though I definitely liked the movie, I thought I was going to fall in love. It had all the makings to have my socks blown off - gangsters, Cagney, Bogart. And while every aspect was solid, I just wanted more. In the end, there is a battle between good and evil - between the city corruption run by gangsters and the town priest who wants to start a boys club to help keep the kids away from the life of crime - and I felt it was all tied up in a neat, little bow. Life isn't that tidy.

There were 2 high points of the movie. 1. Bogart. I had never seen him in a villainous role before. He completely rocked. 2. The final scene in which Rocky Sullivan, played by Cagney, walks to the electric chair. His childhood friend, who is a priest, asks him to die in a way in which the town children will not look up to him. He says he won't do it but ultimately, he cries and begs for his life. As the viewer, we are left to wonder if he was actually scared or if he pulled off the final wishes of the priest. I choose to believe he did it for the priest. In other parts of the movie when his friend's life was threatened, he protected him. I think he did the same here.

Overall, entertaining movie. Solid. Well done. I give it 3 out of 5 stars on Netflix.