James Cagney

Dennis Morgan and Virginia Mayo in a promotional photo for Pearl of the South Pacific (1955)

High Noon (1952)

Jeanne Cagney c. 1941

Marilyn Monroe photographed by George Barris, June 1962. 

Angels with Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938)

Angels with Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938)

Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)

I watched Angels With Dirty Faces for the first time last year and it was the film that made me fall in love with the world of Hollywood's Golden Age.

Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) has just served 3 years in prison. Now he's out he is looking for the $100,000 that James Frazier (Bogie) promised him. Will he be able to collect or will he be swimming with the fishes?

Cagney is just a powerhouse in this film and I am always rooting for his character to the end. I also believe that the ending makes sense in the context of the Hays Code and I actually adore its ambiguity.

Sometimes, as much as we naturally rally against the Hays Code, it's also possible that these types of constraints can end up benefitting a piece of creative work, and if the film is as great as "Angels With Dirty Faces", they may foster greater creativity. In this instance I'd struggle to imagine that hauting ending any other way. Did he fake it for the kids or did he finally crumble confronted his own fate? In my mind he's faking it, but the doubt is always there. That scene is so beautifully shot and then we have the actual final scene as the kids ascend to Heaven led by Father Connolly... but does Rocky go there too?

A 10/10 film. And surely one of the most influential performances in the history of cinema.

"There's not a fake minute in a James Cagney movie" - Orson Welles

Ann Sheridan (1940s)

1930s and 1940s gangster/crime movies

Street of Chance (1930, John Cromwell)

Betty Grable and George Raft attending RAF Ball at the Roxy Theater, 1941

George Raft presents Ann Sheridan a flower provided by Bonita Granville. At Warner Bros Studios, Burbank, circa 1940.

George Raft signing autographs for fans and visiting a pub during a 1947 visit to London