The Roaring Twenties (1939)

Throughout America’s history, the 1920’s stand out as the most scandalous era known to date. Never has America been encapsulated by such a roaring storm. Every waking event, from the beginnings of Prohibition all the way to the 1929 stock market crash is compiled into Raoul Walsh’s 1939 gangster classic “The Roaring Twenties.” The film opens with a foreword by the writer, Mark Hellinger stating:

“It may come to pass that, at some distant date, we will be confronted with another period similar to the one depicted in this photoplay. If that happens, I pray that the events, as dramatized here, will be remembered. In this film, the characters are composites of people I knew, and the situations are those that actually occurred. Bitter or sweet, most memories become precious as the years move on. This film is a memory – and I am grateful for it” (The Roaring Twenties).

In the highly underrated film, Hellinger’s introduction sets the mood for the rest of the film, establishing the movie itself as a memory that of a time when essence of society existed in the streets.

The film begins in 1918 with a progressing WW1, showing soldiers fighting and making a world safer for Democracy. The wonderful James Cagney portrays the role of Eddie Bartlett, a down-on-his-luck mechanic, who stumbles into the foxhole of George Hally (played by a young Humphrey Bogart) and soon become acquaintances. As the bombings increase, Lloyd Hart flies into the hole with the other two. All three then become acquainted, and the characters are equally established, and yet Eddie, George and Lloyd are all opposites of one another. Eddie is the protagonist, a kind-hearted, sympathetic man just trying to work hard and live a rich life. George is the antagonist, a black-hearted, unsympathetic man trying to backstab as many people to get ahead in life. Lloyd is the third wheel, a generous, humanistic lawyer trying to help out as many people in need. Eddie shares with the men all his letters from the many America women desiring a dream soldier, George boasts about the “good life”, and Jeffrey announces his intentions of opening up his own practice in the city. Although before the men can relax too soon, the war is over and the gentlemen head back home where opportunity and heartbreak awaits.

The story jumps a year ahead in 1919 with the events after the war. A news reporter announces the sudden alteration of culture with women’s skirts becoming shorter, bobbed hair popularity, inflating cost of living, and Prohibition becoming the law of the land. Eddie arrives back home surprising Danny, his cab-driving brother, and discovers his old job had been given to someone else. Eddie ends up helping his brother drive cabs making up for the rent.

Another leap forward in 1920 when on the 16^th of January, the Volstead Act illegalizes the sale of alcohol and incriminates anyone involved in selling or distributing alcohol. One day Eddie is asked to deliver a package in a club for a woman named Panama Smith. He delivers the package, but two federal agents stop Eddie and open the package, revealing alcohol, which breaks the Volstead Act. With the aid of his old lawyer buddy Lloyd, Panama is released, but Eddie is forced to serve time. Soon after spending a few hours in jail, Panama returns the favor and bails Eddie out. She introduces him to the great underground world of bootlegging. Together, Panama, Eddie and Danny use the cabs to transport illegal alcohol around town. After two years, Eddie racks up a large business with the restraints created by Prohibition. While making one delivery, he runs into Jean, his dream girl from the letter. Eddie tries to make Jean swoon with his money, but she is not impressed. After a while, he introduces Jean to Panama and Henderson, the nightclub owner, and gets her to sing for an audition. Jean slowly becomes the next big star as she performs late nights for the big buyers. Eddie introduces Jean to Lloyd, who shows much attraction towards Jean, but Eddie fails to notice.

Two years after that, in 1922 Prohibition is entirely protected by law and enforced by full authority. College kids take an interest in the new trend of underground purchasing of alcohol and prices reach an all time high. Eddie heads back on the streets making buys with head gangsters. He persuades a deal with Nick Brown, an Italian who maintains a connection with the mob, but Nick refuses to compromise. While commandeering alcohol off Nick’s vessel, Eddie runs into his other longtime friend George, who ironically works for Nick.

Transitioning two year further in 1924, madness hits the streets with the organization of big-business gangs and the new invention of the Tommy gun. The murder rate hits sky high with brawls of rival gangs growing out of hand. Eddie and George team up and form a mob of their own, breaking into factories and George even begins killing people. After a while, Lloyd and Jean become a pair. Eddie begins questioning George’s dependability when George informs him about the couple’s relationship. Nick Brown’s men put a hit on Danny and leave his dead body lying in front of the club. This sends Eddie overboard, searching for help from George, but has no luck. George even betrays Eddie by informing Nick about his friend’s plan. Eddie and his men break into Nick’s place and kill everyone. When returning, Jean breaks Eddie’s heart, announcing her intentions of running off with Lloyd, who has become fed up with Eddie’s gangster-like persona.

Five violent years later in 1929, Black Tuesday sends pandemonium through the city with American fortunes ruined. Everyone from the hardworking farmer to the gangster felt the wrath of the crashing economy. Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in as president and the first act he accomplishes is putting an end to Prohibition. With the re-legalization of alcohol, the bootleggers soon find their business going down the drain with the economy. Eddie uses his share of the business for compensation of his own debts. Once out of the business, he becomes a bum, driving the cab for a living and runs into Jean again, who informs him that Lloyd has a job with the district attorney and is being coerced into sharing information regarding George and his business. She claims George sent out men warning her that if Lloyd talks, then he will die. Eddie, who slowly grows a conscious again, confronts George and kills him. While making an escape, Eddie is shot and dies.

An important fact is that Eddie went off to fight a war and came back jobless and without expenses. Bootlegging acted as the only solution for surviving. So in a sense, America created the gangster. Prohibition left a key to a door that would soon turn the gangster into an icon (Karpf 48). At first, these were poor Irish, Black, and other immigrants who came to America in search for a dream, but later once bootlegging took off, these dirty, hardworking fugitives became rich, and instead of taxation from alcoholic goods benefiting America’s capitalistic society, instead, profits went into the pockets of these poor men and women. This translates into an even trade: compensation for veteran and poor negligence.

Another fact is the symbolism of the picture itself. Director Raoul Walsh formulated a message for the film as not only a stamp in American History, but in cinematic history as well. Walsh used the film showing an analogous connection with the gangster film genre itself (Parish 137). By the late 1930’s, gangster films had reached their prime with such releases as “Little Caesar” (1931), William Wellman’s “Public Enemy” (1931), Howard Hawk’s “Scarface” (1932), and Michael Curtiz’s “Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)” (Dirks). Walsh, at this point in time, had mastered the genre of western pictures and even brought together the western and the gangster genre (Gomery). He grew up on the streets and knew the life of his gangster, so he mastered the genre better than most. Walsh desired making a film capturing the essence of the genre itself, and so “The Roaring Twenties” contains a storyline very similar to the gangster film genre (Dirks). Eddie works really hard to build a successful business from only what he learned on the streets, just like Walsh with the genre. And once the business hits its prime, everything falls apart leaving Eddie thrown back on the streets with no money and more importantly, without any recognition.

The film genre itself went through the great trend of the gangster films of the 30’s, showing off the morbidity of the Great Depression containing themes of poverty-stricken individuals (Dirks). Even the look of the gangster films in the 30’s, possess a real caliginous, grainy feel of realism in the picture quality itself. Film historian and director Martin Scorsese claims, “The Roaring Twenties shows a gritty reality that romanticizes the dark side of human nature” (A Personal Journey). Scorsese basically means that it is the gangsters themselves who are at fault because they are victims in a ruthless society. These individuals have been pushed around and through personal narrative, the film shows what happens when they just cannot take it anymore. All of this leads to the finale, where Eddie is shot and feebly stumbles through the streets he once was remembered on, walks up a few steps to a large church and collapses onto the steps where he dies in the arms of Panama in a frame paying homage to Michelangelo's Pieta (Dirks). A police officer emerges in the scene and asks about the man’s identity. Panama, while crying says, “This is Eddie Bartlett. He used to be a big shot” (The Roaring Twenties). This pivotal memory in cinematic history marks not only the end of a man and the 20’s, but also the astonishing era of the gangster film (Parish 138). Just like Hellinger avowed in the introduction, the glorious pictures of the 30’s are simply memories stamped in the history books just like those in the roaring twenties.

Strangers on a Train (1951)

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 classic “Strangers on a Train” is equally considered a clear masterpiece. The brilliantly crafted story written by Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde, Whitfield Cook, and based off the novel by Patricia Highsmith, is filled with memorable characters with haunting similarities and plenty of excitement to keep the less interested action fan satisfied. Hitchcock’s craving for suspense illuminates the screen with situations of held action until the right moment when the audience’s adrenaline glands rage like pistons.

Hitchcock is famously known for telling the story with the eye of a camera. Some might say the camera is his brush and then screen is his canvas. His abstractive smooth and steady dolly shots are mere brushstrokes to the director. The story begins outside of a train station with the focus on Guy and Bruno’s shoes as they step out of vehicles and follows all the way to the train. At first the focus is on Guy’s shoes: shiny and black, but then transitioned to Bruno’s shoes: black and white, winged-tip. That is to assume even though both shoes are different, both gentlemen walk the same and may have further similarities.

“Strangers on a Train” is an off-railed story about two men who, by fate, cross paths and agree to exchange murders. Both characters are coherently established from the start. Guy Haines, portrayed by Farley Granger, is the rich, elegant, kind-hearted, tennis player eager to leave his intolerable wife for a senator’s daughter. Robert Walker plays Bruno Anthony, the sly, feminine, evil stranger who is ruled by his authoritative father. While both sitting across from one another in the passenger car of a train, Bruno attempts to cross his legs, but taps shoes with Guy’s and thus begins their “business arrangement.” The idea is a suggestion from Bruno to switch murders. Right away it is obvious that Bruno has an ability to read Guy like a book. Guy considers the idea ludicrous and exits the train at his stop with no intentions of running into Bruno ever again. Little did he know that Bruno’s plan had already begun.

A huge concept in a Hitchcock film is the sheer fact that little key pieces make up the rising action of a story, and are responsible for the reasoning behind that action. In Notorious: a key, in Shadow of a Doubt: a ring, in Blackmail: a painting, in Vertigo: a necklace, in Frenzy: a pin, and in this case: a lighter. The focus is on the material possession that serves as a springboard to redemption or incarceration. Guy mistakenly leaves his lighter on the train with Bruno, which evolves to Bruno stalking Guy’s ex-wife and killing her. Bruno does just that. He follows her to a carnival and strangles the helpless woman. As the murder occurs, her glasses fall off, and the act is shown through the reflection of the glasses lenses. After the murder, Bruno holds Guy’s lighter and takes a few seconds to contemplate, leaving the audience with an idea what Bruno plans next.

The murder is announced to Guy, and Bruno approaches him with a morbidly elated persona. Bruno cites his excitement for Guy’s turn at murder, but Guy refuses and angrily ends all tides with the killer. Instead of taking the news easily, Bruno decides to stalk Guy and becomes well acquainted with his new girlfriend and her senator father. Bruno also remarks, “And I was very careful, Guy. Even when I dropped your cigarette lighter there, I went back to pick it up.” Suddenly the exchange turns into entrapment. Guy threatens to call the police, but Bruno tells him that in fact they both have committed the murder. He adds the notion why would he kill a girl he doesn’t know unless it was arranged. Guy is forced to play Bruno’s game and by his rules. Guy finally submits to the mastermind and agrees to kill Bruno’s father. Once night falls, Guy creeps into Bruno’s home, softly walks in the father’s room and whispers, “Mr. Anthony, don’t be alarmed, but I must talk to you about your son, about Bruno.” The lamp suddenly illuminates the area, revealing Bruno sitting in the bed. Bruno swears to achieve his reimbursement through his own twisted method.

The police follow Guy’s every move due to a faulty alibi. Guy plays in his big tennis match as Bruno takes a train back to a familiar area: the carnival. Guy, who once was a careful experienced player, now is forced to win the match quickly. He plays his mind and heart out as Bruno nears the scene of the murder with lighter in hand. Guy wins the first set, loses the second, but reclaims the third. After finishing, he distracts the cops and makes a run for the train station, but the police are not too far behind. Here we have a natural reoccurrence of situations. Bruno returns to the scene where he murdered Guy’s wife and the both of them returning to the train which symbolizes the ever-longing lust for desire. At first, the desire was felt by Guy and Bruno to kill, but now Guy desires to survive this new world of coercion or incarceration. Bruno eagerly waits for night to fall, in order to drop the lighter in the crime scene so no one will recognize him. He stands in line, but the ride manager slowly recollects Bruno’s face, and off Bruno runs. Guy and Bruno clash into one another again, but this time Guy wants Bruno to give a confession to the police, and Bruno wants Guy dead. Guy chases Bruno onto a carousel. The police try shooting Guy, but instead hit the carousel worker which causes the ride to begin spinning at a high speed and finally to an uncontrollable velocity. The climactic runaway carousel scene finally comes to a halt with the ride breaking down and both Guy and Bruno being thrown from the carousel. The police find Guy and the ride manager reveals having no recollection of him. They find Bruno and he gives his final words attempting to bring Guy down with him, but fails as his eyes close, his hand opens up revealing the lighter.

A parallel theme is the plot itself as a comparison to a tennis match. Guy is a tennis player and if analytically contemplated about, the plot clearly resembles that of a tennis match. On one side of the court is Guy, but on the other is his opponent, Bruno. This analogy is clearly stated throughout the entire film In fact, Guy plays his big match and the sets are compiled of Guy winning the first, losing the second and winning the third, thus winning the match. In the beginning, Guy’s wife is killed: A problem taken off his shoulders, hence the first set won by Guy. Although, Bruno uses the lighter as leverage and steals the upper hand with the ability to frame Guy, and so Bruno wins the second set. Finally, good overcomes evil with Guy fighting off Bruno and proving his innocence with the victory of the third set and the match.

Like two trains, Bruno and Guy crossed at the tracks. One grossly indulged with life, and the other grossly indulged with death. Polar similarities hold the two as one. Bruno is a sense, Guy’s inner demon. The physical built-up of the evil conscious Guy innocently depicts in his mind. Notice how Guy never killed Bruno’s father. The only murders that occurred in the story were that of Guy’s wife, whom he wanted dead, and Bruno, which might have served as the murder of his evil self. The scenes of Bruno with his mother and father might translate as flashbacks of Guy’s own childhood. Bruno kills Guy’s wife by strangulation, which is a crime of passion. The psychological and sexual frustration might come from Guy and transpire through Bruno. After Bruno takes his final breath, the ride manager asks about the identity of this “mysterious guy.” Guy simply responds, “Bruno. Bruno Anthony. Very clever fellow.”