ROARING TWENTIES
1939
Raoul Walsh
Some terms:
The Roaring Twenties is a name given to the period following WWI with a return to a way of life pre WWI. The Twenties are marked by many artistic and political changes. The hyperpatriotic talk of the wat ended, Jazz developed, the “flapper” was the new image of the modern woman and Art Deco peaked. Economically, there is accelerated consumer demand with much buying of new inventions – automobiles, telephones, motion pictures. Celebrities were in vogue (motion picture etc. – the development of motion picture palaces) sports figures and large arenas. Women got the vote. It ends in Oct. of 1929 with the great stock market crash which resulted from speculation. National Prohibition lasted from 1920 to 1933 as a result of the 18th amendment Some other decades have been named: 1890s - The Gay Nineties, 1920s - The Roaring Twenties,1950s - The Fabulous Fifities and so on;.1960s - The Swingin' (or "sexy")Sixties.The filmis made in 1939 – 6 years after the repeal and 9 years after the “end” of the Roaring Twenties. James Cagney (Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and later White Heat (1949)), Humphrey Bogart (Dead End (1937)) and well known director Raul Walsh (High Sierra) contribute to the film. Walsh seen as rough guy known for action scenes (watch for one on boat and one in the spaghetti restaurant) but also have moments of tenderness or sweetness. Watch scene on porch.
The author of the original story is Mark Hellinger a theater critic and Broadway columnist. Hard boiled hard living he was the model for that kinds of journalist in early films. Married Ziegfield girl. He died young (44) and is buried in Sleepy Hollow cemetery in New York State.
Hellinger's life style and repoting job in the theater area gave him many experiences with the criminal element and so his stories and characters are based on people and events he knew and experienced.
He became an associate producer at Warner Brothers, a company known for its gritty realistic films.
Cinematographer Ernst Heller is known for his skill in lighting black and white films, although he did color as well. Watch the lighting in the film - especially the scene in the warehouse where Bogart (George) attacks the watchman who was his sergeant.
Gangster films are largely films of the 30s although later films will deal with gangsters of a different sort with the Maffia, and later drug dealers. More recent is a move to terrorists as a kind of gangster. Interestingly the Warner Brothers' gangsters tended to be short feisty characters played by short actors (Cagney was 5'7"; Bogart 5’8”; Raft 5’8”; Robinson 5’5”of 5’4’). They often physically attack people mucj larger. Perhaps the audience liked to see a smaller guy win over a bigger bully.
Cagney was tired of having to punch people and worked out the scene where he takes out 2 guys with one blow just so there would be something different.
Cagney's Eddie has a kind of sadness about him which makes the audience sympathize and even like him. Certainly by the end he has reached tragic proportions.
The film takes a kind of sociological approach citing WWI and the returning veterans and resultant unemployment and prohibition as causal to the growth of gangsterism. Problems for returning veterans is also covered in a powerful post WWII film called The Best Years of Our Lives. Other films which cite (or spoof) The Roaring Twenties are Johnny Dangerously and, The Godfather
3 main characters ; Bad: Humphrey Bogart as George Hally; Good: the lawyer Jeffrey Lynn as Lloyd Hart; and James Cagney as Eddie Bartlett who has both good and bad in him,.
His primary "sin" seems to be "pride" He sees himself as knowing everything and being perfect. He is wrong on both accounts. He does not see Jean and Lloyd's mutual involvement nor can he believe that Jean could not love him. He fails to distinguish gratitude from love and so misinterprets Jean's feelings for him. He does not understand her dislike of the "empire" he has built up and how he did it. He shows it to her with pride, but she sees it as cheating. He objects violently to being called a "chump" but it is what he is..
His solutions to most problems are physical attacks (he almost looks like he is going to attack Panama at one point). He punches several people during the film (including Lloyd) and shoots others.
He fights to overcome his darker side, but is on a downhill slide through most the film
. His trajectory is from average guy with maybe a little larceny in his heart into a career gangster who ultimately redeems himself.
News reels and Montage sequencesThese tend to give realism through their newreel approach. Remember people in 1939 would not have had TV and would have gotten their actual look at events through news reels and shorts like The March of Time. These montages typical of the March of Time would have given a veracity to the sequences. They show realistic things of what was happening
Sets
Parallel Structures:
Music:
Openings, closings and set pieces. What are they?
Final scene reduces size of people. Many like Eddie. We have focused on him so his image is large, after his death fades away ("He used to be a big shot") and we go back to the idea he is just one of many (compare with Chicago and fading away of murderesses with each new killing)