Angels with Dirty Faces is a 1938 American gangster film directed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Bros. Pictures. It stars James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, The Dead End Kids, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, and George Bancroft. The screenplay was written by John Wexley and Warren Duff based on the story by Rowland Brown. The film chronicles the relationship of the notorious gangster William "Rocky" Sullivan with his childhood friend and now-priest Father Jerry Connolly. After spending three years in prison for armed robbery, Rocky intends to collect $100,000 from his co-conspirator Jim Frazier, a mob lawyer. All the while, Father Connolly tries to prevent a group of youths from falling under Rocky's influence.
Brown wrote the script in August 1937. After pitching the film to a number of studios, he made a deal with Grand National Pictures, who wanted Cagney to star in the lead role. However, the film never came to fruition, owing to Grand National's financial troubles that led to their bankruptcy in 1939. Cagney then returned to Warner the same year, taking Brown's script with him. Warner acquired the story and asked a number of directors to take on the project, eventually settling with Curtiz. Principal photography began in June 1938 at Warner's Burbank studios, and finished a week behind schedule in August, due mostly to the time it took to shoot Rocky's standoff with the police and eventual execution.
Angels with Dirty Faces was released on November 28, 1938, to positive reviews. At the 11th Academy Awards, the film was nominated in three categories: Best Actor (Cagney), Best Director (Curtiz), and Best Story (Brown). Angels with Dirty Faces is widely regarded as a defining moment in Cagney's career, and arguably defined as one of the early forerunners of the film noir genre.Anastasia & Macnow, chapter 46, pp. 1–3. It was shortlisted by the American Film Institute in 2008, and was voted 67th in a list of the "100 Best Film Noirs of All Time" by Slant Magazine in 2015.
In 2024, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Plot
In 1920, two Irish-American youths, Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connolly, attempt to rob a railroad car carrying fountain pens. Jerry escapes from the police, while Rocky is caught and sentenced to reform school.
Fifteen years later, an older Rocky is arrested for armed robbery. His lawyer and co-conspirator, Jim Frazier, asks him to take the blame for the robbery. In exchange, Frazier will keep Rocky's $100,000 share of the robbery safe until the day Rocky is released. Rocky agrees and is sentenced to three years in prison.
After serving his sentence, Rocky returns to his old neighborhood and visits Jerry, who is now a Catholic priest. He rents a room in a boarding house run by Laury Martin, a girl he bullied as a youth. He then pays a visit to Frazier's casino. Frazier claims to have been unaware of Rocky's release, but he promises to have the $100,000 ready by the end of the week, and he gives Rocky $500 spending money.
After leaving, Rocky is pickpocketed by a gang of young toughs: Soapy, Swing, Bim, Pasty, Crab, and Hunky. After he tracks them down to his old childhood hideout, the tough kids admit they admire Rocky's reputation and criminal lifestyle. After retrieving his wallet and money, Rocky invites them to dinner. While they are eating, Jerry arrives and asks the gang why they have not been playing basketball.
With Rocky's help, Jerry convinces them to play another team. At the match, the kids are very disorganized and fighting with the other team. Rocky takes the boys to task, and they start to follow the rules. As Jerry and Laury watch, Laury expresses her concern over the potential negative influence Rocky may be having on the gang.
Later, Frazier's hit squad makes an attempt on Rocky's life. Rocky easily spots his tail and outwits the mobsters' attempted hit. In retaliation, he kidnaps Frazier, raiding his house at gunpoint and stealing $2,000 and a ledger. Rocky then approaches Frazier's business partner, Mac Keefer, and requests $100,000 in trade for Frazier's release. Mac pays, but as Rocky leaves, he informs on him to the police. Rocky is arrested and begins mocking the police for their lack of evidence. Frazier informs Mac that Rocky is in possession of the ledger. This forces Frazier to tell the police it was all a "misunderstanding", and Rocky is released. Jerry learns of the kidnapping and decides to go to the press to expose corruption in New York.
On the radio, Jerry denounces the corruption, as well as Rocky, Frazier, and Keefer. Frazier and Keefer assure Rocky that no harm will come to Jerry, but he discovers that they plan to kill both him and Jerry. To protect his friend, Rocky kills Frazier and Keefer instead and makes his way to an abandoned warehouse, where he kills a police officer and a standoff ensues.
Jerry arrives and convinces the police that he can reason with Rocky and get him to surrender. Upon entering the warehouse, Jerry sees a trapped Rocky and implores him to surrender, but Rocky takes Jerry hostage. While trying to escape, Rocky is shot in the leg and captured. After standing trial, he is sentenced to death.
Jerry visits Rocky just before his execution. He sees the negative impact Rocky could have on the Dead End Kids and asks him to beg for mercy on his way to the death house, saying it would ruin the gang's romantic image of the gangster lifestyle. Rocky refuses, telling Jerry that his reputation is all that he has left.
As they enter the execution room, Rocky shakes Jerry's hand and wishes him well before walking to the electric chair. Suddenly, Rocky breaks down, begging and screaming for mercy, and seemingly dies a coward's death. Later, Soapy and the gang read newspaper reports of how Rocky "turned yellow" in the face of his execution. The gang no longer knows what to think about Rocky or the criminal lifestyle. Jerry asks them to join him in a prayer for "a boy who couldn't run as fast as I could".
Cast
Production Development
Rowland Brown wrote the scenario for Angels with Dirty Faces in August, 1937. He was known in Hollywood for writing and directing a number of crime films in the early 1930s, including The Doorway to Hell and Quick Millions. He presented the story to Mervyn LeRoy, who was keen to direct a "vehicle" starring the Dead End Kids, a group of young actors from New York. Brown and LeRoy tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a fee for the scenario.
Brown then began pitching the film to other studios, and eventually made a deal with Grand National Pictures, who wanted James Cagney to star in the lead role. By the end of 1935, it became apparent to Cagney and his business manager brother, William, that Warner Bros. Pictures were only interested in paying him a "very small percentage of the income dollar derived" from his work. Therefore, Cagney had no choice and walked away until a better arrangement with Warner could be made. After filing a lawsuit to "rectify the inequalities," Cagney started working for Grand National Pictures, a small studio compared to Warner.Cagney, chapter 4, pp. 20–21.
At the time he was offered the role of Rocky Sullivan, Cagney had already made one film for Grand National, Great Guy, but fearing he would be typecast in "tough guy" roles, as he had been at Warner, Cagney turned down the role and opted to star in Something to Sing About. The film's budget grew to an astronomical $900,000, and, on its release, did not fare well at the box office.Neibaur, p. 164. Its underperformance is believed to have been a contributing factor in the 1939 bankruptcy of Grand National.Fernett, p. 41.
Following Something to Sing About, Cagney returned to Warner after reaching a better deal with them. At his brother's insistence, he took Brown's story with him and presented it to the studio. Warner acquired the story and then asked a number of directors to take on the project. LeRoy was the first, and although he showed interest, he was unable to commit because he was making films for MGM; Warner then asked Brown, who showed no interest at all; and finally, Michael Curtiz, who accepted their offer.
Casting
Although Cagney had been convinced that he would never agree to play the role of a coward being dragged to his execution, he became enthusiastic about portraying Rocky, seeing it as an opportunity to prove that his acting range extended beyond tough guy roles.Here's a look at Warner Bros.. 90 Years of Great Filmmaking , Park Circus, p. 4, published March 28, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2015.Neibaur, pp. 177–184. To play Rocky, Cagney drew on his memories of growing up in the Yorkville section of Manhattan, New York. His main inspiration was a drug-addicted pimp, who stood on a street corner all day hitching his trousers, twitching his neck, and repeating: "Whadda ya hear! Whadda ya say!".
Those mannerisms came back to haunt Cagney, who later wrote in his autobiography: "I did those gestures maybe six times in the picture. That was over thirty years ago—and the impressionists have been doing me doing him ever since."Neibaur, p. 179.Naremore, p. 164. Cagney's other inspiration was his childhood friend, Peter "Bootah" Hessling, who was convicted of murder and executed by electric chair on July 21, 1927. The night Bootah was executed, Cagney was playing in a Broadway performance, and wept on hearing of his death.Hughes, chapter 4, p. 3.Neibaur, p. 2.
Pat O'Brien was cast as Father Jerry Connolly, Rocky's childhood friend. O'Brien had been a contract player with Warner Bros. since 1933, and eventually left the studio in 1940 following a dispute over the terms of his renewal contract.O'Brien, pp. 260–61. He and Cagney first met in 1926 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. O'Brien was a "lonely, young" actor "playing in a stock company". He heard the stage play Women Go on Forever (by Mary Boland) was coming to Asbury Park and on its way to Broadway. Wanting to meet the star of the show, he went backstage after a performance and met Cagney for the first time.Parkinson, Michael. "James Cagney and Pat O'Brien on the Parkinson talk show", Parkinson / BBC One, published January 1, 1981. Retrieved December 10, 2015. O'Brien and Cagney became great friends and remained so until the former's death in 1983.Zibart, Eve. "Beloved Actor Pat O'Brien Dies of Heart Attack" , The Washington Post, published October 16, 1983. Retrieved December 10, 2015. Cagney died only three years later.
By May 1938, the Dead End Kids had already starred in Samuel Goldwyn's Dead End; as well as Warner's Crime School (both with Humphrey Bogart). They had signed a two-year contract with Goldwyn in 1937, but he sold the contract to Warner Bros. the same year because of their behavior on the set of Dead End; in one instance, they "jumped" Bogart and "stole his pants" while in another they crashed a truck into a soundstage.Hayes and Walker, pp. 56–74. Bogart portrays the crooked lawyer Jim Frazier in Angels With Dirty Faces. German scholar Winfried Fluck described Bogart's character, Jim Frazier, as an "entirely negative" and "thoroughly bad figure," in "contrast" with Cagney's antihero.Fluck, p. 386.
Writing Brown's story was revised a number of times by John Wexley and Warren Duff. They provided "powerful treatments," but as with many of the "catch-as-catch-can" pictures of the time, the screenplay was considered insubstantial. Cagney later recalled: "the actors had to patch up [the script] here and there by improvising right on the set".Cagney, chapter 4, p. 26.
Filming