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The Roaring Twenties

  • 1939
  • Passed
  • 1h 46m
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
15K
YOUR RATING
Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Priscilla Lane in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Trailer for this film about an era
Play trailer3:29
1 Video
41 Photos
CrimeDramaFilm-Noir

Three men attempt to make a living in Prohibitionist America after returning home from fighting together in World War I.Three men attempt to make a living in Prohibitionist America after returning home from fighting together in World War I.Three men attempt to make a living in Prohibitionist America after returning home from fighting together in World War I.

  • Director
    • Raoul Walsh
  • Writers
    • Jerry Wald
    • Richard Macaulay
    • Robert Rossen
  • Stars
    • James Cagney
    • Humphrey Bogart
    • Priscilla Lane
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.9/10
    15K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Raoul Walsh
    • Writers
      • Jerry Wald
      • Richard Macaulay
      • Robert Rossen
    • Stars
      • James Cagney
      • Humphrey Bogart
      • Priscilla Lane
    • 111User reviews
    • 53Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 3 wins & 1 nomination

    Videos1

    The Roaring Twenties
    Trailer 3:29
    Watch The Roaring Twenties

    Photos41

    James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart in "The Roaring Twenties," 1939 Warner Bros.
    James Cagney "The Roaring Twenties"
    James Cagney and Priscilla Lane in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
    James Cagney and Priscilla Lane in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
    James Cagney and Priscilla Lane in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
    Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Priscilla Lane in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
    Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Priscilla Lane in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
    Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
    James Cagney and Priscilla Lane in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
    James Cagney, Murray Alper, Frank McHugh, and Dick Wessel in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
    Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
    James Cagney and Priscilla Lane in The Roaring Twenties (1939)

    Top cast

    Edit
    James Cagney
    James Cagney
    • Eddie Bartlett
    Humphrey Bogart
    Humphrey Bogart
    • George Hally
    Priscilla Lane
    Priscilla Lane
    • Jean Sherman
    Gladys George
    Gladys George
    • Panama Smith
    Jeffrey Lynn
    Jeffrey Lynn
    • Lloyd Hart
    Frank McHugh
    Frank McHugh
    • Danny Green
    Paul Kelly
    Paul Kelly
    • Nick Brown
    Elisabeth Risdon
    Elisabeth Risdon
    • Mrs. Sherman
    • (as Elizabeth Risdon)
    Edward Keane
    Edward Keane
    • Henderson
    • (as Ed Keane)
    Joe Sawyer
    Joe Sawyer
    • The Sergeant - Pete Jones
    Joseph Crehan
    Joseph Crehan
    • Michaels
    George Meeker
    George Meeker
    • Masters
    John Hamilton
    John Hamilton
    • Judge
    Robert Elliott
    Robert Elliott
    • First Detective
    Eddy Chandler
    Eddy Chandler
    • Second Detective
    • (as Eddie Chandler)
    Abner Biberman
    Abner Biberman
    • Henchman - Lefty
    Vera Lewis
    Vera Lewis
    • Mrs. Gray
    John Deering
    • Narrator
    • (voice)
    • Director
      • Raoul Walsh
    • Writers
      • Jerry Wald
      • Richard Macaulay
      • Robert Rossen
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      This marked the end of James Cagney's cycle of gangster films for Warner Bros. Cagney wanted to diversify his roles: he would not play a gangster again until White Heat (1949), ten years later.
    • Goofs
      The film is full of classic songs from the 1920s, but the arrangements and vocal styles are those of 1939. No attempt is made to reproduce the actual sound of 1920s dance music.
    • Quotes

      [last lines]

      Panama Smith: He's dead.

      Cop: Well, who is this guy?

      Panama Smith: This is Eddie Bartlett.

      Cop: Well, how're you hooked up with him?

      Panama Smith: I could never figure it out.

      Cop: What was his business?

      Panama Smith: He used to be a big shot.

    • Connections
      Edited from The Public Enemy (1931)
    • Soundtracks
      I'm Just Wild About Harry
      (1921) (uncredited)

      Music by Eubie Blake

      Lyrics by Noble Sissle

      Played during the opening and closing credits

      Also played during the 1922 montage

      Sung by Priscilla Lane at the club

    User reviews111

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    9/10
    He Used To Be A Big Shot
    It is not as centrally dynamic as THE PUBLIC ENEMY nor as Freudian as WHITE HEAT, but THE ROARING TWENTIES is a leading gangster film for Jimmy Cagney as it details the rise and fall of a gangster Eddie Bartlett. The product of World War I and Prohibition, Eddie rises to great power as the head of a gang, always trying to return to legitimate society, and then to fall again due to the Wall Street Crash and the machinations of his right-hand man George Hally (Humphrey Bogart).

    Both men's characters are far more subtle as studies of success in criminal enterprise than the normal crime bosses of the 1930s. Eddie painstakingly builds up a taxicab corporation to gain legitimacy, as well as his stock acquisitions. Bogart, a bit more realistic on what types of businesses he understands, does not get involved in the stock market. But he enjoys the trappings of the upper class. Witness the scene when he is talking with his underling (Abner Biberman) and he is practicing his putting in his office. At the conclusion, Bogart is living in a townhouse (a sign of his financial success).

    There is a tradition in the films of the depression that some gangsters are not as bad as others. This is not to be taken seriously in real life, but the idea is that certain people are driven to crime by economic circumstances (Cagney returning to no job at the end of World War I) and some are driven by pure evil (the sadistic side of Bogart's nature). Cagney, on his rise, gains the friendship of people like Gladys George (actually the unrequited love of Ms George) and tries to find room in his organization for people like Frank McHugh, a nice guy who really never fit in properly as a criminal - and dies as a result. Bogart gains the support of like villains (Bibberman, who shares Bogie's fate at the end), and keeps showing a contempt for human life in most of the film (witness how he kills a cop on one of the rum runners he and Cagney are on, because the cop was once his sergeant in the army who punished him for breaking the rules when he did). But Cagney turns out to have more guts in him than Bogie. At the end of the film the latter, facing his own demise, turns into a total coward.

    The film has many touches to set the tone of the 21 years it covers (1918 - 1939). At the start newsreel footage takes the audience back to the end of World War I, showing Presidents and events up to Wilson (who, curiously enough, is shown by an actor playing the President, not as part of an old film). It has been noted that Gladys George's Panama is based on Texas Guinan, the speakeasy hostess. The death of Cagney on the steps of a church is based on the death of Hymie Weiss, a Chicago gangster rival of Capone who was killed that way in 1927. It was too good a death to not use in a gangster film, as it seems more symbolic than it was in real life (it does remind us of how Cagney, for all his good intentions, came up short due to his profession in violence).

    I have not commented on the love triangles involving Cagney, Jeffrey Lynn, and Priscilla Lane (and Cagney, Lane, and Gladys George). The irony that Cagney never sees that George is more than just a good friend is rather poignant, for both of them. And it is George who cradles his dead body in the end and gives his epitaph. Perhaps today a director would allow Cagney to wise up and get away with George. But that would spoil the full effect of the film's conclusion.
    helpful•34
    8
    • theowinthrop
    • Oct 12, 2005

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 28, 1939 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • The World Moves On
    • Filming locations
      • Stage 19, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Warner Bros.
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 46 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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