" . . . bastard, (cast) Humphrey Bogart," one of the seven "talking heads" guys says about "Bogie's" early career at Warner Bros. film studio. None of the seven speaks about the time Humphrey sniveled in real life, when he went crusading to Washington, DC, to defend his free-thinking co-workers against Joe McCarthy's fascist witch hunt, and retracted everything he'd just said on the train ride home at the first hint of Red Stater backlash. The seven White guys chewing the fat here talk instead mostly about trivia, such as the fact gangster "Nick Brown" in THE ROARING TWENTIES was played by a real-life killer, or that Director Raoul Walsh was captured by the Mexican Bandito Pancho Villa during WWI. One thing that could have been emphasized more (had a group been recruited capable of seeing the forest rather than focusing on individual trees) was this 1938 feature film's ground-breaking use of verisimilitude, deftly mixing actual newsreels and REEFER MADNESS-like mini-dramatizations into its main story line.
2 Reviews
Fun Look at The Roaring Twenties
Michael_Elliott21 March 2011
Roaring Twenties, The: The World Moves On (2005)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Another fun documentary from Warner, this one here taking a look at the 1939 film THE ROARING TWENTIES with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. Martin Scorsese, Drew Casper, Eric Lax, Alain Silver and Lincoln Hurst are among those interviewed who share their thoughts on the film in question as well as give us details about the production. It's clear that Cagney didn't want to do yet another gangster flick so we hear how the director sold him on the idea. It's also clear that by this point Bogart was growing tired of playing support to Cagney and everyone else. We hear about the apparent good relationship between the two men even if their opinions on acting were miles apart. Unlike some of the other documentaries, this one here features quite a bit of Scorsese, which fans such as myself are really going to enjoy. The director shares his thoughts on the film, its director and of course the two legendary actors. At just under 20-minutes this is a good companion piece to the film but it's best to watch the movie first as there are many spoilers included here.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Another fun documentary from Warner, this one here taking a look at the 1939 film THE ROARING TWENTIES with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. Martin Scorsese, Drew Casper, Eric Lax, Alain Silver and Lincoln Hurst are among those interviewed who share their thoughts on the film in question as well as give us details about the production. It's clear that Cagney didn't want to do yet another gangster flick so we hear how the director sold him on the idea. It's also clear that by this point Bogart was growing tired of playing support to Cagney and everyone else. We hear about the apparent good relationship between the two men even if their opinions on acting were miles apart. Unlike some of the other documentaries, this one here features quite a bit of Scorsese, which fans such as myself are really going to enjoy. The director shares his thoughts on the film, its director and of course the two legendary actors. At just under 20-minutes this is a good companion piece to the film but it's best to watch the movie first as there are many spoilers included here.
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