Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

Father Connelly: "You've got a great poker face Rocky, but don't forget I've known that face for a long time."

By Michael Curtiz
With James Cagney, Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart

After I watched They Drive by Night (1940) I opened the IMDb filmography of Ann Sheridan and opened up a couple of movies she did to see if I had to see any. I didn't investigate right away and when I got back to Angels with Dirty Faces a moment later the cover felt so modern that I read it as being made in 1983 and as it already had my attention I scrolled down and realized it featured Humphrey Bogart, it couldn't be 1983 and was indeed 1938. I wanted to see it.

Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connelly are two tough kids living in a poor neighborhood of New York. They steal and create havoc wherever they go, and are always inseparable. One day they are near a train wagon and Rocky decides to check what's in it, and to see if they can take anything. A guard arrives and sees them then calling the police. Cornered in the wagon, the two boys have to make a run for it and after a moment's chase Jerry gets away but Rocky gets caught. When Jerry visits Rocky in prison, he feels like he should say something so they would reduce Rocky's sentence and potentially lock him up, however, Rocky doesn't let him take any of the fall. Through the next years however Rocky accumulates sentences and it is only 20 years later that he finally gets out of jail. His lawyer James Frazier who was keeping money for him doesn't seem too keen on reimbursing him however and the two resort to blackmail in order to make sure that Rocky gets a job in the company. In the mean time, Rocky goes to see Jerry Connelly who became a priest and he tries to educate the poor kids, a group of 6 boys called the "dead end kids" who just like Jerry and Rocky in their time, terrorize the neighborhood. While they make a hero out of Rocky, Father Connelly struggles to have them not follow in his steps.

The immersion in the film is immediate. So immediate that I was a bit lost at first because of their fast way of talking, but once I got used to it I was drawn to the story. The childhood of Rocky and Jerry is not the focus, however, the way it gets mirrored once they are grown ups and hang around in the same neighborhood with kids doing the same things they used to do is absolutely brilliant.

The thing I loved the most about the movie is the struggle of the Father to have the kids follow a righteous path and not the path of Rocky. The political corruption aspect was also really good, even though a staple of gangster films, it was resourceful and to see Humphrey Bogart as a corrupt lawyer was quite unique. The scene with Rocky being submitted to tear gas while surrounded by the forces of the law is one of the greatest scenes of capture and hold off I've seen.

The friendship between Rocky and Jerry was also one of the best portrayal of relationships I have seen because the characters were on two opposite sides of the moral spectrum but they had shared an history together and enjoyed each other... it was really interesting and to see the Father struggle to remain moral when he could really use the money, although he would always remember where the money comes from. It was quite an original for me and the acting was top notch, I found myself enjoying the movie more and more as it went along.

I liked: Very modern in its approach and themes. The characters of Rocky and Jerry developing through a lifetime. The ending.

I disliked: The dead end kids were annoying but charming.

89/100
I thought the movie was good but as I kept watching it became better and better.