Details

Release year: 1939

Storyline

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

Top credits

Directors

Raoul Walsh

Writers

Cast

James Cagney — Eddie Bartlett
Humphrey Bogart — George Hally
Priscilla Lane — Jean Sherman
Gladys George — Panama Smith

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Did you know

• 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.

• This film sparked a nostalgia craze. Radio stations began playing 1920s music. Producer Mark Hellinger appeared on Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall radio show, and singer Kate Smith promoted the film on all of her radio programs. Both Life and Look magazines published "Roaring Twenties" layouts. Concerned by this societal craze, film censors became reluctant to approve future cinematic depictions of the 1920s for fear of "glamorizing the wickedness" of the Prohibition era.

• The censors demanded that the screenplay insert extended scenes of Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) as an unshaven, alcoholic bum in order to demonstrate that crime does not pay.