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No consensus yet.
All Critics (14) | Top Critics (1) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (0) | DVD (1)
Walsh unfolds the practical details of bootleggers' nocturnal maneuvers with quiet comedic flair alongside harrowing violence. Sep 12, 2016 | Full Review…
Walsh unfolds the practical details of bootleggers' nocturnal maneuvers with quiet comedic flair alongside harrowing violence.
Richard Brody
Mr. Cagney, of the bull-calf brow... is as always a superb and a witty actor. Jun 14, 2018 | Full Review…
Mr. Cagney, of the bull-calf brow... is as always a superb and a witty actor.
Graham Greene
If Raoul Walsh didn't invent the Warners style, then he certainly brought it to its electric apex Apr 14, 2013 | Full Review…
If Raoul Walsh didn't invent the Warners style, then he certainly brought it to its electric apex
Fernando F. Croce
A powerful story of wartime bonds and their staying power through the most adverse of circumstances. Apr 8, 2011 | Rating: 69/100 | Full Review…
A powerful story of wartime bonds and their staying power through the most adverse of circumstances.
Gabe Leibowitz
Dynamic, quintessential gangster film, wonderfully stylized by director Raoul Walsh, Jul 17, 2009 | Full Review…
Dynamic, quintessential gangster film, wonderfully stylized by director Raoul Walsh,
Michael E. Grost
It has a good cast and the production values were first-class, allowing it to rise slightly above its hackneyed script. Jun 28, 2008 | Rating: B- | Full Review…
It has a good cast and the production values were first-class, allowing it to rise slightly above its hackneyed script.
Dennis Schwartz
One of the last great gangster films of the 1930s. Cagney brings a touch of poignancy to the hood who time has passed by, and Gladys George is splendid as Panama. Jun 2, 2006 | Rating: 4/5
One of the last great gangster films of the 1930s. Cagney brings a touch of poignancy to the hood who time has passed by, and Gladys George is splendid as Panama.
Bob Bloom
An epochal rise-and-fall epic of the gangster cycle. Feb 3, 2005 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
An epochal rise-and-fall epic of the gangster cycle.
Eric Henderson
The Roaring Twenties (1939) is action director Raoul Walsh's first gangster film. This newsreel-like, semi-documentary film, Jan 1, 2000 | Full Review…
The Roaring Twenties (1939) is action director Raoul Walsh's first gangster film. This newsreel-like, semi-documentary film,
Tim Dirks
The Roaring Twenties charts the rise and fall of prohibition racketeer James Cagney from the trenches of the great war to the stock market crash of 1929. It's amazing that only 8 short years separate The Roaring Twenties and the simplistic moralizing and two dimensional characterisation of The Public Enemy. It is probably the blueprint for the modern gangster movie and is the equivalent of the likes of The Godfather or Goodfellas for its time. Cagney is at his very best as the morally "grey" but inherently decent mobster who finds himself caught up in the booze hungry fervor of the prohibiton years after returning from fighting for his country as part of a forgotten generation, unable to find any other way to earn a living. Things take a sinister turn when he makes an uneasy partnership with a brilliant Humphrey Bogart who makes such a fantastic asshole you end up wishing he played the bad guy a bit more often. A rather bland Priscilla Lane aside the cast are all spot on, and with the addition of some energetic shoot outs and a brilliant climax when Cagney finally has it out with a sneering Bogie, all set in historical context of the America at the time, you have a timeless crime classic.
Super Reviewer
Not my favorite Cagney, Bogart or Walsh, but still a solid gangster flick.Worth seeing for the historical narrative montages.
This is a good movie about the 1920s, and a good gangster movie, with a good cast. I liked this movie.
a little too much sentiment and the sickly sweet priscilla lane keep this from being a perfect gangster film. the final showdown between cagney and bogie is the best part
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