Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)

I was excited to get to Angels With Dirty Faces because I was ready for a fun noir gangster Drama. I was ready for action and mystery and a bunch of cool gangsters' fight to the death. Imagine my disappointment when the movie opens on two young kids committing their first felony. But alright that only took a little while. Wait now theres all this stuff with a bunch of church going kids?? Imagine my dismay.

'Angels' is the best kind of film because it defies your expectations and then exceeds them. It isn't a slick Noir with a double cross twist ending. This is my first James Cagney picture and I liked him. He played this heartless, intelligent gangster pretty well. I was convinced. But the real strength of this movie is how it takes you on a fun gangster drama with Cagney, all the while building admiration for his smart but underhanded ways. Hes a guy you grow to root for, even when the Father begins running against him, you still think Cagney will find a way out of it like he always has.

Then Cagney kills for the first time and all hell breaks loose. Audiences get their bloody catharsis they've been waiting for, but you begin to get the notion Cagney is backing himself into a corner. Hes digging himself deeper and deeper into his hole of crime and maybe at some point you think "Just stop! Just surrender!" And yet Cagney continues. He goes all the way till he finally risks the life of his oldest friend. Its at this moment audiences realize Cagney is not the good guy. This guy you've been rooting for has been the villain all along.

Cagney's decision to sacrifice his reputation and his final moments alive to potentially save some kids from going down the same path he did is an admition that all he has portrayed has been a lie. That if he had another shot at it, maybe he would choose differently, and that this guy we've grown to admire, like the kids in the film, is the wrong man. The message that the prison system made him into the monster he is is a little black and white, but I think it was necessary with the misdirection this film wanted to achieve. Either way I loved Angels and it certainly sets a high bar for Noirs going forward.