| | | From the same side of the tracks to opposite sides of the law.
Features: DVD, Mono Audio, English, French, Spanish, Subtitled
The sixth screen teaming of off-screen pals James Cagney and Pat O'Brien, Angels With Dirty Faces endures as one of Warner Bros.' most popular crime dramas. Cagney's Rocky Sullivan is a charismatic ghetto tough whose underworld rise makes him a hero to a gang of slum punks. O'Brien is Father Connolly, the boyhood-chum-turned-priest who vows to end Rocky's influence. Joining them are other ace Warner talents--Humphrey Bogart as a scheming attorney, Ann Sheridan as Rocky's hard-edged girlfriend and the Dead End Kids as worshipful street urchins--all ably directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca). The New York Times proclaimed Angels With Dirty Faces "Cagney at his best." the 1938 New York Film Critics Best Actor Award later came Cagney's way, as well as one of the film's three Oscar nominations. Watch this film's chillingly classic death-row finale and you'll know why.
"Superior cast..." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"Rousing classic..." VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever
Editor's Note
Michael Curtiz (CASABLANCA) directs James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, and Pat O'Brien in one of the greatest gangster melodramas made during the Hollywood studio era. William "Rocky" Sullivan (Cagney) and Jerry Connolly (O'Brien), partners in mischief as boys, are separated when only Jerry is fast enough to get away from the cops after the duo steals fountain pens from a railroad car. Rocky, refusing to give the name of his friend, is sent off to a reform school where he falls under the influence of criminal elements. The grown-up Rocky's triumphant return to the neighborhood complicates the efforts of Jerry, now a parish priest, to keep a local group of boys (the Dead End Kids) out of trouble. When the gang begins to idolize Rocky, Connolly fears his good works may come to nothing. Meanwhile, Rocky vies for control of the criminal rackets in the neighborhood with mob boss Mac Keefer (George Bancroft) and a corrupt, double-crossing lawyer, James Frazier (Bogart).Curtiz's taut, suspenseful, yet suprisingly sensitive handling of the gritty urban morality play turned ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES into the first unqualified masterpiece of his stunningly prolific career. The archetypal gangster thriller, brimming with the magnetism and explosive dramatic energy supplied by the three male leads, was nominated for three Academy Award Nominations: Best Director, Best Actor (Cagney), and Best Original Story.
| Features | Audio Commentary By Film Historian Dana Polan | | Audio-Only Bonus: Radio Production With Film's Two Stars | | Audio: English, French Dolby Digital Mono | | Interactive Menus | | Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night At The Movies 1938 With Newsreel, Musical Short Out Where The Stars Begin, Cartoon Porky And Daffy And Theatrical Trailers | | New featurette Angels With Dirty Faces: Whaddya Hear? Whaddya Say? | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 9/27/2005 |
| Running Time: 97 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1938 | | Catalog ID: 66901 | | UPC: 00012569690127 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: B&W |
Aspect Ratio | | Standard 1.33:1 [4:3] |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"...[Cagney is] lovably cocky....A life lesson..." -- Rating: A- 11/08/1996 p.78USA Today
"ANGELS was Cagney's gold-standard reference point." 01/28/2005 p.4D Los Angeles Times
"ANGELS finds Cagney absolutely riveting..." 01/23/2005 p.E10 The Motion Picture Guide 9 of 10
One of the most stirring, colorful and thoroughly memorable gangster films ever made, so distinctive
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