IMDb > The Roaring Twenties (1939)
The Roaring Twenties
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The Roaring Twenties (1939) -- Sinematurk - Trailer (Flash)

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Overview

User Rating:
7.8/10   4,169 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 327% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers:
Jerry Wald (screenplay) &
Richard Macaulay (screenplay) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for The Roaring Twenties on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
23 October 1939 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
The land of the free gone wild! The heyday of the hotcha! The shock-crammed days G-men took ten whole years to lick! more
Plot:
After the WWI Armistice Lloyd Hart goes back to practice law, former saloon keeper George Hally turns to bootlegging... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
NewsDesk:
User Comments:
Vintage Warner Brothers of the thirties more (55 total)
US TV Schedule:

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

James Cagney ... Eddie Bartlett
Priscilla Lane ... Jean Sherman

Humphrey Bogart ... George Hally
Gladys George ... Panama Smith
Jeffrey Lynn ... Lloyd Hart
Frank McHugh ... Danny Green
Paul Kelly ... Nick Brown
Elisabeth Risdon ... Mrs. Sherman (as Elizabeth Risdon)
Edward Keane ... Henderson (as Ed Keane)
Joe Sawyer ... The Sergeant
Joseph Crehan ... Michaels
George Meeker ... Masters
John Hamilton ... Judge
Robert Elliott ... First Detective
Eddy Chandler ... Second Detective (as Eddie Chandler)
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
The World Moves On (USA) (working title)
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Runtime:
104 min
Country:
Language:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Australia:PG (TV rating) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #5576) | Australia:G

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The character of Panama Smith was partially based on actress and nightclub hostess Texas Guinan. more
Goofs:
Continuity: Orientation of the actors during the audition scene. more
Quotes:
George Halley: [the men are taking cover in a bombed-out farmhouse, shooting at German soldiers somewhere off-screen. Lloyd takes aim at a German soldier, but hesitates, then lowers his rifle] Whatsa' matta', "Harvard," did you lose the Heine?
Lloyd Hart: No... but he looks like a kid, about 15 years old.
George Halley: -
[Aims his rifle and without any hesitation shoots the young German soldier]
George Halley: He won't be sixteen.
[Seconds later, a fellow soldier rushes in to tell them the war is over, the Armistice has been signed]
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Movie Connections:
Soundtrack:
Tip-Toe thru' the Tulips with Me more

FAQ

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful.
Vintage Warner Brothers of the thirties, 2 August 2005
Author: Tony43 from Los Angeles

Not as well remembered as "Little Caesar" or "Public Enemy," "The Roaring Twenties" is the culmination of a decade's worth of Warner Brothers gangster films. It was also James Cagney's last tough guy role at the studio for almost a decade.

Cagney is criticized by some in this one for not packing the cinematic punch he did in "Public Enemy" or "White Heat." But this film was the brain child of former Broadway columnist Mark Hellinger and was written as almost an ode to the Damon Runion-like characters Hellinger knew when he prowled the great white way during the 20s. Hellinger was a regular at the famous El Fey club and friend of Texas Guinan, the wild saloon hostess who personified the twenties. Cagney's good/bad guy character, Eddie Bartlett, was in fact based on Larry Fay, the cab driver turned bootlegger who opened the El Fey and hired Guinan as his hostess. Fay is also believed to have been one of the inspirations for F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." Bartlett is meant to symbolize,not a psychotic criminal, but more the social confusion that resultedfrom the passage of a highly unpopular law meant to regulate character,which wound up having the absolute opposite effect, spawning an era of lawlessness.

Although Cagney dominates every scene he is in, the more ominous gangster in the film is played by Humphrey Bogart in one of his best performances prior to assuming character roles in the late 40s. His trigger happy hood was probably fashioned after Owen "Ownie the Killer" Madden, the bootlegger who bought into Harlem's Cotton Club and formed a loose alliance with Fay.

Strong supporting work comes from Gladys George, who plays Panama Smith, the Texas Guinan character.

This picture is slick, well produced, uniformly well acted under the direction of action specialist Raoul Walsh and features some great Cagney stick. When he exploded on screen, there was no one like him.

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