Angels with Dirty Faces

The Immortal Classic Movie with Jimmy Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, from 1938 ; Angels with Dirty Faces. My dad tookme to see this when i was a kid. I loved Jimmy Cagney, i thought he was the coolest guy("think your a wise guy huh?") of all. Looking back i wonder how this was done because the fellow is pretty much of a small guy with a bit if a spazzy face. Wierd how Hollywood can take ugly people and make total crooners and sex symbols out of them (see Sigourney Weaver).

Angels with Dirty Faces is a 1938 American gangster film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, the Dead End Kids and Humphrey Bogart, along with Ann Sheridan and George Bancroft. The film was written by Rowland Brown, John Wexley and Warren Duff with uncredited assistance from Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

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Plot Synopsis - Angels with Dirty Faces

Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) and Jerry Connolly (Pat O'Brien) are childhood friends who robbed a railroad car as kids. Rocky saved Jerry's life during the chase by pulling him out of the way of a steam train while running from the guards that saw them. Rocky was then caught by the police, but Jerry - who could run faster - escaped. Rocky, after being sent to reform school, grows up to become a notorious gangster, while Jerry has become a priest.

Rocky returns to his old neighborhood, where Jerry is running a home that intends to keep young boys away from a life of crime. Six of those boys, Soapy (Billy Halop), Swing (Bobby Jordan), Bim (Leo Gorcey), Patsy (Gabriel Dell), Crabface (Huntz Hall), and Hunky (Bernard Punsly), idolize Rocky, and Jerry attempts to keep his former friend from corrupting them. (These boys were to star in Dead End Kids/East Side Kids/The Bowery Boys films).

Meanwhile Rocky gets involved with Frazier (Humphrey Bogart), a crooked lawyer, and Keefer (George Bancroft), a shady businessman and municipal contractor. They try to dispose of Rocky, but he finds the record book that they keep where they list the bribes to city officials. Jerry learns of these events and warns Rocky to leave before he informs the authorities. Rocky ignores his advice and Jerry gets the public's attention and informs them all of the crooked government, causing Frazier and Keefer to plot to kill him. Rocky overhears this plot and kills them to protect his childhood friend.

Rocky is then captured following an elaborate shootout in a building, and sentenced to die. Jerry visits him just before his execution and asks him to do him one last favor - to die pretending to be a screaming, snivelling coward, which would end the boys' idolization of him. Rocky refuses, and insists he will be "tough" to the end, and not give up the one thing he has left, his pride. At the very last moment he appears to change his mind and has to be dragged to the electric chair. The viewer is never told whether Rocky genuinely was afraid, a "rotten sniveling coward", or if he does it for the Father and the boys. The boys hear about what happened and decide he was a coward. Then Father Jerry asks them to say a prayer with him, "for a boy who couldn't run as fast as I could".

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Tarzan and the Green Godess

Tarzan and the Green Godess (1938 Movie), and "The New Adventures of Tarzan" present the Ape-Man to us as Burroughs saw him. As opposed to the inarticulate grunting dim-wit presented to us by Hollywood. It worked, apparently, because the actors who followed Weismuller and Crabbe began to speak with increasing fluency. I would suggest that those wishing to watch these films first familiarize themselves with the radio series from 1931 through the 1934 season as Burroughs was connected with these as well. In fact, James Pierce, a former star football player, who plays Tarzan in the early shows and in the silent film Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927) was married to his radio "Jane" who was Burroughs' daughter Joan.
Anyway, Herman Brix did pretty well presenting the Apeman as Burroughs saw him. He must have since Burroughs used him twice. This film, incidentally, is the 1938 sequel to The new Adventures of Tarzan, from 1935.

About the footage of African animals...this practice was common back in the day...most audiences never even noticed...they expected "exotic animals and locales" from adventure films and they got them.

One last thing: "The Victory Cry of the Bull Ape" as given here sounds strange to our ears (we're more used to Weismuller's version)but,
again, as one who was a fan of the books long before she saw ANY of the movies) I can tell you that Tarzan is NOT saying "Im a monkey" as an earlier reviewer thought. What he is screaming is "Ah Mangani". The Mangani are the great-apes in the language of Burroughs' books. Tarzan is a Tarmangani or "Great White Ape" Manu means "monkey" incidentally.
Are these two the best Tarzan films ever made? Not really. But they aren't the worst, either. If you're into Tarzan they're worth adding to your collection.

Watch Now - Tarzan and the Green Goddess (1938)

In a last ditch effort to extract some additional funds from their project, Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises (BTE) released a sequel to The New Adventures of Tarzan by editing a 72 minute feature film from the last ten chapters of their serial, as well as adding some new footage. Since the first film Herman Brix had taken acting lessons and changed his name to Bruce Bennett in an attempt to avoid identification with the Tarzan role and his athletic past. He is identified by the new name in the credits of Green Goddess. Edgar Rice Burroughs had loaned BTE $50,000 to launch the enterprise but the poor performance of The New Adventures of Tarzan left them in the embarrassing position of not being able to repay the loan. Salvation came in the person of Jesse Goldberg. In an agreement with the producers Goldberg was installed as the sole distributing agent of the film and was to receive 50 per cent of all profits. The reasonable success of the film in England was sufficient to repay the loan and BTE was able to clear the books. In 1939 the company closed their doors permanently. (Essoe & Fury)

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Tarzan's Revenge

1938 Tarzan Movie starring Glenn Morris as Tarzan

Watch Movie - Tarzan's Revenge (1938)

In yet another attempt to cash in on MGM's successful Tarzan series featuring Johnny Weissmuller, producer Sol Lesser produced this film starring not one, but two Olympic swimming champs. Morris takes on the role this time with Holm as a young lady on safari with her fiancée and her parents. The film concerns her father (Barbier) attempting to collect rare animals for a zoo back in the U.S. while her mother (Hopper) basically frets, fans herself and sneezes continually. Meeker plays the rather foolish and trigger-happy fiancée, joined by a feminine, fussypants, pinky ring-wearing valet (Corbet Morris) who occasionally tosses off a pithy remark. In the opening scenes (Tarzan doesn't appear until 13 minutes into the film!), Holm catches the eye of a wealthy Maharajah who wishes to add her to his harem. Later, when the group is on safari, he sends a band of natives to retrieve her with only Morris standing in the way of her future in sexual bondage. The film trudges on with many, many stock shots of jungle creatures, some cute (like a few little monkeys playing in the water) and some ordinary as Holm is periodically faced with Morris, who frequently has to come to her rescue. Their first encounter is rather amusing as he pulls her from a swamp only to get irritated when she won't allow him to grope her. Mostly, however, the film meanders on with its (by now) familiar plot line of a city girl discovering the charms of a man who sleeps on moss, forages for grapes and swims in a murky lagoon; helping animals in distress and killing anyone who causes trouble. Morris is physically fit and reasonably handsome, but lacks charisma in his virtually silent portrayal. Holm tries to inject some vigor into her scenes (and occasionally resembles Joan Crawford), but hasn't got very much to work with. Amusingly, her make up remains immaculate and her all white outfits (including a hysterical pair of little white boots) tend to stay crisp and fresh no matter what the circumstances. Film buffs may get a kick out of seeing Hopper (probably the least likely person expected in a Tarzan movie!) get carried around on a chiffon covered gurney by the natives and then complain about how worn out she is. It's of interest to fans of Tarzan, but hardly offers anything particularly special or entertaining. Neither lead continued with a career in acting, but at least the film affords a glimpse of these two athletes while they were in their prime.
IMDB Link  Glen Morris Biography

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