Jimmy is a Bootlegger

The First World War has ended. Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) returns to New York City to find all the jobs gone - taken by the men who remained home during the war. As The Roaring Twenties (1939) begin, Eddie falls into a new career - bootlegging - and enters into the world of organized crime.

Let's start by admitting that, no matter who else we discuss in this space, this is James Cagney's movie. Period. When he is on the screen, it's him you are watching. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Bogart fan, but this is one where Cagney shines. His Eddie Bartlett is a man of depth. We watch him change because of the circumstances of his life; we don't like most of those changes, but because it is Mr. Cagney playing him, we understand them. Director Raoul Walsh encouraged Mr. Cagney to improvise a bit, which adds to his impact (including a scene where he punches out two men with one throw!)  (TCM article).  From beginning to end, James Cagney is the linchpin of the film. 

 

Humphrey Bogart (George Hally) also provides a fascinating character - he's a monster from the moment we see him. Unlike Eddie, he seems to have no reason for doing the things he does. He enjoys inflicting pain and death. There are no shades to George's character - he is a murderer who we would like to forget (and do, when he disappears immediately after the war). What Mr. Bogart brings to the role is someone you can genuinely hate - Bogart is not afraid to make George horrific, with no attempts to gain the audience's sympathy.

A great deal of our conversation centered on Jean Sherman (Priscilla Lane). I, for one, find her hard to like or sympathize with. From the start, we discover she is a liar (she'd misled Eddie into thinking she was a woman in her twenties, when she is actually a high school student). She's self-centered, caring only for her career, and very willing to use Eddie to get ahead. She's well aware that he loves her. She tells him she doesn't love him, yet she takes expensive gifts from him, while she carries on a relationship with Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn). Because she is played by Ms. Lane, who is an engaging actress, you want to like her, but Jean is a passive person, who floats from man to man.  One wonders why all these men are smitten with her; it is perhaps because they are that we get distracted from the reality of Jean - that she is a thoughtless woman who likes Eddie because of what she can get from him.  Perhaps the character needed a firmer hand in the writing; as written, she's not a person that one can countenance.

Gladys George, however, is perfect as Panama Smith. She was not the first choice for the part - it was originally intended for Ann Sheridan; Lee Patrick and Glenda Farrell had also been cast at various points  (The Films of James Cagney by Homer Dickens). It is hard to imagine any of them playing the character. Panama's love for Eddie is selfless - she is truthful with him, even when he doesn't want to hear it (especially about Jean). With her husky voice, it's easy to accept her as a "tuneless canary" (the name given to her by a minor character); she also is the epitome of the tough broad after which she was patterned - Texas Guinan. 

Also worth noting is the performance of Frank McHugh (Danny Green). A gentle man who gets pulled into bootlegging  through his friendship with Eddie, he's too kind for the business and eventually pays the price. Mr. McHugh gives him a simplicity and sympathy that makes him believable.  Jeffrey Lynn (Lloyd Hart), on the other hand, has the thankless task of being "the other man." Like Jean, Lloyd works with Eddie, while protesting his distaste for the business. It's not a great part because the character is very underwritten.

New York reporter Mark Hellinger wrote the 1938 story The World Moves On, on which the film is based.  He was writing about real people that he had encountered (AFI catalog). Mr. Hellinger also served as a producer on the film.

The New York Times review by Frank S. Nugent was not enthusiastic, however he praised both Mr. Cagney and Ms. George (who "breathed poignance into the stock role of the night club hostess") for their work. Given that it was released in 1939 (and had stiff competition), no Oscar nominations were given, but Mr. Cagney won the National Board of Review for Best Actor.  On a side note, Carol Burnett did her own take on the story as "The Boring Twenties." As always, Ms. Burnett (as Panama Smith) is hysterical. 

This is an engaging film; if you are an admirer of Mr. Cagney or Ms. George, it is an essential. It was also one of my father's favorite films. We'll leave you with a trailer to introduce you to the action:

Myrna on the Home Front

The war is over and three servicemen are on their way home. Sailor Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), bombadier Captain Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), and infantry Sergeant Al Stephenson (Frederic March) meet on the plane to Boone City. Each returns to family, but each has changed: Homer lost his hands when his ship was torpedoed; Fred saw his friend crash, and now has horrible nightmares, and Al is tormented by his memories of the men who didn't make it home. Are The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) behind them or still to come?

In the first year of its existence (1989), the National Film Registry  added The Best Years of Our Lives to its list of films of "enduring importance to American culture." And indeed it is. It is perhaps the best film of the post-war period, if not one of the best of all time.  Directed by William Wyler after his return from the European Theatre of Operations, it was, in fact, his first film after spending over three years in bomber planes making documentaries for the U.S. Army Air Force. As a result of the noise in the planes, he lost his hearing, and was virtually deaf for several years. Wyler understood well the life facing disabled veterans. He therefore fashioned a movie (based on Time Magazine article "The Way Home," and a treatment by MacKinlay Kantor) that dealt with disability on a variety of levels. (For more on the film and it's creation, see this Film Preservation Board essay).

The most obvious examination of disability is the casting of double amputee Harold Russell as Homer. Unlike his character, Russell was injured in a training accident, and spent the war in the hospital. Mr. Russell was included in a training film Diary of a Sargeant (1944); when Wyler saw that film, he decided to change the character of Homer from a man suffering from severe spacticity. While clearly not an actor, Russell's gives a genuine performance; his scene, late in the film, with actress Cathy O'Donnell (as Homer's fiance, Wilma Cameron) is truly moving, giving real truth to the film. 

Mr. Russell became the only actor to receive two Oscars for the same performance: he was awarded a competitive Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (the other nominees were: Charles Coburn in The Green Years, William Demarest in The Jolson Story, Claude Rains in Notorious, and Clifton Webb in The Razor's Edge), as well as a Special Oscar for "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans." (TCM article). Years later, Mr. Russell sold one of the Oscars, in order to get funding for his wife's health care.

Fredric March won the Best Actor award that year, but  Myrna Loy as his wife, Milly Stephenson didn't even get nominated! If anything is a travesty of the Oscars, it is the fact that she was NEVER nominated for Oscars for any of her wonderful performances. (The Academy did try to finally rectify the oversight in 1991 by awarding her an Honorary Oscar. You can see her acceptance here). Her performance as Milly is inspired. Watch her face as she realizes that Al is in the house. Then, see if you can refrain from tearing up as she explains to daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright, who was only 12 years younger than her on-screen mother) why even her "perfect" marriage has its challenges. Her quiet dignity, as she silently, but sympathetically, observes the changes in her husband are beyond stirring.

Dana Andrews (who also was not nominated for this picture) is excellent as a man returning to a wife he finds he no longer loves (Virginia Mayo as the rather despicable Marie Derry), and who is forced back into the same dead-end job he left to serve his country. Fred Derry is still suffering the effects of the war. He has vivid nightmares of the death of his friend, he feels ill-equipped to take on a more responsible job ("I just dropped bombs" is his response to any queries about his ability to prove experience based on his war service), and his wife only wants him to wear his uniform and party. It is in the company of Peggy Stephenson that he is able to find any comfort or understanding, but his marriage is a block that he can't get around. Mr. Andrews gives us a character that shows the most growth throughout the movie - he really does go from a boy to a man.

Though they only have a few scenes, Roman Bohnen and Gladys George as Fred's father and stepmother Pat and Hortense are magnificent. Their most powerful scene occurs towards the end of the film; the scene is a simple one - Pat is reading a document aloud to Hortense which explains the citation Fred received from the military. With just Mr. Bohnen's voice and Ms. George's eyes, we see the love and pain that they feel for their son. The war, we see, impacted more than those who fought.

Equally effective is Hoagy Carmichael as Homer's uncle Butch Engle. Butch serves as the springboard to Homer's reentry into life - teaching him to "play" the piano, quietly encouraging him to open up to his parents and to Wilma, and perhaps more importantly, keeping him from slipping into alcohol as a refuge from his troubles. Another interesting casting note: Mr. Wyler used his 4 and 7 year old daughters in one of the drugstore scenes.

The film opened to enthusiastic reviews. The New York Times called it "this best film this year..." and Variety said it was "one of the best pictures of our lives." Since then, it has continued to be held in high regard, coming in at #37 in AFI's 100 Years, 100 Movies, 10th Edition (the same position as the original list) and at #11 in AFI's 100 Years, 100 Cheers. Richard Brody singled it out for a DVR alert in his New Yorker commentary. It also was financially successful, earning over $11,300,000 in its first North American release. It was even re-released in 1953 to note the return of troops for Korean, to equally favorable reviews (AFI catalog). Yet, despite this, Mr. Wyler was called before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee - certain scenes were deemed Communist propaganda!

If you have never seen The Best Years of Our Lives, we strongly urge you to get hold of a copy. It is worth your time. We'll leave you with the trailer from the film.