Angels with Dirty Faces poster & wallpaper

Ann Sheridan, Billy Halop, George Bancroft

Two friends who grew up together in the slums of New York City take divergent paths as adults: one becomess a priest, the other a gangster.

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7,736 ratings

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20 critics

Unrated

Directed by: Michael Curtiz

Release Date: January 1, 1938

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DVD Release Date: January 25, 2005

Stats: 613 reviews

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Pat O'Brien and James Cagney Angels with Dirty Faces Ann Sheridan and James Cagney Angels with Dirty Faces
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Flixster Reviews (613)

  • ohagankieran
    June 24, 2009
    ohagankieran
    ngels With Dirty Faces is a milestone film for the careers of both James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. Up to now they had been successfully teamed by Warner Brothers in a whole series of buddy films. In fact it is my contention that they popularized that particular genre. Here they are...( read more) childhood friends, but as adults, adversaries due to the course in life they took.

    Cagney came off suspension from Warner Brothers and agreed to do this film as his comeback of sorts. At first glance it seems just like another gangster flick, just what Cagney had been trying to get away from. But by force of personality and a superior script, Cagney turned the role of Rocky Sullivan into a classic and got his first Academy Award nomination.

    As for O'Brien, this was his first clerical role. Usually O'Brien is the fast talking manager, press agent,etc. When playing a priest Pat O'Brien slows the pace of the dialog down to a crawl and it works. He greatly expanded his range here and there were many other classic clerical roles to come.

    Cagney's a notorious gangster who's just been let out of prison after a three year stretch, taking a fall for his crooked attorney, Humphrey Bogart. Bogart was supposed to guard his $100,000.00 Cagney had squirreled away from illegal activities in the Twenties. Bogart's got a new partner now in George Bancroft and neither of them wants to cut Cagney in on anything.

    Let's just say that Cagney in the usual Cagney fashion makes both of them wish they'd played it on the square.

    Father O'Brien's concern is that notorious criminal Cagney is becoming a hero to some of the neighborhood kids in his parish. But he also can't forget that the two of them had been boyhood pals and that Cagney's first brush with the law was over a petty crime that O'Brien was equally guilty of. This is shown in a small prologue with three players portraying, Cagney, O'Brien, and neighborhood girl Ann Sheridan as kids.

    Young Frankie Burke is astounding in his portrayal of the young Cagney. He has him down perfectly, he becomes Cagney. Angels With Dirty Faces is worth watching for him alone.

    Those other juvenile actors with Warner Brothers at the time, The Dead End Kids, play the kids from the parish who come to idolize and idealize Cagney. O'Brien has one tough time trying to make them see that Cagney's life is not the way to go in life.

    Angels With Dirty Faces still has a powerful message for today and film aficionados should see it because of that and because it was a key turning point in the careers of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien.
  • 76Majikat
    June 13, 2009
    76Majikat
    Jimmy Cagney suited these roles so well and impressively they managed to pick a young ?Rocky? to look and sound just like him. A story with moralistic value of two young boys, whose lives are split in a moments notice, ultimately deciding each of their fates.

    In my opinion on...( read more)e of the best ever film endings, which will leave you contemplating the outcome.

    This always has been one of my personal favourites.
  • sanjurosamurai
    November 9, 2008
    sanjurosamurai
    easily one of the most underrated gangster films ever made. rarely listed amung the classics, this picture see's a young bogart and a young cagney go head to head in a match of criminal thinking. o'brien is very good as the priest, and the dichotomy that is built between his ch...( read more)aracter and cagneys is powerful. two friends with everything in common go in opposite directions because of a single moment in their lives, and they couldnt have ended up more different. the acting was great and the moral commentary was carried out perfectly. this was a profound story, admitting that although this life is made easier by dishonest living, that still doesnt make it right. bearing many similarities to two other films, white heat and on the waterfront, this will be a film i rewatch every few years.
  • pier007
    October 7, 2008
    pier007
    Phenomenal Cagney, great production code era gangster film, a drama about role models, friendship and moral, beautifully shot.
  • groaningbitch
    June 12, 2008
    groaningbitch
    under the influence of moral code, "angels with dirty face" is helmed by versatile michael curtiz as the sanitized gangster flick without misogynism and abusive malevolence. it's tinted with a light of benevolence while cagney is the admirable mobster with a heart of gold against...( read more) humprey bogart's crooked lawyer in his 1930s villainy.

    the story is about two juvenile mugs who diverge the paths of their seperate lives after one of them gets caught in the train thievery. of course, cagney would be the incorrigible one(rocky sullivan) who accomplishes his notorious career of crimes, and pat o'brien would be the meek goody-goody priest(father jerry) who always preachs without effects. uncannily the child actor who plays the young rocky resembles cagney well and also his poise while saying "don't be a sucker!"

    to add up some wholesome elements in it, the dead end kids are put into the picture as the conductment for juvenile delinquency, but these adolscent hoodrums are only willing to be bossed around by shrewd cagney. it leaves some dilemma for father jerry who is eager to rescue the kids from rocky's bad influence, later jerry even askes rocky to annihilate the ultimate pride of his mobster prestige by faking cowardice in the gas chamber to reform the dead end kids.

    the moralistic inference is what hinders the pleasure of "angels with dirty faces" despite you could still watch cagney swear like a machine gun and kicks around like a walking phallis, but the lack of brass could be a spoiler even the flick still remains dynamic with cagney's untamed machismo. ann sheridan as rocky's love interest is like another decorative vase there to enhance the lead then nothing more.

    but the gas chamber scene is handled with top-notch suspense where you witness the trembling shadow of a struggling man, and the intensity of violence is rendered wondrously without graphic gore. you may inquire whether rocky frightens at last or he just performs an altruistic act to salvage the kids. come what may, the stance of father jerry is like a judgemental bourgeois who wishes to deprive the gangster of everything he possesses, even his last bit of pride, to serve the pretentiously righteous social course. this is the hegemonic comprimose forced by the moral code, expressed soundly in "angels with dirty faces".
  • awfrey75
    November 4, 2009
    awfrey75
    I got this to see jemes cagney, but i liked the dead end kids.
  • TioBradski
    November 3, 2009
    TioBradski
    As awkward teenagers, they were Angels with Nerdy Braces! In the local chapter of the KKK, they were Angels with Thirty Racists! As old men with fecal incontinence, they were Angels with Squirty Feces!
  • dukeakasmudge
    October 23, 2009
    dukeakasmudge
    Great gangster flick.Cagney & Bogart were perfect
  • smackmysithup
    October 17, 2009
    smackmysithup
    awesome classic, Cagney rawks!!
  • roydonm0526
    October 14, 2009
    roydonm0526
    awesome! was up till 330 watching it

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Angels with Dirty Faces Trivia

  • Which actor/actress starred in these films: The Front Page, Air Mail & Angels with Dirty Faces?   Answer »
  • In "Angels With Dirty Faces," who played the executed criminal?  Answer »
  • Name the James Cagney Film these lines are taken from Soapy: Hey! Call a fair game or I'll slap you right in the kisser! Rocky Sullivan: You'll slap me? You slap me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.   Answer »
  • What is the original movie with the line keep the change you filthy animal and im not talking Home Alone.?  Answer »
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