After an unsatisfying period at Paramount, Raoul Walsh signed a contract with Warner Bros. in 1939 and kicked off a superb run of pictures that would last throughout the following decade Adapted from a story by the colourful journalist Mark Hellinger (who also produced the film and was friendly with a number of infamous bootleggers), The Roaring Twenties follows an archetypal rise-and-fall narrative arc, as ex-soldier Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) takes advantage of the new prohibition laws to make a fortune, but as the title suggests, this is a film about an era as much as the story of one man.
The film begins with the plight of veterans returning from the Great War to find themselves discarded by society; it depicts the spread of crime, corruption and hypocrisy that was facilitated by prohibition; and it culminates in the Wall Street crash of 1929. The Roaring Twenties is a chronicle of a society in tumult, with Walsh detailing the sociological context in slick montages that keep the film fizzing along. This dynamic style and the vivid evocation of a particular atmosphere would become directorial hallmarks, while the stark shadows utilised by cinematographer Ernest Haller gesture towards the later development of film noir.
Walsh populates his film with vividly realised character turns, and he draws performances from his stars that rank close to their career best. Humphrey Bogart is ice-cold as the ruthless bootlegger who won’t let anyone stand in his way, and sometimes kills just to satisfy his own dark impulses; when we first meet him in the trenches, he’s shooting at a 15-yearold German before gleefully stating, “He won’t be 16,” and his reaction when he encounters his former sergeant in civilian clothes is the film’s most brutal moment. As Eddie, Cagney is magnificent. The role is tailor-made for his pugnacious demeanour and snappy delivery, but he brings a tragic dimension to his performance as we watch this character transform from enterprising racketeer to slurring, doomed drunk. The 1920s made him and broke him: “He used to be a big shot.”

Philip Concannon