Angels with Dirty Faces

Angels with Dirty Faces with James Cagney and Pat O'Brien.  Cagney and O'Brien are childhood friends in Hell's Kitchen.  While stealing fountain pens from a stopped railway car, Cagney is arrested but O'Brien gets away.  Cagney's stint in reform school is just the start of 15 years of crime and arrests.  He often beats the rap but on the advice of his crooked lawyer partner, Humphrey Bogart, he accepts a plea to spend another 3 years in prison while Bogart keeps their money and builds up their crime businesses.  Once out of stir, Cagney looks up his old pal O'Brien who has become a priest in the old neighborhood.  He also finds himself betrayed by Bogart.

This may be the only Cagney gangster movie I've ever watched from start to finish.  He was nominated for Best Actor for this role but to me it was just Cagney acting like Cagney.  If this movie wasn't a stereotype at the time it must have laid the groundwork for all such movies to follow.  There were big shootout scenes where Cagney fired by making "punching" motions with his gun.  There was also a heavy presence by the "Dead End" kids.

"Whadda ya hear? Whadda ya say?"