THE WARNER GANGSTERS COLLECTION
On DVD
(*****)
Subscribe to Hollywood North Magazine
Written By: John H. Foote
       Warner Brothers Home Entertainment has done it again with yet another superb boxed set of great films from years gone by.

  During the infancy of sound cinema, each of the major studios had their specialty films, a genre they did better than anyone else. Universal made great horror pictures, MGM made the best musicals, and Warner Brothers made great gangster films. Now that is not to say that other studios did not make such films, but the studios became identified by the particular genre they did well.
  
Audiences loved gangster films, in fact, they always have. There is something fascinating with watching someone go down the wrong path of life and become a criminal. Whether they are a petty thief or a full blown killer, audiences have always been enthralled by crime and gangster films. With the name Al Capone screaming from the headlines during the Depression, Bonnie and Clyde gunning their path through small town America, and John Dillinger making a name for himself in the criminal underworld, the time seemed right to begin churning out films that explored this particular way of life. The results were superb, with the careers of Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney launched by their work in such films, and Edward G. Robinson becoming forever Little Caesar.
  
The Warner Gangsters Collection includes six great films beginning with The Public Enemy (1931), Little Ceasar (1931), The Petrified Forest (1936), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), The Roaring Twenties (1939) and White Heat (1941). Each has been digitally remastered for DVD and includes a host of special features including commentary by popular film historian Leonard Maltin.
 
  The Public Enemy (1931; ****) showcases the acting talents of James Cagney as a streetwise hood clawing his way to the top. This man abuses everyone, including his girl, who is on the receiving end of a breakfast grapefruit in one of the great scenes in movie history. The picture made it clear that audiences wanted to see gangster films, and that James Cagney was on his way t being a major star.
  
Little Caesar (1931; *****), perhaps the best film of the collection features a commanding performance from Edward G. Robinson as Caesar Enrico Bandello, an arrogant hood with no friends, no attachments and no loyalty to anyone. Her fights and murders his way to the top only to fall much to his own astonishment. Robinson, a quiet man in real life, radiated danger and menace in the role, which became the most famous of his career. Obviously modeled on Al Capone, he gives a towering performance that is now legend.
 
  The Petrified Forest (1936; ***) offered Humphrey Bogart the chance to repeat his stage role on film. As escaped killer Duke Mantee, Bogart gives a fine performance in an otherwise adequate film. Leslie Howard and Bette Davis are the leads, yet make no mistake; this is Bogart’s film and launched the iconic actor in movie superstardom. He dominates every scene he is in, and more than holds his own with the great Davis.
 
  Angels with Dirty Faces (1938; ****) earned James Cagney the New York Film Critics Award for best actor, and his first Academy Award nomination as best actor. As a street hoodlum whose rise to the top ranks of the underworld makes him a hero with the young street hoods, Cagney is superb. The final sequence on death row remains one of the more haunting endings in movie history.
  
The Roaring Twenties (1939: ***) brings Bogart and Cagney together in this tough little film about bootlegging. Cagney is a war veteran who cannot find work and turns to bootlegging to make ends meet. As his profits grow so does his list of enemies, one of which is Bogart. Feuds over territory bring bloodshed and eventually death. Strong performances in an otherwise ordinary film elevate it to another level. The chemistry between the two men is electrifying throughout.
 
  White Heat (1949; ****) may contain the finest performance of James Cagney’s career. As Cody, a psychopathic killer in prison with a mother fixation, Cagney is astonishing throughout managing to convey tender feelings of love for his mother yet he gives the audience reason to fear him for his explosive temper and murderous soul. The actor was never better, never more frightening, and never more savage than he is in this film, one of the last greatHollywoodgangster flicks.
  
How ironic that Bogart and Cagney would win Academy Awards playing against their tough guy images. Cagney won for his song and dance performance in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and Bogart would win for his boozy captain in The African Queen (1951). Both gave better performances as criminals, yet were never honoured as such.
  
The collection brings each film to the digital realm with superb transfers and man extras including commentary from Maltin, newsreels of the time, and popular Warner cartoons that spoofed the gangster genres.
 
  A wonderful collection and one of the best of this very young year.










© Copyright 2004 Hollywood North Magazine Inc.