Wonderfully offbeat film!

What makes it different from others?

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

. . . Warner Bros.' warning to We Americans of the 21st Century about our Deplorable Political Class, as dissected in THE DOORWAY TO HELL. Even copper "Pat O'Grady" admits in the end to the doomed "Louie" that the police of America's then incipient Fat Cat State are as much of a "public menace" as the kid-killing gangs led by "Rocco" and "Midget." As always, Warner's team of alarm-sounding prognosticators serves as Our Extreme Early Warning System, uncannily accurate in throwing Louie's kid brother "Jackie" under the truck to not only advance the plot in THE DOORWAY TO HELL, but also to forecast the plot of Red Commie KGB Chief Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin's stooges in his Fifth Columnist Fellow-Traveling Pedophiliac Repug Party (aka, The GOOPERS) of actually--in this Our Real Life--throwing 10 MILLION of the USA's Poor Kids under the proverbial bus by eliminating America's long-standing "CHIP" Health Care Program in December, 2017, so that Putin's White House Sock-Puppet-in-Chief Don Juan Rump can send to U.S. taxpayer funds "saved" by these Repug Kid Killings directly to the Kremlin in the form of gold bars from Fort Knox. That the Demo-Rats twiddle their tails while this and countless other outrages are taking place under their snouts is NOT surprising to viewers watching THE DOORWAY TO HELL slam tight shut behind America. This flick shows that that cursed portal is plenty wide enough for ALL the Fat Cat Washington, DC, Gang Bosses to slop through!

A fairly good early talkie gangster flick. I caught this film on TCM late last night and was thoroughly entertained by it. It only had a few faults typical of films of the early talkie period.The basic story is about a young mob boss Louie Ricarno(Lew Ayres) who through intimidation unites the gangs in the city for which he collects his percentage and piece reins in the city under his stewardship. He then gets married to Doris(Dorothy Mathews) and retires to Florida to write and play golf he leaves the syndicate in the hands of his right hand man Steve Mileaway(James Cagney) but soon the gangs are again warring and Louie for family reasons must return to the city and deal with the situation.The film is well directed and the acting particularly Cagney's is a forerunner of his future career as a film tough. I think Ayres did a decent job in the lead role remember he was only 22 when he made this film but he is able to make Louie feel like he is the boss of the city. There is also a great gang fight scene at a local brewery this is one part where Archie Mayo gets a little lazy and only shoots the great action from one camera location at long distance. This could have been a great scene if he would have got up close and personal.Grade B

(There are Spoilers) Rarely seen and almost forgotten early gangster film that in fact was the first of the great crime motion pictures of the early 1930's, released before the big three "Little Caesar" "Public Enemy" and "Scarface", that put the "organize" into "organized crime".Getting to the top of the heap of the Chicago Crime Syndicate through murder blackmail and payoffs, to the police politicians and judges,Louie Ricarno decides to get all the city's bootleg gangs united into one big operation with him of course in charge. Hesitant at first the leaders of the crime gangs soon see the genius of Ricarno's master plan in that they now can runs their illegal business's without the fear of being rubbed out by each other.Feeling that there's nothing left for him to conquer, in the world of crime, Louie decides to retire, at the ripe old age of 22,and move to his estate in Forida to live out his life in peace and quite, with his new wife Doris, spending his time playing golf and writing his autobiography. There's also the fact that Louie's kid brother 12 year-old Jackie had been enrolled in the prestigious Fairfield Military Academy. Louie doesn't what Jackie to have anything to do with the kind of persons, gangsters, that he dealt with all his life.It turns out that without Louie in charge the organization that he founded started to fall apart. In no time at all the gangs start to go a each other in an all out gang war ending up in danger of destroying themselves. Wanting to get Louie out of retirement and thus, with him back in charge, save what's still left of the organization two of his former colleagues the Midget and his partner in crime Gimpy try to kidnap little Jackie. The two hoods plan to hold him hostage in order to get Louis back in line. The blotched kidnap attempt only has the kid, in his trying to escape, get himself run down and killed in a tragic traffic accident.With the news of Jackie's death Louie get's back to work as a crime chief and in no time at all blood is split on the streets of Chicago. Louie has his hoods gun Gimpy down and leave his body on the gutter as a warning to the now terrified Midget. That was to show the Midget just what's in store for him or anyone else who messes with either the "Great Louie Ricarno",the self proclaimed "Napoleon of Crime", or those like Little Jackie that he loves and cares about. While Louie is fixated on getting the Midget who's anything but, he stands at 5 foot ten inches and weighs about 280 pounds, his right hand man Steve Mileaway is playing around with Louie's wife Doris behind his back.Eventually having the Midget iced, off camera, Louie becomes the prime suspect in his murder. With Louie being in the clear by providing an air-tight alibi for himself, in The Midget's untimely demise the police headed by the slow talking and barley awake, he looked like that at any moment he'll keel over and fall on his head, Captain Pat O'Grady need someone close to him to finger Louie in The Midget's murder. It's there where the double-crossing and scared of his, Louie's, shadow Steve Mileaway steps in.Capt. O'Grady set Louie up in an elaborate plan, with the help of Louie's "good friend" Mileaway,that has him face and receive ultimate justice not from the police D.A or FBI but from his own kind the mob itself! A street-like Justice that he in fact meted out so many times to others is now what Louie Ricarno is to receive himself!

To see this movie on the Big Screen(like my Father,his uncles, and my Grandfathers did)would have been a treat. Well,not in my Dad's instance,because when my Dad saw the film on the Screen, it was shortly after Bogart's death and Cagney was already a long since established star.But still a treat nonetheless. Anyway for the Old oldtimers,they had to have the attitude:"This Cagney guy is gonna be around. Can't wait to see him again." Cagney always made his surroundings crackle with anticipation and uncertainty. You never really knew what was gonna happen. Doorway to Hell took risks. Real life gangsters dared Hollywood to make this movie because it hit close to home, for them. It's an interesting film to watch because of the miscasting. A thing William Wellman took note of during the filming of "Public Enemy", and had Cagney and the Lew Ayres clone "switch roles"...because "this Cagney guy has that gutter quality that this story needs to become effective". A must see movie.Especially for the buffs.