An Exercise In Nonsense

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Warner Brothers and producer Darryl F. Zanuck cast James Cagney in his second film role; a Lew Ayres vehicle directed by the legendary Archie Mayo. Ayres plays Louie Ricarno a smart young wise guy that organizes the multiple gangs of Chicago. The beer barons honoring each others territory and things running smoothly, Louie decides to put the gangster life behind him and marry a moll named Doris(Dorothy Mathews)and retire to Florida. The new bride begins missing the former lifestyle and her boyfriend Steve Mileaway(Cagney)left to keep the crime organized. But things rapidly fall apart and Steve urges Doris to convince Ricarno to return and straighten things out again. Its the old tommy gun carried about in a violin case; reckless shoot outs and murders caused by beer rivalry. This role allows Cagney to ease into his famed gangster persona. Others in the cast: Leon Janney, Jerry Mandy, Noel Madison, Robert Elliott and Tom Wilson.

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

In 1930 Lew Ayres was Hollywood's golden boy having scored a huge success in "All Quiet on the Western Front" for Universal, then Warners borrowed him for the baby faced gangster in "The Doorway to Hell". He plays Louie Ricarno, an Underworld king pin who proceeds to re-organise the rackets - not to everyone's satisfaction. While "Little Caesar" dealt with the rise of a mobster within an organised crime ring and "The Public Enemy" was about a pair of thugs making their way up in the criminal world, "The Doorway to Hell" tried to deal with the complexities of a gangster, even as the film starts, already called "King of the Underworld", who wants out but is not allowed to break away.The whole point of the film was (to me) someone struggling with their inner demons that were triumphing over his basic goodness. The role needed a clean cut actor who was believable, especially when he left the rackets to try and live a normal life and Lew Ayres was perfect, however he didn't have much of a presence in the scenes where he was doing some tough talking to his mob. It didn't help that his off-sider, Mileaway, was played by James Cagney - only his second film but he was already acting like a veteran. Even when he was almost out of the scene, a shrug of the shoulders, raised eyebrows, that "crazy" grin meant that audiences were watching him instead of Ayres - fortunately audiences were going to see a lot more of him in years to come.There is always a woman - this time, Doris (Dorothy Matthews), a moll, who thrives on the excitement of crime. Ricarno marries her and for her sake and for his little brother, Jackie (Leon Janney) who is away at military school, doesn't know what his big brother does and of course idolizes him - decides to give the mob away and try to write his memoirs. Doris is bored and misses Mileaway (with whom she is having a hot and heavy affair). In the meantime, without Louie's organization there is a lot of gangland violence and when two thugs, Gimpy and the Midget try to kidnap Jackie, their plan is stymied and as Jackie runs away from them he is run over and killed by a passing truck. This paves the way for Louie's return but strangely the film slows down after this. With many of the gangsters dead the police become more involved and the last 20 minutes really drag with Mileaway's confession (he only signs because he doesn't want Louie to find out about him and Doris, Louie, of course, believes he is a real pal). Louie battles with his inner demons - he may outwardly appear "preppie" but he idolizes Napoleon and feels War is the answer to the World's problems (obviously, in view of his real life beliefs, he didn't sound very convincing) - what a complete turnaround from his last role as the disillusioned soldier. He also has some scenes with honest cop, Captain O'Grady (Robert Elliot) who seems to be Louie's conscience.The film's pace could have been tighter and consequently the film doesn't have the same impact as "Little Caesar" or "The Public Enemy". It was interesting to see the violin cases come out and to know that it originated in this movie - now it is such a cliché. Noel Madison, who played Rocco, the only gangster, who didn't fall for Louie's tough talk, also made his debut, along with Cagney in "Sinner's Holiday" and was forever typecast as gangsters and thugs - a bit different to his stage career where he specialized in society types.Highly Recommended.

Much has been said about Lew Ayres being miscast in this film, but I don't agree. The notion that a pretty young boy can't be a gangster is belied both by Ayres' performance and by history itself--Pretty Boy Floyd, anyone? (I should add, however, that Jimmy Cagney, in his autobiography, agreed with those who believed Ayres was too pretty to play a convincing gangster!)This film is so much better than you'd think, and that is due not only to fine performances by Ayres and Cagney (make that, a WONDERFUL performance by Cagney, who really does ignite the screen), but also to impressive direction by Archie Mayo. I confess I usually think of Mayo as a pretty journeyman director, but maybe I've only seen his later work and "talkies" spoiled him. If you were to watch this film without sound, you'd be hyper-aware of the wonderful camera set-ups and editing, particularly during the prison break, when the screen is filled with jump cuts of men's legs running. Of course, without the sound, you'll miss the great period dialogue (a gangland ambush offers Ayres the opportunity to "walk into a handful of clouds").TCM shows this film from time to time, and you really shouldn't miss it. It's well-written, well-directed, has great performances, and the closing lines (displayed as a printed page of the source story on the screen) are as poignant as anything you'll ever read.