Please don't spend money on this.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The title implies a fun movie, but in fact is depressing throughout. The movie starts out with three infantrymen in a trench, with Bogart rather than Cagney proving to be the nasty psychopath who genuinely loves killing. The war ends and Cagney finds he cannot get his old job back in the automotive repair shop after two years' absence. He gets a job as a taxi driver, unaware that he is part of a liquor bootlegging racket, and is caught and arrested...and later is essentially forced into working in this racket. He prospers and his war buddy becomes his lawyer, but wants out when a mutual friend gets killed. Then there is the other war buddy who is a rival in the rackets...Unlike "The Public Enemy", Cagney does not voluntarily join the rackets, and is never happy while in them. Arguably one of the strongest gangster movies which is not a morality play as such.

In this picture we can see the development of Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) who returns to the United States after WW1 to find himself unemployed. After a few times of trying, he accidentally bumps into the booze traffic. He ends up in jail after being caught by the cops while delivering an unknown package who turned to be booze. After serving some time in jail he starts his clandestine booze traffic business and gets to the top of society thanks to the prohibition which allows to traffic booze at a high price. After prohibition is terminated and '29 crisis hit the world, he started once again from the bottom but this time he can't get his life straight.Lesson of the movie is that it's not about getting to the top but to stay there. How the world turns and how you're prepared for it.

I'm not going to go too much into detail on the plot of the Roaring Twenties - it's pretty standard "gangster rises to the top" fare. The things that made this movie special to me were the performances, two in particular.The most prominent character in the film is Cagney, a streetwise cabbie who's lost his job - and really his place in the world - following World War I. He gets into the bootlegging business more or less by mistake, but then stays in it and determines to make a success of it. It's typical strong Cagney gangster fare.The first of the special performances to me was Humphrey Bogart's. This is a younger Bogart, not yet the gangster with a heart seen in High Sierra or the world-weary Bogie seen in Casablanca and many subsequent films. No, this younger Bogart is cunning, but is mostly a fearsome gun-toter seething with contempt for the world. I imagine he didn't have to go far to find inspiration. Warner Brothers didn't consider him a leading man at this time and had him in a string of mostly low-budget films, including an awful Western musical flick called Swing Your Lady the year before. Adding that he was in a reputedly wildly tempestuous marriage with Mayo Methot at the time, he had a deep well to draw from for the contempt and fire this role called for.The second special performance, and my favorite, is that of Gladys George as Panama. Panama is as tough and smart as any male club owner, a streetwise pitchwoman who doesn't flinch when the bullets fly. On the other hand, she's got a tender heart and a torch that quietly burns for Cagney despite his shortcomings and infatuations with other women. It is one of my favorite female roles of the '30s - it seemed that kind of nuance was generally reserved for the male lead. She has some real powerhouse moments in this film.So, a 9/10 for me - standard '30s gangster plot buoyed by some special performances.

Returning from WWI, the soldiers found that jobs were scarce. Prohibition was in full bloom. Having nowhere to turn, Eddie (James Cagney) joins with his old buddy Danny (Frank McHugh) in the only work available - bootlegging.After doing all he can with cheap booze, Eddie runs into George (Humphrey Bogart) and starts getting the good stuff.John Deering narrated the film, giving the history of the period as the story progressed. It really gave context to what was happening.Eddie was mad about a young singer played by Priscilla Lane of the Lane sisters. This caused problems as she was in love with another friend, Lloyd (Jeffrey Lynn). The crash of 29 and the end of prohibition changed everything and those on top of the world soon found the bottom.