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James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, George Bancroft ... see more see more... , Billy Halop , Bobby Jordan , Leo Gorcey , Gabriel Dell , Huntz Hall , Bernard Punsly , Edward Pawley , Adrian Morris , Frankie Burke , Marilyn Knowlden , Harris Berger , Sidney Bracey , Eddie Brian , Sonny Bupp , Brian Burke , Lane Chandler , Frank Coghlan Jr. , Joe Cunningham , Steven Darrell , Dead End Kids , Joe Devlin , John Dilson , Joseph Downing , David Durand , Earl Dwire , William Edmunds , James Farley , Mary Gordon , Earl Gunn , Frank S. Hagney , John Hamilton , John Harron , Harry Hayden , Ben Hendricks Jr. , Al Hill , Robert E. Homans , Dan Jesse , Donald Kerr , Vera Lewis , Alexander Lockwood , Vince Lombardi , Wilfred Lucas , Wilbur Mack , Charles Marsh , John Marston , Billy McClain , Roger McGee , Belle Mitchell , Carlyle Moore Jr. , Jack Mower , Pat O'Malley , Oscar O'Shea , Emory Parnell , William Pawley , Jack Perrin , Lee Phelps , Dick Rich , Ralph Sanford , Jeffrey Sayre , George Sorel , James Spottswood , Charles Sullivan , Elliott Sullivan , A.W. Sweatt , George Taylor , William Tracy , Charles Trowbridge , Dick Wessel , Poppy Wilde , Lotta Williams , Charles C. Wilson , Dan Wolheim , William Worthington , Jack C. Smith , Thomas E. Jackson , Ted Offenbecker , Al Lloyd , Dutch Hendrian , Theodore Rand , William Crowell , Galan Galt , Jack Goodrich , Chuck Stubbs , Claude Wisberg , George Offerman

Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) and Jerry Connelly (Pat O'Brien) grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to... read more read more... the needs of his old tenement neighborhood. Rocky becomes a hero to a gang of teenaged boys (played by Dead End Kids Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bobby Jordan and Bernard Punsley). Father Jerry despairs at this, asking Rocky to lay off so he can keep the kids on the straight and narrow. Then Rocky's crooked business associates George Bancroft and Humphrey Bogart attempt to end Father Jerry's radio campaign against the rackets by killing the priest. Rocky (whose cynical outlook on life has been softened by his romance with true-blue Anne Sheridan) shoots them down and takes it on the lam. Arrested and convicted of murder, Rocky sits smugly on death row, fully intending to go to the chair with a smile on his face. A few moments before the execution, Father Jerry pleads with Rocky to "turn yellow" so that the tenement kids will despise his memory. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Unrated, 1 hr. 37 min.

Directed by: Michael Curtiz

Release Date: January 1, 1938

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DVD Release Date: January 25, 2005

Stats: 715 reviews

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Angels with Dirty Faces Pat O'Brien and James Cagney Angels with Dirty Faces Ann Sheridan and James Cagney Angels with Dirty Faces
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Flixster Reviews (715)

  • axadntpron
    March 3, 2012
    axadntpron
    William "Rocky" Sullivan is just a no good kid. Starting off as your average juvenile delinquent, he blossoms into a career criminal. His draw is quick and his name has adorned many a penitentiary charts. His childhood cohort Jerry on the other hand, grows out of his old ways and... read more turns to a life of piety. After his most recent stint in the big house, Rocky has come back to his old haunt. Father Jerry and Rocky share a rich history, but their future appears to be heading in different directions. Rocky is still interested in making some dough, while Jerry is focused on turning around a new generation of delinquents.
    With this story, director Michael Curtiz touches on some serious issues. In a way, Rocky & Father Jerry represent patriarchs of two divergent paths. Both sure know the one that yields more material gain. But as lucrative as it may be, Father Jerry doesn't want the world building their fortunes on rotten foundations. Maybe I am assigning to much meaning to an old gangster picture, but I really feel like there is a good nature vs. nurture argument here. Is there an honorable James Sullivan deep inside? Or was he always destined to be Rocky? Do these kids have it in them to be stand up citizens? Or is it in their blood to be social pariahs?
    After all, this would have been a hot topic in America during this period in history. Juvenile delinquency was on the rise during the 1930's, disrupting a relatively stable American youth culture. This being the depression years, upward mobility wasn't always within reach. But with a life of crime, many felt that the sky was the limit. Criminals were often glorified for taking their piece of the American dream when it was scarcely available. Curtiz deconstructs these criminals in a very fascinating way.
    If these aren't good enough reasons to capture your interests, the bold & somewhat ambiguous ending will surely keep you thinking long after the credits roll.
  • ajv2688
    September 19, 2010
    ajv2688
    This is my one of my favourite gangster movies. It's not the only movie with the story of two boyhood friends who grow up to be enemies, but it's the best of them. Plus, it has a great cast.
  • matertenebraum
    March 1, 2010
    matertenebraum
    Michael Curtiz has made some great films, yet the only one that tends to be well received among film fans is his contender for the best movie ever made - obviously Casablanca (and Robin Hood, to a lesser extent). However, the man has a wealth of other influential classics under h... read moreis belt that don't tend to get the recognition that they deserve, and Angels With Dirty Faces is one of those films. To sum the film up easily, one would say that it is a crime drama. However; like the best crime dramas, this one has multiple themes that elevate it from being merely a film about crime, to being a character study, a portrait of what it is that makes a hero and a condemnation of criminals on the whole. The story follows Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connolly; two young New York thugs, the former of which is caught by the police and sent to a reform school, where, ironically, he learns to be a criminal. The latter escapes punishment and goes on to become a priest. The story follows these two men as they meet up as adults and have an effect on the lives of the kids of their old neighbourhood.

    The focus of the film is always centred on the neighbourhood. This allows Curtiz to show us the effects that Rocky's criminal endeavours have on the kids of the neighbourhood more effectively. This sort of narrative would be employed in later films, such as the critically acclaimed 'City of God', and works well here too. The way the film shows how impressionable young kids can be influenced by adults works brilliantly, and Curtiz is able to continue this theme up until the powerful ending. James Cagney would later go on to achieve major fame in the incredible 'White Heat', but here he shows us what the quintessential New York gangster would be like. His performance, in short, is incredible and easily ranks among the best gangster roles of all time. The rest of the cast do well in their roles, with distinct New York accents helping to firmly place the audience in the city that the film is taking place in. Furthermore, the film is economic in the way it's plotted and it's also very exciting, and therefore guaranteed to delight it's audience.

    Angels With Dirty Faces is an absolute cinema classic and quite why it isn't more famous is anyone's guess. Although not quite as good as Casablanca, this is a major notch in Michael Curtiz's filmography and I wouldn't have any qualms with recommending this to film fans at all.
  • garyX
    February 24, 2010
    garyX
    When two young tearaways are interrupted trying to steal from a railway car, one gets away while the other is caught which leads to a life of crime and infamy as a notorious gangster. Angels With Dirty Faces reunites Cagney and Bogart, each once again playing a charismatic gangst... read moreer and slimy backstabber respectively, and once again they're both fantastic. The central idea of the film is priest Pat O'Brien's "there but for the grace of god go I" attitude, having never given up on his childhood friend but at the same time resenting him for cutting such an attractive figure for the neighbourhood kids who would rather follow his example than take the less glamorous path of the straight and narrow. O'Brien is actually a little dull and wooden compared to the other leading men and as such you can see the attraction but to be honest I would have been happier with the film as a whole if it stayed with Cagney a bit more and we had less of the knockabout sentiment of the Dead End Kids. It definitely gets better and better as it goes though, ending with a fantastic shoot out and a brilliant closing sequence when Cagney finally has one last shot at redemption. Not as good as The Roaring Twenties, but definitely up there.
  • dunmyer
    August 6, 2009
    dunmyer
    I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I'm enjoying the films from 1938 that did NOT receive Best Picture nominations more than those that did. "Angels With Dirty Faces" received several big nominations, e.g. Best Actor (James Cagney, with his first-ever nomination) and Best Directo... read morer (Michael Curtiz, who would direct "Casablanca" a few years later), but there was no Best Picture nomination.

    Lo and behold, I found "Angels" a lot more engaging and unique than all the films that got Best Picture nods, including the winner, "You Can't Take It With You," which I rated a 5 out of 10. Something went terribly wrong with the Academy in 1938.

    "Angels With Dirty Faces" is a crisp, exquisitely edited story about a couple of lower-class boys who go in different directions as they age. One gets involved in serious crime (Cagney), and the other becomes a priest (he is played by a rock-solid actor I've never seen before, Pat O'Brien). That's certainly a hackneyed set-up, but "Angels" plays with this classic idea in unique ways. Cagney's character, named Rocky, has some significant complexity. He is not a crude gangster caricature. Rocky links up with the priest to offer counsel and camaraderie to some of the local juvenile delinquents, but things get messy when it becomes clear that Rocky is not fully reformed.

    When Rocky gets into mortal danger due to conflicts with the local mob (one mobster is played by Humphrey Bogart), his relationship to the boys and to his priest friend, whom Rocky clearly loves, become delicate indeed. This is especially difficult when Rocky gets the boys involved in one of his scams, and the boys have the possibility of getting out of homelessness and destitution for the first time.

    The priest has to make very difficult decisions about where his loyalties lie, how to provide an example to boys, and how much corruption to tolerate in society. Do you rat on a good man who's gotten mixed up with the wrong element? What will the boys think if their beloved hero, Rocky, is taken down? The film doesn't flinch in the end either, refusing to give the story a phony, sappy ending that the studio no doubt was hoping for.

    This isn't the greatest screenplay ever written, but it is more complex and authentic than most. Curtiz keeps a laser-like focus on the story and doesn't waste a shot. He also demonstrates real skill with directing both adults and teenagers. The Academy really had it wrong leaving this off the Best Picture slate, just like they were wrong to leave off "Marie Antoinette."

    Especially galling is the fact that "Angels" and "Marie" didn't even win in any of the smaller categories. Each film went home completely empty-handed. I suppose the Academy is entitled to an off year every now and again, but this strains one's tolerance.
  • 76Majikat
    June 13, 2009
    76Majikat
    Jimmy Cagney suited these roles so well and impressively they managed to pick a young ?Rocky? to look and sound just like him. A story with moralistic value of two young boys, whose lives are split in a moments notice, ultimately deciding each of their fates.

    In my opinion on... read moree of the best ever film endings, which will leave you contemplating the outcome.

    This always has been one of my personal favourites.
  • bottcorecords1
    April 15, 2009
    bottcorecords1
    Angels With Dirty Faces is a story of two innercity boys who take different paths in life, after one is caught stealing. Jerry goes on to live a respectable life, he attends college and becomes a preacher while Rocky spends the next fifteen years in and out of prison. Rocky's f... read moreinal stint is a 3 year sentence, taking the fall for his attorney (Humphrey Bogart), in exchange for $100,000 and a 50/50 partnership in his gangster activity. When he gets out of prison, the partner isn't too anxious to relinquish his dues, and tries to have Rocky bumped off. Meanwhile, the old neighborhood hasn't changed much, and a new gang of kids is running ragged in the streets. Father Jerry is trying to reform them, but it's an uphill struggle when the big gangster hero Rocky moves back into the area. Rocky's way with the kids shows that he isn't so different from his old childhood friend, and that he could've been there right alongside father jerry, had he not been caught so many years ago. It's odd to find poetic symbolism in a 1930s gangster movie, but that just goes to show how top notch the writing was for this movie. Cagney is great, Pat O'Brien is great, and the Dead End kids are like a kiddie 3 stooges (I could swear they're throwing real punches around). It's the interaction of the entire cast that makes this movie so entertaining. What makes this movie unique isn't the message ("Crime Don't Pay" was cliche even by this point), but the questions it raises. When it comes to morality, when it comes to fate, when it comes to justice, where are the lines drawn? And when Jesus won't even throw the first stone, who are we to?
  • sanjurosamurai
    November 9, 2008
    sanjurosamurai
    easily one of the most underrated gangster films ever made. rarely listed amung the classics, this picture see's a young bogart and a young cagney go head to head in a match of criminal thinking. o'brien is very good as the priest, and the dichotomy that is built between his ch... read morearacter and cagneys is powerful. two friends with everything in common go in opposite directions because of a single moment in their lives, and they couldnt have ended up more different. the acting was great and the moral commentary was carried out perfectly. this was a profound story, admitting that although this life is made easier by dishonest living, that still doesnt make it right. bearing many similarities to two other films, white heat and on the waterfront, this will be a film i rewatch every few years.
  • pier007
    October 7, 2008
    pier007
    Phenomenal Cagney, great production code era gangster film, a drama about role models, friendship and moral, beautifully shot.
  • groaningbitch
    June 12, 2008
    groaningbitch
    under the influence of moral code, "angels with dirty face" is helmed by versatile michael curtiz as the sanitized gangster flick without misogynism and abusive malevolence. it's tinted with a light of benevolence while cagney is the admirable mobster with a heart of gold against... read more humprey bogart's crooked lawyer in his 1930s villainy.

    the story is about two juvenile mugs who diverge the paths of their seperate lives after one of them gets caught in the train thievery. of course, cagney would be the incorrigible one(rocky sullivan) who accomplishes his notorious career of crimes, and pat o'brien would be the meek goody-goody priest(father jerry) who always preachs without effects. uncannily the child actor who plays the young rocky resembles cagney well and also his poise while saying "don't be a sucker!"

    to add up some wholesome elements in it, the dead end kids are put into the picture as the conductment for juvenile delinquency, but these adolscent hoodrums are only willing to be bossed around by shrewd cagney. it leaves some dilemma for father jerry who is eager to rescue the kids from rocky's bad influence, later jerry even askes rocky to annihilate the ultimate pride of his mobster prestige by faking cowardice in the gas chamber to reform the dead end kids.

    the moralistic inference is what hinders the pleasure of "angels with dirty faces" despite you could still watch cagney swear like a machine gun and kicks around like a walking phallis, but the lack of brass could be a spoiler even the flick still remains dynamic with cagney's untamed machismo. ann sheridan as rocky's love interest is like another decorative vase there to enhance the lead then nothing more.

    but the gas chamber scene is handled with top-notch suspense where you witness the trembling shadow of a struggling man, and the intensity of violence is rendered wondrously without graphic gore. you may inquire whether rocky frightens at last or he just performs an altruistic act to salvage the kids. come what may, the stance of father jerry is like a judgemental bourgeois who wishes to deprive the gangster of everything he possesses, even his last bit of pride, to serve the pretentiously righteous social course. this is the hegemonic comprimose forced by the moral code, expressed soundly in "angels with dirty faces".

View All Angels with Dirty Faces Reviews

Critic Reviews

Phil Villarreal
April 21, 2006
Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star

Although the movie trades heavily on gang-film staples, there's also ample comedy packed into the mix. Full Review

Mark Bourne
April 7, 2006
Mark Bourne, DVDJournal.com

the way Angels With Dirty Faces balances hard-bitten gangster drama with warmly stage-managed religiosity gives us an entertaining period piece, one which shows that after more than sixty years you st... Full Review

Emanuel Levy
July 17, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

James Cagney is in top form as a gangster with with redeeming qualities in this well-directed, Oscar nominated picture from Michael Curtiz, who scored in 1938 two Oscar nods; Bogart and Raft are also ... Full Review

Pablo Villaca
July 13, 2005
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena

Envolvente do início ao fim (num desfecho, diga-se de passagem, poderosamente dramático), o filme traz Cagney em uma de suas atuações mais intensas e inspiradas.

John J. Puccio
February 13, 2005
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis

...most of all, it's Cagney: At the top of his game, the bad guy we have to love. He makes it all happen. Full Review

Forrest Hartman
February 7, 2005
Forrest Hartman, Reno Gazette-Journal

An archetype of 1930s and '40s gangster films. The plotting and melodramatic storytelling are stilted by today's standards, but classic movie lovers enjoy that.

Jeremiah Kipp
February 2, 2005
Jeremiah Kipp, Slant Magazine

Angels With Dirty Faces benefits from the Production Code because it forces the gangster film to acknowledge its nihilism. Full Review

Christopher Null
January 29, 2005
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com

Sometimes fierce Full Review

Steve Crum
October 23, 2004
Steve Crum, Kansas City Kansan

Wonderful morality story; one of Cagney's most memorable

Scott Weinberg
July 25, 2002
Scott Weinberg, eFilmCritic.com

If you're looking to study the gangster classics, I know a good place you can start.

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Angels with Dirty Faces Trivia

  • Which actor/actress starred in these films: The Front Page, Air Mail & Angels with Dirty Faces?   Answer »
  • In "Angels With Dirty Faces," who played the executed criminal?  Answer »
  • Name the James Cagney Film these lines are taken from Soapy: Hey! Call a fair game or I'll slap you right in the kisser! Rocky Sullivan: You'll slap me? You slap me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.   Answer »
  • What is the original movie with the line keep the change you filthy animal and im not talking Home Alone.?  Answer »
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