The Roaring Twenties(1939)

Name: The Roaring Twenties
Director: Raoul Walsh
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Released: Oct 28, 1939
Cast: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Gladys George

Warner Bros.

1h 46m

Release Date: Oct 28, 1939

100%
89%
7.9

Three men attempt to make a living in Prohibitionist America after returning home from fighting together in World War I.

Release Details

Original Release | Oct 28, 1939

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Director & Top Cast

Raoul Walsh
Director

James Cagney
Eddie Bartlett

Humphrey Bogart
George Hally

Priscilla Lane
Jean Sherman

Gladys George
Panama Smith

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Mono

Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Language: English,French

Summaries

Storyline

New Yorkers Eddie Bartlett, George Hally, and slightly younger Lloyd Hart met and became friends, despite they being different personalities, when they fought together in the trenches in France during the Great War. Not knowing what would happen after the war, each believed he would return to the civilian life he left behind, Eddie as a mechanic in hopes of someday owning his own garage, George working in his father's bar again with the hope of someday owning his own, and Lloyd to become a lawyer in he having been a law student. Further, Eddie was hoping to hook up with Jean Sherman, the young woman from Mineola who had been writing to him while he was in France. Things didn't turn out quite the way each had expected, especially for Eddie and George, both in American society not knowing what to do with returning soldiers, and with the onset of Prohibition. And Jean ends up being not quite how she portrayed herself in being much younger than Eddie believed. Eddie is the one who is able to pivot the greatest in he, by chance, falling successfully into the bootlegging business, with the help of people like his pre-war roommate Danny Green, a cabbie, and speakeasy manager Panama Smith, who saw in Eddie a kindred spirit. Despite Eddie not seeing Danny as being fit for a criminal life, Eddie is able to parlay his cabbie job into a taxi business as a front for the bootlegging. He also ends up working with Lloyd, who manages much of Eddie's business and legal dealings, especially with regard to the taxi business, and with George, who he runs into in working the distribution for Eddie's competitor, Nick Brown, and who he convinces to go into business with him instead. The lives of the survivors in this competitive, cutthroat and potentially deadly business is shown over the 1920s, where Eddie, George, and Lloyd may see his own life different than the other two, and as Jean grows into a beautiful young woman, what Eddie had originally seen in the letters and photos she sent to him during the war. — Huggo After the WWI Armistice Lloyd Hart goes back to practice law, former saloon keeper George Hally turns to bootlegging, and out-of-work Eddie Bartlett becomes a cab driver. Eddie builds a fleet of cabs through delivery of bootleg liquor and hires Lloyd as his lawyer. George becomes Eddie's partner and the rackets flourish until love and rivalry interfere. — Ed Stephan In 1919, in the end of the World War I, the G.I. Eddie Bartlett meets George Hally and the student of Law School Lloyd Hart in a trench and sooner the war ends. Back in USA, Eddie is not able to find a job and is sustained by his great friend Danny Green, who offers Eddie to share his cab and make some money working as cab driver. Eddie decides to visit Jean Sherman, who had corresponded with him during the war and is crazy about him, and for his surprise, she is a teenager. In 1920, with the 18th Amendment, the Volstead Act is in force, beginning the period of the unpopular Prohibition. Eddie accidentally meets the owner of a speakeasy Panama Smith, they become close friends and she introduces him in bootlegging of liquor. Eddie becomes rich, meets Jean Sherman again and falls for her. He also raises a profitable partnership with George and Lloyd is hired as his lawyer. In 1924, bootlegging has a grown from individual effort to a big business associated with corruption, violence and murder, and the light machine gun Tommy becomes an important tool in this business. Lloyd and Jean fall in love for each other, and Eddie has a great deception. Later, on 19 October 1929 with the Black Tuesday, Eddie looses all his fortune, and when the Prohibition falls after thirteen years in force, he returns to the activity of cab driver. On the Christmas Eve, when he meets Jean again as a client of his cab, his life is leaded to a tragic end. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil