Raoul Walsh: The Roaring Twenties

Director: Raoul Walsh
Writers: Jerry Wald & Richard Macaulay

Cast Character
James Cagney Eddie Bartlett
Priscilla Lane Jean Sherman
Humphrey Bogart George Hally
Gladys George Panama Smith
Jeffrey Lynn Lloyd Hart
The Roaring Twenties begins in World War I in the trenches during 1918. Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) and George Hally (Bogart) are comrades. George calls Lloyd scared of the gunfire behind enemy lines but Eddie defends him saying they are using real guns not water pistols. At the base they receive letters from home. George is angry he gets a picture from an ugly girl and Eddie is happy he gets one from an attractive girl. They talk about what they will do after the war. George says he will be in the saloon business but prohibition will set in next year. Eddie wants to go back into the taxi cab business. After the armistice America focuses on the length of women's skirts, their short hair, the cost of living and prohibition.

Eddie tries to get his old job back at the cab place to no luck. No one after the war can get a job and employers don't care that they served in the war. To take his mind off this stress he visits Jean Sherman - a woman who wrote him letters in the war. He meets her and unfortunately she is only in high school which makes Lloyd laugh. When the Volstead Act takes place speakeasies spring up to fight prohibition. Now a cab driver Eddie is asked to deliver a package to a bar and is arrested not knowing that it is alcohol which he has. The woman Panama Smith is acquitted but Eddie is charged and sentenced to 60 days in jail. Panama says thanks and dismisses him. His friend Lloyd represents him but loses the case. Danny, his roommate, bails him out and Panama pays the fine.

She takes him to a speakeasy behind a store. The cops come in and out and cause no problems because of the bribes. She offers him work and he begins smuggling alcohol. Eddie starts making gin in his bathtub to avoid being fleeced. Problems arise when supply cannot meet demand. Eddie makes enough money to launder into his cab business. He hires two ex-cons and not the other guy in the group who was in jail because he says he was framed. He funnily only wants dishonest criminals who fit the job description and have pride in their work. He goes to collect money from a theater director and notices Jean Sherman. Now older and wiser she tries to avoid him. After some coaxing he takes a ride with her and walks her home not pushing his luck.

He introduces Jean to a bar owner so she has a job where she can sing at. She auditions and the two aren't wowed. With some convincing he gets her the job paying the difference in her salary to make her feel special. He shows her his bootlegging operation and the way they fake certain alcohols driving the price up. Jean sings show-tunes at the bar Eddie is at and he is enamored. He gives her some jewelry but she is dumbfounded. Eddie is afraid she doesn't want to be too serious because of the line of work he is in.

Later Eddie gets a ship pretending to be a coastguard while he tries to pirate a ship with alcohol. He comes in contact with is old friend George Hally. He robs George's ship but thankfully it isn't George's booze. George warns Eddie of Nick Brown who the booze belongs to. George says he knows the suppliers and because Eddie knows how to peddle it they should join. Eddie gladly accepts. As bootlegging increases so does crime and violence inevitably. Along with this the invention of the tommy-gun brings the era of drive by shootings.

George and Eddie head to the suppliers knocking out the guards on the way. They load the trucks with booze and the night watchman takes over the shift. George knocks him down realizing it was is old sergeant who mistreated them. George kills him. Back at the bar Lloyd and Panama talk and she sees he notices Jean who he likes. At the club George tells Eddie that Lloyd is going to move in on his girl. Lloyd and Eddie listen to the radio in Jean's room and they hear the news report of the liquor storage facility being robbed. Lloyd asks about Pete Jones on the radio who was killed. He was their sergeant and Lloyd doesn't like all this heat on them. After an attempted assassination on Eddie they knock the guy out and throw him out the club.

Eddie and his crew open a new spot called the Panama Club. George tells one of the henchmen he is tired of being a stooge. Jean says to Lloyd she will tell Eddie about their relationship. Danny, Eddie's roommate, is killed and is left with a note hinting that the man he robbed, Nick Brown, was behind it. Tired of being lackey George warns Nick Brown that Eddie is going to pay him a visit. In the restaurant the nervous customers give away the setup and a following shootout ensues. Nick Brown dies. Upon returning home Eddie warns George if he finds out he was in on it he will kill him. Panama tells Eddie that Jean has been having an affair with Lloyd. Jean quits the place. Once he sees the two on the street he hits Lloyd then leaves them alone accepting his loss.

The stock market crash follows. Eddie's business suffers and needs money to save his company so George plays hardball and buys his taxi company for $250,000. Businesses close and people lose everything. Roosevelt is elected ending prohibition. Eddie goes back to being a cab driver and picks up Jean who notices him. He is not interested in her stories about Lloyd and their child after losing everything. Two men later come to Jean's home threatening her about Lloyd's investigation. Knowing that George is behind it she rushes to Eddie to try to fix it. She finds him at the Panama Club and pleads with him. Eddie finally considers.

Spoilers

Eddie visits George and pleads him not to kill Lloyd as he and Jean have a kid. George says he would be doing Eddie a favor with all that Jean has put him through and says no. He says his associates will accompany him home permanently. Eddie turns the table and kills George. Running out Eddie is shot. He stumbles and dies on the steps of the church. He dies in the way he wanted the least ... humbly.