Richard Macaulay

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The Roaring Twenties Review

By Christopher Null

Very Good

A gangster flick of the bootlegging/Prohibition ilk, this complicated tale starts in the trenches of World War I with stars Cagney and Bogart fighting the good fight, then finding nothing waiting for them when they return home. They turn to crime, with mixed success. A love story feels a bit tacked on, but ultimately the film is most notable for being the last film of the 1930s gangster era, a genre which wouldn't be revived again for close to a decade.

They Drive By Night Review

By Christopher Null

Good

Humphrey Bogart plays the lesser of two truck-driving brothers who get caught up in a murder plot courtesy of screaming starlet Ida Lupino, who caught a huge break with this film. The story is classic melodrama, with screwy dames, inquisitive coppers, and a screaming courtroom breakdown ("The doors made me do it!"). Amusing in the end but hardly a classic.