Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)

USA 97m, B&W
Director: Michael Curtiz; Cast: James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, George Bancroft

Angels with Dirty faces is a morality tale about two lifelong friends whose decisions and circumstances lead to very different outcomes: one becomes “Rocky” a notorious gangster, while the other becomes “Father Jerry” who dedicates his life to serving God and working with the street kids of his old neighborhood.  Not surprisingly, the young local hoodlums of the day are more impressed with the celebrated gangster life of Rocky, who is convincingly played by Cagney. In the end, however, justice prevails and Rocky is persuaded by his old pal to make a final selfless and dramatic act on his way to the electric chair (Klaus Ming October 2009).