# The Roaring Twenties
**The Roaring Twenties** is a 1939 American crime drama directed by Raoul Walsh for Warner Bros., in which three friends who served together in World War I return home and are drawn into bootlegging during [Prohibition](https://www.edgepedia.org/prohibition), with [James Cagney](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-cagney) as the bootlegger Eddie Bartlett and [Humphrey Bogart](https://www.edgepedia.org/humphrey-bogart) as his partner George Hally.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/29030-the-roaring-twenties) Based on a story by the New York journalist Mark Hellinger, the film brought to a close the Warner Bros. gangster cycle of the 1930s and is regarded as one of the most influential crime films of its era.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/29030-the-roaring-twenties)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | October 28, 1939 (AFI catalog date); Warner Bros. Pictures[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4176-THE-ROARING-TWENTIES) |
| Director | Raoul Walsh, in his directorial debut at Warners[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4176-THE-ROARING-TWENTIES) |
| Story and screenplay | Original story "The World Moves On" by Mark Hellinger; screenplay by Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay, and Robert Rossen[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/29030-the-roaring-twenties) |
| Principal cast | James Cagney (Eddie Bartlett), Priscilla Lane (Jean Sherman), Humphrey Bogart (George Hally), Gladys George (Panama Smith), Jeffrey Lynn (Lloyd Hart)[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/29030-the-roaring-twenties) |
| Runtime and format | Black and white, 1.37:1; reported as 104 or 106 minutes in the AFI catalog, 106 minutes by Criterion[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4176-THE-ROARING-TWENTIES) • [1](https://www.criterion.com/films/29030-the-roaring-twenties) |
| Historical span | The story runs from near the end of World War I in 1918 to 1933, after the repeal of Prohibition[3](https://riull.ull.es/xmlui/bitstream/915/1269/1/The%2B1920s%2Bin%2Bthe%2BUnited%2BStates%2BAn%2BAccount%2Bof%2Bthe%2BFilmic%2BRepresentation..pdf) |
| Recognition | National Board of Review "ten best" list of 1939; 100% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes (19 reviews)[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4176-THE-ROARING-TWENTIES) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/roaring_twenties) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The film opens in France as the [Armistice](https://www.edgepedia.org/armistice) is signed, where three American soldiers speculate about their futures: Eddie Bartlett expects his old job as a garage mechanic, the saloon keeper George Hally is untroubled by the newly enacted Prohibition, and the law graduate Lloyd Hart plans to practice law.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4176-THE-ROARING-TWENTIES) Back in the United States, Lloyd becomes a lawyer, but Eddie can find work only as a cab driver and falls into bootlegging, building a fleet of cabs through deliveries of illegal liquor and hiring Lloyd as his lawyer.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/roaring_twenties) • [5](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-roaring-twenties) George becomes Eddie's partner, and the rackets flourish until love and rivalry interfere: Eddie loves Jean Sherman, who is Lloyd's girlfriend, and the stock market crash destroys the partners' operation and turns the old friends against each other.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/roaring_twenties) Eddie rises from opportunistic bootlegger to racketeer during Prohibition, and the story ends badly, with Eddie killed protecting the woman he loves from his old criminal partners.[6](https://www.netflix.com/title/70019636) • [7](https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/80895/1/WRAP_THESIS_Callaghan_2016.pdf)
The film closes with Cagney's anti-hero dying in the snow on church steps, and with a closing narration released in the autumn of 1939 that warns: "It may come to pass that, at some distant date, we will be confronted with another period similar to the one depicted in this photoplay. If that happens, I pray that the events, as dramatized here, will be remembered."[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-films-set-roaring-20s)
## Production
Mark Hellinger, a widely syndicated New York journalist newly hired by Warner Bros. as a writer and producer, wrote the original story from his own experiences as a newspaper reporter in the 1920s.[9](https://www.cineaste.com/summer2024/the-roaring-twenties) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4176-THE-ROARING-TWENTIES) The working title was The World Moves On, the name of Hellinger's story.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4176-THE-ROARING-TWENTIES) According to a Hollywood Reporter news item cited by the AFI catalog, 40 former bootleggers applied for the job of technical director on the film; the one chosen declined screen credit.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4176-THE-ROARING-TWENTIES)
[Raoul Walsh](https://www.edgepedia.org/raoul-walsh) was thrust into the director's role at the last minute, replacing Anatole Litvak, and the picture marked his directorial debut at Warners.[10](https://www.tcm.com/articles/29878/the-roaring-twenties) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4176-THE-ROARING-TWENTIES) Walsh had been making films since the silent era, and the project rejuvenated his career, helping establish his reputation as one of the signature action filmmakers of midcentury Hollywood.[11](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8397-the-roaring-twenties-into-the-past) He welcomed last-minute invention by the cast; in one improvised moment, Cagney fells two unfriendly mechanics with a single well-aimed punch.[9](https://www.cineaste.com/summer2024/the-roaring-twenties) Gladys George inherited the part of Panama Smith, a character modeled on the nightclub hostess Texas Guinan, from [Ann Sheridan](https://www.edgepedia.org/ann-sheridan).[10](https://www.tcm.com/articles/29878/the-roaring-twenties)
## Themes and style
A series of fake newsreel montages, with Expressionist touches, mark the passage of time from the end of World War I to Prohibition to the [Great Depression](https://www.edgepedia.org/great-depression), giving parts of the picture a quasi-documentary feel.[12](https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/the-roaring-twenties-joins-the-criterion-collection) • [9](https://www.cineaste.com/summer2024/the-roaring-twenties) The film explicitly blames the ills of the 1920s on the fallout of the First World War, and it treats crime as a business shaped by social conditions rather than by individual wickedness alone.[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-films-set-roaring-20s) • [13](https://assets.cengage.com/gale/psm/2056000C.pdf) One scholar of Prohibition in the movies, Nicholas O. Warner, describes it as essentially a morality tale whose lesson concerns the disastrous effects of well-intentioned but ill-conceived efforts to legislate morality through the control of drinking.[14](https://teaching.shu.ac.uk/ds/sle/Dionysos%20OCR/Dionysos_Vol%202_No%202_.pdf)
The three leads carry contrasting moral positions: George is a callous sociopath, Lloyd an educated idealist, and Eddie fundamentally decent but susceptible to opportunism and temptation.[9](https://www.cineaste.com/summer2024/the-roaring-twenties) Unlike the earlier gangster films built around figures such as [Al Capone](https://www.edgepedia.org/al-capone), the film places its gangsters in a broader historical context, presenting itself as an epic historical account of the Prohibition era with explicit causes and effects behind the gangster's story.[7](https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/80895/1/WRAP_THESIS_Callaghan_2016.pdf)
## Place in film history
The Roaring Twenties closed out the Warner Bros. gangster cycle of the 1930s, a run Walsh had helped inaugurate with his 1915 silent film [Regeneration](https://www.edgepedia.org/regeneration-1915-film) and that included Cagney's defining turn in [The Public Enemy](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-public-enemy) (1931).[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/29030-the-roaring-twenties) • [11](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8397-the-roaring-twenties-into-the-past) It was also the last in Cagney's series of gangster roles that began with The Public Enemy; his 1940s roles turned toward song-and-dance pictures such as [Yankee Doodle Dandy](https://www.edgepedia.org/yankee-doodle-dandy) (1942).[15](https://criticalpopcorn.com/2024/03/11/the-roaring-twenties-blu-ray-review-dir-raoul-walsh-criterion-collection/) • [10](https://www.tcm.com/articles/29878/the-roaring-twenties) Cagney and Bogart made three films together, the others being Angels With Dirty Faces and The Oklahoma Kid, both released in 1939.[10](https://www.tcm.com/articles/29878/the-roaring-twenties)
Released in 1939, a year often considered the high-water mark of classic Hollywood, the film takes an action template and elevates it to the status of myth, in the company of [Stagecoach](https://www.edgepedia.org/stagecoach) and [Gunga Din](https://www.edgepedia.org/gunga-din).[11](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8397-the-roaring-twenties-into-the-past) The film's influence on later crime cinema is broad: later works, including those of the professed admirer Martin Scorsese, reflect its documentary-style montage that compresses history, its tragic gangster portrayed with sympathy, and its mournful arc stretching across decades; meanwhile, its central duo helped advance Bogart toward the fame he would attain in the next decade.[11](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8397-the-roaring-twenties-into-the-past) • [16](https://sightlines.media/film/37698/the-roaring-twenties-1939) The Warwick thesis on Prohibition on screen calls the HBO series [Boardwalk Empire](https://www.edgepedia.org/boardwalk-empire) a direct descendant of the film, positioning itself as an origin story of American organized crime.[7](https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/80895/1/WRAP_THESIS_Callaghan_2016.pdf)
## Reception and home video
Contemporary audiences received the film as a strong entry in Warner's crime output and a showcase for Cagney, and its standing as a commercial and popular success of 1939 is well attested.[16](https://sightlines.media/film/37698/the-roaring-twenties-1939) It appeared on the [National Board of Review](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-board-of-review)'s "ten best" list for 1939.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4176-THE-ROARING-TWENTIES) On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 100% Tomatometer from 19 reviews and an 89% audience score from more than 5,000 ratings; Metacritic reports a Metascore of 80, with 13 positive and 2 mixed reviews and none negative.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/roaring_twenties) • [17](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-roaring-twenties/critic-reviews/) Critics have singled out the hard-boiled performances and a closing line regarded as one of the standout last lines in movie history.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/roaring_twenties)
In February 2024 the Criterion Collection issued the film on 4K UHD and Blu-ray as spine number 1208, with a new 4K digital restoration, an audio commentary by the film historian Lincoln Hurst, an interview with the critic Gary Giddins, and an excerpt from a 1973 television interview with Walsh.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/29030-the-roaring-twenties)
## References
1. [The Roaring Twenties, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/29030-the-roaring-twenties)
2. [The Roaring Twenties (1939), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4176-THE-ROARING-TWENTIES)
3. [The 1920s in the United States: An Account of the Filmic Representation (thesis, University of La Laguna)](https://riull.ull.es/xmlui/bitstream/915/1269/1/The%2B1920s%2Bin%2Bthe%2BUnited%2BStates%2BAn%2BAccount%2Bof%2Bthe%2BFilmic%2BRepresentation..pdf)
4. [The Roaring Twenties, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/roaring_twenties)
5. [The Roaring Twenties streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-roaring-twenties)
6. [The Roaring Twenties, Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/title/70019636)
7. [Prohibition-era gangster narrative thesis, WRAP (University of Warwick)](https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/80895/1/WRAP_THESIS_Callaghan_2016.pdf)
8. [10 great films set in the roaring 20s, British Film Institute](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-films-set-roaring-20s)
9. [The Roaring Twenties (Web Exclusive), Cineaste Magazine](https://www.cineaste.com/summer2024/the-roaring-twenties)
10. [The Roaring Twenties, Turner Classic Movies article](https://www.tcm.com/articles/29878/the-roaring-twenties)
11. [The Roaring Twenties: Into the Past, by Mark Asch, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8397-the-roaring-twenties-into-the-past)
12. [The Roaring Twenties Joins the Criterion Collection, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/the-roaring-twenties-joins-the-criterion-collection)
13. [The Wisconsin/Warner Bros. Screenplay Series (Gale)](https://assets.cengage.com/gale/psm/2056000C.pdf)
14. [Prohibition in the Movies: A Film Review of The Roaring Twenties, by Nicholas O. Warner, Dionysos](https://teaching.shu.ac.uk/ds/sle/Dionysos%20OCR/Dionysos_Vol%202_No%202_.pdf)
15. [The Roaring Twenties Blu-ray review, Critical Popcorn](https://criticalpopcorn.com/2024/03/11/the-roaring-twenties-blu-ray-review-dir-raoul-walsh-criterion-collection/)
16. [The Roaring Twenties (1939): analysis, influences and similar films, Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/37698/the-roaring-twenties-1939)
17. [The Roaring Twenties critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-roaring-twenties/critic-reviews/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1920s–1940s films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license