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The Roaring Twenties Overview:

The Roaring Twenties (1939) was a Crime - Drama Film directed by Raoul Walsh and produced by Hal B. Wallis and Samuel Bischoff.

The Roaring Twenties BlogHub Articles:

The Roaring Twenties (1939): I'm an Absorber, Not an Observer

By FlickChick on Jan 17, 2022 From A Person in the Dark

This is my entry in CineMaven's Essays From the Couch For the Umpteenth Blogathon. You know, movies you've seen so many times every word, look and outcome is carved in your heart? Click HERE for more cinematic obsessions by people like us... you know, movie nuts.The Roaring Twenties (1939)There are ... Read full article

Silents Are Golden: Flapper Culture in the Films of the Roaring Twenties

By Lea Stans on Apr 7, 2019 From Classic Movie Hub Blog

Silents Are Golden: Flapper Culture in the Films of the Roaring Twenties Having written about the famed flapper actress Colleen Moore in the past, I thought it’d be fun to examine 1920s screen flappers and the role cinema played in popular culture at the time. Hope you enjoy! Of all the cult... Read full article

Watching 1939: The Roaring Twenties

on May 3, 2018 From Comet Over Hollywood

In 2011, I announced I was trying to see every film released in 1939. This new series chronicles films released in 1939 as I watch them. As we start out this blog feature, this section may become more concrete as I search for a common thread that runs throughout each film of the year. Right now, th... Read full article

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 24, 2014 From 4 Star Films

... Read full article

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 24, 2014 From 4 Star Films

... Read full article

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The Roaring Twenties Quotes:

George Halley: [while running across the battlefield ablaze with an artillery barrage in progress, Eddie has just dived into a gaping shell hole for cover. He practically lands on top of another soldier who is already in the crater] Now, do you always come into a rat hole like that?
Eddie Bartlett: What do you want me to do, knock?
George Halley: [In the shell hole, battle raging overhead] What's a matta' kid? Ya' scared?
Lloyd Hart: Yes I am.
George Halley: [Chuckles unsympathetically] No heart, huh?
Lloyd Hart: I'm beginning to think so. At least I haven't got any heart for this. I thought this business would be over with before I got here.
George Halley: What, are you a college kid?
Lloyd Hart: I just finished law school.
Eddie Bartlett: Oh, a lawyer, huh? Can you think of anything that can get us out of this hole?
George Halley: Aw, he wouldn't if he could. He's one of them guys that cheer the loudest back home, and then when they get over here and the goin' gets tough they fold up.
Eddie Bartlett: [Annoyed] Shut up...
George Halley: I'm talkin' to him...
Eddie Bartlett: [Talking to George] And I'm talkin' to YOU. I don't like heels or big mouths. We're all scared, and why shouldn't we be? Whaddya' think they're usin' in this war, water pistols?
Eddie Bartlett: [Talking to Lloyd] You're all right, kid. I like guys who are honest with themselves. Stay that way.
Eddie Bartlett: [the shelling around them has died down] Come on. Looks like it's quieted down.
[the three men make their way out of the shell hole]
George Halley: [Yet another soldier has dived into the shell hole for cover] There's ten thousand shell holes around here and everybody's gotta' come divin' into this one.
George Halley: [In the shell hole: Eddie offers a cigarette to George. He in turn takes it, and then picks out bugs that apparently infest everything] Ah, look at that. Them cooties are gettin' desperate: they're feedin' off tobacco.
Eddie Bartlett: How much can a cootie smoke?
Panama Smith: I'm sick of watching you try to put out that torch you carry for her with a lot of cheap hooch. Who does the kid look like?
Eddie Bartlett: Like her.
Panama Smith: And they got a nice house.
Eddie Bartlett: Yeah, it's a nice house if you like that kind of a house, but for me, uh, I'll take a hotel anytime. You know that.
Panama Smith: Me too. Ain't it funny how our tastes have always run the same? Ever since the first time we met. I can just picture you living in the suburbs, working in a garden, raising flowers and kids. Wouldn't that be a laugh.
Eddie Bartlett: Yeah, wouldn't I look cute?
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The Roaring Twenties Facts
Eddie Bartlett refers a couple of times to a "gilpin". This is a slang term for a stupid or gullible person, mostly known from the 1930s rather than 1919 when Eddie first uses it in the film.
James Cagney's character is introduced while the soundtrack is playing the song "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" - the same song that is playing at the end of his star-making film, The Public Enemy (made eight years earlier and also set in the 1920s), when his corpse is delivered to his family's home.
A montage features a shot of gangsters bombing a storefront. This shot is actually an alternate angle of the bombing of a store in The Public Enemy, and the same shot is notably also used in a similar montage for Angels with Dirty Faces.
The final line of the movie spoken by the character, Panama Smith (Gladys George) has been ranked by AFI and others as the #1 last line of a gangster movie.In response to a police officer's query, "What was his business", Panama answers as she holds Eddie (James Cagney) on the stairs of the church,"He used to be a big shot."
The character of Panama Smith was partially based on actress and nightclub hostess Texas Guinan.
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