The Roaring Twenties

High Contrast Cinema open their Bogart season with The Roaring Twenties, Raoul Walsh’s hard‑hitting 1939 crime drama starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane and Humphrey Bogart. Charting the rise and fall of bootlegger Eddie Bartlett, the film blends muscular action with sharp social commentary, capturing the desperation, swagger and volatility of Prohibition‑era America.

A standout entry in Warner Bros’ gangster cycle, the film was praised for its pace and grit and for Cagney’s powerhouse performance, with Bogart delivering a memorably cold turn as rival mobster George Hally. Eight decades on, its blend of moral ambiguity, crackling dialogue and explosive set‑pieces remains riveting.

The Roaring Twenties is rated PG for moderate violence and threat.