The Doorway To Hell

Doorway to Hell (1930)

Runtime: 78 minutes

Directed by: Archie Mayo

Starring: Lew Ayres, James Cagney, Dorothy Matthews, Leon Janney

From: Warner Brothers

I was thinking about seeing more than one film today but I just had time for this one, a movie that is pretty much forgotten about now and I explain why I picked it out. I explain the plot in the Letterboxd description so onto that.

Nevermind how I can find such obscure titles such as this and others I've reviewed for the site, except that I have my ways... I picked it out as it was only the second film James Cagney ever did, it was his first as a gangster (even before The Public Enemy) and hey, it has a pretty cool title.

This tale is about how gangster Louie (Lew Ayres, who looks like Kyle MacLachlan) tries to run all the gang territories of Chicago with his second in command, the greatly named Mileaway (Cagney), and he does so while wishing he was Napoleon. Not to spoil anything but there are several allusions to Mr. Bonaparte throughout the picture, whether they're obvious or more subtle. He then quickly decides to leave the game in order to marry a dame, but of course things go awry. Louie's little brother in a military academy also factor into things, and there are some melodramatic moments.

This movie is fine; not awesome but it's still fine. You have some expected “tough guy” dialogue that's a trademark of the genre (not to mention such things as shootouts), there's some nice cinematography and there were some nicely-done moments. While it does drag at times even with its 78 minute runtime, While the acting was nice overall, I'd say that Cagney was the highlight of the picture.

Overall the movie isn't as grand as the classic gangster hits of the 1930's but then again this was one of the first non-silent ones in the genre Hollywood did and others improved upon this film and made sure to make the violence more explicit, among other things.

I'll return tomorrow night.