In their widely ballyhooed "Angels With Dirty Faces" Warner Brothers have cut through to the very core of things and emerged with one of those fundamental truths that can mould the future of the world: "Crime does not pay!" Unfortunately, the same will be found true of this picture.
The story simply pulsates with social significance. James Cagney and Pat O'Brien start out as slum kids. After they have been caught pilfering a freight car, Mr. Cagney saves Mr. O'Brien's life by yanking him out of the way of a locomotive. This is really a pity, since one grows into a reforming priest, the other a big shot gangster. Their paths cross years later, and you know the rest as well as Warner Brothers.
Unimaginative directing by Michael Curtis doesn't do much to redeem the triteness of this theme. And when Mr. Cagney turns out to have a heart of gold the picture degenerates into another blurb about the nobility of gangsters. "Down on the Farm," a Jones Family feature which concerns corn, both of the cob and jug variety, is naive but rather amusing.
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