User Reviews

Though he drops a couple of notches in the screen credits from his first picture, "Sinners' Holiday", James Cagney still dazzles as a top mobster's second in command and hones the skills that will find him topping the bill for 1931's "The Public Enemy". Funny how Cagney's smart aleck attitude and mannerisms got him stereotyped as a gangster right out of the block, and he made it seem all so natural.

As for the story, Warner Brothers takes yet another stab at the menace to society theme with it's take on mob violence and competition between rival gangs. This was my first look at Lew Ayres, who heads the cast as crime boss Louie Ricarno. In an opening scene, he's out to 'teach a guy a lesson' for being a rat, and from there he sees an opportunity to bring all the local big shots together under his own umbrella. Though generally effective in the role, I did find it somewhat humorous when Ayres went into that surly pensive mood from time to time throughout the story. I also got a kick out of the scene in which Ricarno fancies himself as big a man as Napoleon, and Cagney does a mock impersonation of the dictator to the amusement of Louie's girl Doris (Dorothy Matthews).

With the back drop of Louie going straight and retiring to Miami with his new wife, the film throws a minor curve with the autobiography he's writing. I thought for sure that police captain Pat Grady (Robert Elliott - O'Grady in the credits) had it right when he offered the suggestion - "Don't write the last chapter till the night you go to the chair". Instead, knowing that there's no safe way out of the flop house he's holed up in, Louie gussies himself up for a 'handful of cloud'. The finale is effective for Warners' purposes, the fade out hones in on the rewritten last page of the Louie Ricarno story, the 'doorway to hell' swings only one way.

Keep a sharp eye and you'll catch a typo in the gangland slaughter headline of the newspaper Louie reads in the boarding house - it reads 'grewsome' for 'gruesome'.

For an early talking picture, I found the film to be fairly well written and acted, most of that contribution coming from the main principals, Ayres and Cagney. I would like to have seen a better resolution of the Ricarno/Mileaway relationship, particularly since Cagney's character just disappears after his 'confession', and even more so because of his heavily implicated fling with Ricarno's wife - very risqué stuff for the 1930's. The scene in the cab when she removes her ring probably brought a few gasps to audiences of the time, don't you think?

(There are Spoilers) Rarely seen and almost forgotten early gangster film that in fact was the first of the great crime motion pictures of the early 1930's, released before the big three "Little Caesar" "Public Enemy" and "Scarface", that put the "organize" into "organized crime".

Getting to the top of the heap of the Chicago Crime Syndicate through murder blackmail and payoffs, to the police politicians and judges,Louie Ricarno decides to get all the city's bootleg gangs united into one big operation with him of course in charge. Hesitant at first the leaders of the crime gangs soon see the genius of Ricarno's master plan in that they now can runs their illegal business's without the fear of being rubbed out by each other.

Feeling that there's nothing left for him to conquer, in the world of crime, Louie decides to retire, at the ripe old age of 22,and move to his estate in Forida to live out his life in peace and quite, with his new wife Doris, spending his time playing golf and writing his autobiography. There's also the fact that Louie's kid brother 12 year-old Jackie had been enrolled in the prestigious Fairfield Military Academy. Louie doesn't what Jackie to have anything to do with the kind of persons, gangsters, that he dealt with all his life.

It turns out that without Louie in charge the organization that he founded started to fall apart. In no time at all the gangs start to go a each other in an all out gang war ending up in danger of destroying themselves. Wanting to get Louie out of retirement and thus, with him back in charge, save what's still left of the organization two of his former colleagues the Midget and his partner in crime Gimpy try to kidnap little Jackie. The two hoods plan to hold him hostage in order to get Louis back in line. The blotched kidnap attempt only has the kid, in his trying to escape, get himself run down and killed in a tragic traffic accident.

With the news of Jackie's death Louie get's back to work as a crime chief and in no time at all blood is split on the streets of Chicago. Louie has his hoods gun Gimpy down and leave his body on the gutter as a warning to the now terrified Midget. That was to show the Midget just what's in store for him or anyone else who messes with either the "Great Louie Ricarno",the self proclaimed "Napoleon of Crime", or those like Little Jackie that he loves and cares about. While Louie is fixated on getting the Midget who's anything but, he stands at 5 foot ten inches and weighs about 280 pounds, his right hand man Steve Mileaway is playing around with Louie's wife Doris behind his back.

Eventually having the Midget iced, off camera, Louie becomes the prime suspect in his murder. With Louie being in the clear by providing an air-tight alibi for himself, in The Midget's untimely demise the police headed by the slow talking and barley awake, he looked like that at any moment he'll keel over and fall on his head, Captain Pat O'Grady need someone close to him to finger Louie in The Midget's murder. It's there where the double-crossing and scared of his, Louie's, shadow Steve Mileaway steps in.

Capt. O'Grady set Louie up in an elaborate plan, with the help of Louie's "good friend" Mileaway,that has him face and receive ultimate justice not from the police D.A or FBI but from his own kind the mob itself! A street-like Justice that he in fact meted out so many times to others is now what Louie Ricarno is to receive himself!

This is a very early talkie gangster film. Because it was made only a few years after talking pictures debuted, it suffers from a few defects that were related to the technology--such as an over-reliance on long shots--making the film look a bit "stagy". Additionally, background and incidental music in the film is noticeably absent. You really can't blame the filmmakers, as the technology was new and they still had to work out a few kinks, but it does make the film seem pretty dated and creaky. It wasn't until a year later that these two problems were pretty much eliminated in American films and even better gangster films like PUBLIC ENEMY and LITTLE CAESAR debuted.

The story itself is very interesting due to its cast. Lew Ayres, who had just made a name for himself in ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, stars as a "nice" and "respectable" mob leader. Only late in the film do we see him unleash a wave of extreme violence. This is actually rather ironic considering that in real life, Ayres was strongly opposed to violence and when drafted in WWII, served as a medic because he was so morally opposed to taking lives! Also, this was only the second film for Jimmy Cagney. Since he wasn't an established star, it's not surprising he plays a supporting role though he already was being cast as a mobster in films.

The movie is in some ways a very typical Warner Brothers gangster film, though with one exception. Mob boss Ayres is a supposedly smart man and retires from the mob when he's still very young and able to enjoy the spoils of his work. But, when the gangs start fighting among themselves, he is reluctantly pulled back into the picture--leading to a rather dramatic conclusion. Interestingly, although the movie was pretty violent in spots and probably featured more gunfire than any film of the 30s, some of the key violent scenes are not seen but are only heard. An interesting idea no doubt spurred on by the new sound technology.

Warner Brothers and producer Darryl F. Zanuck cast James Cagney in his second film role; a Lew Ayres vehicle directed by the legendary Archie Mayo. Ayres plays Louie Ricarno a smart young wise guy that organizes the multiple gangs of Chicago. The beer barons honoring each others territory and things running smoothly, Louie decides to put the gangster life behind him and marry a moll named Doris(Dorothy Mathews)and retire to Florida. The new bride begins missing the former lifestyle and her boyfriend Steve Mileaway(Cagney)left to keep the crime organized. But things rapidly fall apart and Steve urges Doris to convince Ricarno to return and straighten things out again. Its the old tommy gun carried about in a violin case; reckless shoot outs and murders caused by beer rivalry. This role allows Cagney to ease into his famed gangster persona. Others in the cast: Leon Janney, Jerry Mandy, Noel Madison, Robert Elliott and Tom Wilson.

When I refer to the 'Big Three' I am of course referring to the holy trinity of early 1930's gangster flicks: Little Caesar, The Public Enemy & Scarface.

Firstly, this is NOT a James Cagney movie. It's a Lew Ayres movie in which James Cagney, (In only his second movie), is amongst the great supporting cast and based on this performance it was easy to see the star in the making.

Lew Ayres plays Louie Ricarno, a bootlegging gangster determined to get rich or die trying. Cagney plays Mileaway, his right hand man who's character seems to be well named as whenever any of the action takes place in the movie, Cagney seems to be a 'mile away' from it, as it's one of the few Cagney movies made where he doesn't either kill, mame or even hit anyone.

After a series of tit-for-tat murders between rival gangs, Ricarno calls a meeting with all his rival bosses and proposes that in return for them declaring him ultimate boss, he will protect their operations from any rival gang who may try to encroach on their areas. One wonders whether Charles 'Lucky' Luciano ever saw this movie and used this element of it's plot as his blueprint for the 'syndicate' which he adopted after the murder of crime boss Salvatore Maranzano a year later.

After a period of profitable peace for all involved, Ricarno feels that he's made enough money to quit the rackets for good and go straight. His two main reasons for this life style U turn, is his new wife Doris, (Dorothy Mathews), (who unbeknown to him is having a passionate affair with his best friend Mileaway), and his young Brother Jackie, played brilliantly by Leon Janney. Louie doesn't want Jackie to either follow in his footsteps or even rub shoulders with the ne'r-do-well's he does.

It's not long after louie's departure that old gang fueds come to the fore once more and gangland killings escalate. In order to incite Louie back to the city, two gangsters plot to kidnap Jackie only to release him when Louie returns. However, the kidnapping is botched as Jackie, who blessed with intelligence of his brother, smells a rat. In his bid to escape, he is knocked over and killed by a passing truck.

On hearing the news, Louie, now driven solely by vengeance on the would be kidnappers, returns to his old turf, but peace & profits are the last thing on his mind, and you half expect him to utter Al Pacino's memorable line "Just when I thought I was out....they pull me back in"

Ayres, although brilliant in his role was probably miscast, especially when you had the best movie tough guy in world playing the lead's sidekick. (A mistake they nearly duplicated with The Public Enemy until the producers woke up).

One let down of the movie was the rivalry between Ayres and fellow gang boss Rocco (Noel Madison), I feel the bitterness between the two needed to be brought out in the plot a little more. Sadly, because they didn't do this, the movie is robbed of any REAL menacing villain.

The Pre-code element was also very risqué and the fact that the affair between Cagney's & Mathews's chaarcters was so obviously sexual, must have had all at the Hays office pulling their hair out.

Like in most early talkies, many cast members seem to struggle with adapting to the new medium, such as adopting wild animated body gestures as they would have done in silent pictures and also speaking terribly slowly as they were so often told to do. Luckily both Ayres & Cagney are on hand to show them that you didn't need to speak three words a minute to be understood on film.

Doorway to Hell is a great early Warner's gangster movie and worth giving a go.

Enjoy!