Product Description

The Public Enemy showcases James Cagney's powerful 1931 breakthrough performance as streetwise tough guy Tom Powers. When shooting began, Cagney had a secondary role but Zanuck soon spotted Cagney's screen dominance and gave him the star part. From that moment, an indelible genre classic and an enduring star career were both born.

As a psychotic thug devoted to his hard-boiled ma, James Cagney - older, scarier and just as elctrifying - gives a performance to match his work in The Public Enemy as White Heat's cold-blooded Cody Jarrett. Bracingly directed by Raoul Walsh, this fast-paced thriller tracing Jarrett's violent life in and out of jail is also a harrowing character study. Jarrett is a psychological time bomb ruled by impulse. It is among the most vivid screen performances of Cagney's career, and the excitement it generates will put you on top of the world!

In Angels with Dirty Faces, Cagney's Rocky Sullivan is a charismatic ghetto tough whose underworld rise makes him a hero to a gang of slum punks. The 1938 New York Film Critics Best Actor Award came Cagney's way, as well as one of the film's three Oscar nominations. Watch the chilling death-row finale and you'll know why.

"R-I-C-O, Little Caesar, that's who!" Edward G. Robinson bellowed into the phone. And Hollywood got the message: 37-year-old Robinson, not gifted with matinee-idol looks, was nonetheless a first-class star and moviegoers hailed the hard-hitting social consciousness dramas that became the Depression-era mainstay of Warner Bros.

Little Caesar is the tale of pugnacious Caesar Enrico Bandello, a hoodlum with a Chicago-sized chip on his shoulder, few attachments, fewer friends and no sense of underworld diplomacy. And Robinson - a genteel art collector who disdained guns (in the movie, his eyelids were taped to keep them from blinking when he fired a pistol) - was forever associated with the screen's archetypal gangster.

A rundown diner bakes in the Arizona heat. Inside, fugitive killer Duke Mantee sweats out a manhunt, holding disillusioned writer Alan Squier, young Gabby Maple and a handful of others hostage.

The Petrified Forest, Robert E. Sherwood's 1935 Broadway success about survival of the fittest, hit the screen a year later with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart magnificently recreating their stage roles and Bette Davis ably reteaming with her Of Human Bondage co-star Howard. Sherwood first wanted Bogart for a smaller role. "I thought Sherwood was right," Bogart said. "I couldn't picture myself playing a gangster. So what happened? I made a hit as the gangster." So right was he that Howard refused to make the film without him...and helped launch Bogie's brilliant movie career.

In The Roaring Twenties, the speakeasy era never roared louder than in this gangland chronicle that packs a wallop under action master Raoul Walsh's direction. Against a backdrop of newsreel-like montages and narration, it follows the life of jobless war veteran Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) who turns bootlegger, dealing in "bottles instead of battles." Battles await Eddie within and without his growing empire. Outside are territorial feuds and gangland bloodlettings. Inside is the treachery of his double-dealing associate (Humphrey Bogart). It would be 10 years before Cagney played another gangster (in White Heat), a time in which gangster movies themselves became rare. "He used to be a big shot," Panama Smith (Gladys George) says at the finale, marking Bartlett's demise...and signaling the end of Hollywood's focus on the gangster era.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5794 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2008-03-25
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds

Features

• The Public Enemy The taut, realistic time capsule of the Prohibition Era. James Cagney's breakthrough role! With 2 minutes of Recovered Footage not seen in over 70 years. White Heat "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" Cagney's psychotic Cody Jarrett sparks this searingic. Angels With Dirty Faces Ghetto kids admire a swaggering killer. With Humphrey Bogart, Pat O'Brien and

Amazon.com
For a knock-out combination of timeless entertainment and vintage studio history, you can't do much better than The Warner Brothers Gangsters Collection. In the 1930s and '40s, Paramount specialized in glossy comedies, MGM popularized lavish musicals, Universal produced signature horror classics, and Fox scored hits with sophisticated dramas. But it was Warner Bros. that generated controversy--if not always box-office profits--with so-called "social problem" films, and that meant gangsters. When viewed in their pre- and post-Prohibition context and in chronological order (Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, 1931; The Petrified Forest, 1936; Angels With Dirty Faces, 1938; The Roaring Twenties, 1939; White Heat, 1949), these six films definitively capture Warners' domination of the mobster genre, and to varying degrees, they all qualify as classics.

With its stilted visuals and pulpy plot, Little Caesar remains stuck in the stiff, early-sound era, but it's still a prototypical powerhouse, with Edward G. Robinson's titular "Rico" setting the stage for all screen gangsters to follow. The Public Enemy made James Cagney a star (who can forget him smashing a grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face?), and Humphrey Bogart repeats his Broadway success in The Petrified Forest, a stagy adaptation of Robert Sherwood's play, still enjoyable for Bogey's ever-threatening malevolence. Then it's a Cagney triple-threat in Angels (with Pat O'Brien), racketeering in The Roaring Twenties (with Bogart), and especially the jailbird classic White Heat, with a fiery finale and an exit line ("Made it Ma! Top o' the world!") that epitomized Cagney's iconic, tough-guy image. In many ways Cagney was Warner Bros., and this Gangsters Collection pays enduring tribute to him and the important films that forged the studio's rugged reputation. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Warner's top-tier gangster movie properties
It's interesting to compare the three stars of these movies - Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, and Humphrey Bogart - and their styles in each of these movies. "Little Caesar" and "Public Enemy" were made when prohibition was still in effect and gangland crime was still a big problem. Thus Robinson and Cagney each play remorseless criminals with no redeeming values whatsoever. Robinson's Rico is less physical than Cagney's Tom Powers, though. You believe that either one of them would shoot you without a second thought. However, Cagney's Powers is scarier because the real fear is that he would beat you to a pulp for the fun of it and THEN shoot you.

"The Petrified Forest" is not your typical gangster film, with Leslie Howard's vagabond being the real star in what amounts to an improbable romance set against the backdrop of the desperation of the Great Depression which the desert setting seems to signify. This 1936 film has Bogart as Duke Mantee, a gangster on the run, in what amounts to a supporting role. However, you do get to see all of the traits that made Bogart great when he got the opportunity to seize the lead in later roles. And to think they almost cast him as the filling station attendant in this one!

In 1938's "Angels with Dirty Faces" and 1939's "The Roaring Twenties" Cagney is again playing the lead gangster and Humphrey Bogart plays a supporting role in both films. With prohibition long over, though, these movies make Cagney's gangster more three-dimensional, showing him to even be a self-sacrificing character at times as well as a killer. Both movies bother to show that had circumstances been a little different, he might not have even become a criminal in the first place.

1949's "White Heat" shows the influence of film noir that was so popular in the 40's an 50's. Here, Cagney's gangster persona has come full circle back to the viciousness of Tom Powers in "Public Enemy". The big difference is that in this film Cagney's mother is no cream puff. She is, in fact, probably a bigger criminal in thought if not in deed than Cagney's Cody Jarrett. This final gangster film of the six shows technology and thus the law gaining on the criminal, with electronic gadgets and undercover lawmen with college degrees in psychology replacing the determined hard-boiled detectives and beat cops of the past. It very much looks forward to the Dragnet series that is to emerge in the 50's.

In summary, this is just a terrific package and basically acts as a complete course on the gangster film as genre. All studios should stand up and take notice of how Warner Home Video put this set together. Highly recommended. The following are the extra features:

The Public Enemy (1931)
Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1931 with Newsreel, Comedy Short: The Eyes Have It, Cartoon: Smile, Darn Ya, Smile, and 1931 Trailer Gallery.
Featurette - Beer and Blood: Enemies of the Public
Commentary by Film Historian Robert Sklar
1954 Re-release Foreword
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

White Heat (1949)
Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1949 with Newsreel, Comedy Short: So You Think You're Not Guilty, Cartoon: Homeless Hare, and 1949 Trailer Gallery .
Featurette - White Heat: Top of the World
Commentary by Film Historian Drew Casper
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1938 with Newsreel, Musical Short: Out Where the Stars Begin, Cartoon: Porky and Daffy, and 1938 Trailer Gallery.
Featurette - Angels with Dirty Faces: Whaddya Hear? Whaddya Say?
Commentary by Film Historian Dana Polan
Audio-Only Bonus: Radio Production with the Film's 2 Stars
Languages: English & French
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Little Caesar (1930)
Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1930 with Newsreel, Spencer Tracy Short: The Hard Guy, Cartoon: Lady Play Your Mandolin, and 1930/31 Trailer Gallery.
Featurette - Little Caesar: End of Rico, Beginning of the Antihero
Commentary by Film Historian Richard B. Jewell
1954 Re-release Foreword
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

The Petrified Forest (1936)
Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1936 with Newsreel, Musical Short: Rhythmitis, Cartoon: The Coo Coo Nut Grove, and 1936 Trailer Gallery .
Featurette - The Petrified Forest: Menace in the Desert
Commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax
Audio-Only Bonus: Radio Adaptation Starring Bogart, Tyrone Power and Joan Bennett
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1939 with Newsreel, Musical Short: All Girl Revue, Comedy Short: The Great Library Misery, Cartoon: Thugs with Dirty Mugs, and 1939 Trailer Gallery.
Featurette - The Roaring Twenties: The World Moves on
Commentary by Film Historian Lincoln Hurst
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

This set was previously just called "The Warner Gangsters". This is that same set just retitled as Volume 1 to correspond with "Warner Tough Guys" being renamed "Warner Gangsters Volume 2", and a new set, "Warner Gangsters Volume 3", to be released in the first part of 2008.

The Crooks come home to Roost!
Warners has put six of its' best gangster flicks into this first volume of "Gangsters",and many still pack a mean wallop.
"The Public Enemy"(4 stars),referred still mistakenly by many today as just "Public Enemy",stars James Cagney as Tom Powers,his two girlfriends Mae Clarke as Kitty and Jean Harlow as Gwen,Ed Woods as his buddy Matt Doyle,his girlfriend Joan Blondell as Mamie,and others.The movie involves the story of Tom and Matt as two boys growing up on the mean streets of the big city and their first brushes as young kids with petty criminals and crime.As they grow up we see their graduation into the big time and their climb to success during prohibition as two of its' biggest hustlers in the illegal distribution of homemade booze.Of course crime doesn't pay and Tom gets his,in the end.Skillfully directed by William Wellman(Wings),this was Cagneys' breakthrough part and put him solidly on the path to major stardom in short order.Originally Woods had the Cagney role but they were reversed due to Cagney's powerful presence.This version has two minutes of restored footage re-inserted into it.It is definitely pre-code(/34)and is violent,with(still)quite shocking overt sexual moments and has the famous grapefruit in the kisser scene.
"Little Ceasar"(4 1/2 stars)released in August of /31,was Edward G.Robinson's breakthrough role also.Robsinson gives a rivetting performance as Enricco Bondello who as a petty thief longs to be the number one man and one day starts on the path to become so.It is a slow climb up the ladder as he steps on many toes,displaces bosses and makes many enemies.When you're at the top there is only one way to go and down and out Bondello goes in a hail of bullets;the only fitting end.Director Mervyn LeRoy(Wizard of Oz,Mister Roberts)nicely directs this taut gangster flick and Robinson gives an Oscar-caliber performance.It is absolute lunacy that Robsinson was never nominated for an Oscar in his entire career.He received an honourary one in /73 but died before getting it.
"Petrified Forest"(4 stars),released in Feb/36,stars wonderful British Actor Leslie Howard as Alan Squier who is hitchiking westward through Arizona when his journey brings him to a small cafe.Bette Davis as Gabrielle works as a waitress for her father,who dreams and longs to go to her mothers' homeland of France.The two strike up a quick bond,much to the chagrin of her boyfriend Dick Foran(Boze).Enter Duke Mantee(Humphrey Bogart)as an arch criminal on the run trying to get to Mexico,who decides to use the cafe as a temporary lay over.In the end the law gets its' man and Gabrielle gets her wish,with the help of Alan;in spirit.The film was originally a successful play starring Howard and Bogart.Howard retained the rights to the property and when Warners wanted Edward G. Robinson in the Mantee role he stubbornly balked and in the end won the day for Bogie.The mise en scene for the most part revolves around the cafe and a wonderful tension and atmosphere prevails the entire film.This was Bogies' breaktrough film who literally dominates every scene he is in.
"Angels with Dirty Faces"(3 1/2 stars),released in Nov/38,stars James Cagney as Rocky Sullivan and Pat O'Brien as his buddy Jerry Connelly.We again see the rise of two friends during lean times as petty thieves.As Rocky continues on the path of crime doing major jail time over the years,his friend Jerry pursues a different course and becomes a priest in their old neighbourhood.Rocky returns to his old haunt and is looked up to by a local gang of youths(The Dead End Kids with Huntz Hall,Leo Gorcy,Gabriel Dell,et al).In the end Rocky gets caught and is sentenced to death in the chair.Jerry asks Rocky to act a coward in his final moments to turn the lives around of the admiring local kids.He does so and the final scene shows Jerry leading the boys off to Church.The film has top acting throughout and is well directed by Michael Curtiz(Casablanca).I have always had a major problem with this films ending.I just cannot see any justification in the script for anything that would remotely suggest in Rocky's personality, that he'd turn yellow at the end just for the kids sake.See what you think.
"The Roaring Twenties"(4 stars),released in Oct/39,stars James Cagney as Eddie Bartlett,an out of work WW1 vet.Unable to get his old job back or ANY employment he eventually turns a burgeoning cab business into hauling bootleg booze.He hires his WW1 buddy Jeff(Lloyd Hart)as his lawyer.Along the way he meets up with another WW1 pal George( Humphrey Bogart),who comes into business as a partner.George gets other ideas along the way and double deals Eddie.Priscilla Lane stars as Jeannie,the girl who can never return Eddies'love and Gladys George as Panama Smith,who loves Eddie but again never in turns receives the love she wants from him.In the end,Eddie goes out in a blaze of glory.The movie almost runs like a documentary and is a telling comment on the times and how such behaviour amongst other wise good people could have developed.Skillfully directed by Raoul Walsh(Sadie Thompson) the movie really packs a powerful punch in its' portrayals and Gladys George is an especial stand out.
Finally "White Heat"(4 stars),released in Sept/49,stars James Cagney as Cody Jarrett.He leads a rag tag bunch of criminals who loyalties are suspect to say the least.Cody is married to Verna(Virginia Mayo)who doesn't love him and is coddled by his dominant mother(Margaret Wycherly).The gang opens the film by pulling a train heist and spends the rest of the movie fleeing from the law.The law is persistant and when they threaten to capture Cody he gives himself in in another state on a lesser(time)indictment.While in the pen a plant by the name of Eddie(Edmond O'Brien) befriends Cody.Suspicious at first Cody finally comes to trust him.In the end Cody is surrounded on top of a gas storage tank,now completely out of his mind, with his mother dead and the truth about Eddie now revealed.Raoul Walsh again directs this gangster flick and Cagney plays a wide range of character personality quirks to a tee.His last gangster flick had been ten years before and it was "The Roaring 20s".
Technically, although many of these films do show their age,they have been transferred very well by Warners.All the DVDs contain the same general line up of extras which include things like the trailers,snippets of vintage newsreels,featurettes,commentaries and of course those wonderful vintage cartoons.
All in all this is a collection worth owning.It helps,but you do not have to be a gangster fan to enjoy the offerings here.The acting is all first rate and historically speaking they are important for it shows three of Hollywood's biggest names,Cagney,Bogart and Robinson in their breakthrough roles.A fine collection on anybody's shelf.

White Heat
If you are into Gangster Movies James Cagney is the man, "White Heat" is superb B&W action with Cagney at his best. The picture quality is very good, Warner Bros have done an exellent job of all the movies in this absolute fantastic box. Virginia Mayo is also very good and very pretty!
I have all tree, and a fourth box are coming soon, i can't wait "hurray"
I will recommend this box (Movies)to you who likes Film Noir at it's best.
This you can't miss. Raoul Walsh directed this masterpiece White Heat 1949 i give it 5 Big Bullets.