The 1920s gets a lot of love, even today, decades later. We see the 1920s in shows like Boardwalk Empire, in Halloween flapper costumes, in artwork, fashion, books, movies, etc. We love bootleggers, speakeasies, dancing the Charleston, fringe dresses, rolled stockings, Cloche hats, and saying things like "the bee's knees", "and how" and "the cat's meow". We will love the '20s even when we reach the 2020s (boy won't that be confusing). So when did this nostalgia for the 1920s begin? I imagine it started even before the 1920s were over. The Stock Market Crish of October 1929 put an end to the carefree culture of the 1920s. Ten years later, Raoul Walsh would direct a nostalgia picture that reminisced about the old days of bootlegging and gangsters. It would also serve as a big send off for James Cagney, who had been playing gangsters for years and was ready to move on. Cagney plays Eddie Bartlett, a World War I soldier who comes home from France to find a very different America, a land without opportunity, waiting for him. Bartlett is a victim of his circumstances. He's a good guy trying to stay straight in a world that won't let him. He first becomes a bootlegger and then runs a night club. It's Prohibition and the party-loving culture of the 1920s that makes Bartlett successful. And while he still longs for the innocence of his past and sees that in soft, doe-eyed Jean (Priscilla Lane) he's is in too deep in his racket. He takes on fellow soldier George (Humphrey Bogart) who is still blood-thirsty even years after World War I ended. Although this is Cagney's movie, Bogie plays a significant part and this is considered one of his last supporting roles. This film comes at an important time. America has been in the grips of the Great Depression for nearly a decade and World War II had just begun. It's a scary time and perhaps looking back at the previous decade gave people hope that America could once again be a land of opportunity and place to pursue happiness.
