Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

The Roaring Twenties 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov January 14, 2024

Raoul Walsh's "The Roaring Twenties" (1939) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include new program with critic Gary Giddins; archival audio commentary by film historian Lincoln Hurst; archival program with Raoul Walsh; and vintage trailer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

It is always the same story. The bravest young men are sent to fight a war that someone else started on their behalf. On behalf of their entire country, too. The few of these men who are lucky to survive the war then return home and for a few weeks or months are praised as heroes. It is silly, meaningless theater, which usually benefits the careers of the same people who sent these men to risk their lives for them. After the pretending ends, the survivors begin the long process of readjusting to civilian life. They try hard. But after being bounced around for a while they begin to realize that their country does not need them anymore and eventually that it does not have room for them. What are they supposed to do now? Most begin drinking and doing drugs and quickly give up on life. A few begin to fight again, but this time they are not taking orders from anyone. It is the cruelest grinder they have ever entered and while moving forward many of them are taken out, sometimes much to their surprise by people they knew and once considered friends. The luckiest among them that endure the grinder and reach safety then discover that they have just about run out of time. Or that, like the real war they fought, it was all pointless again.

But there are a select few that skip all of this drama -- the disillusionment and plunge into the abyss, the sobering awakening and plunge into the cruel grinder. They do it by figuring out very early how to use the shortcut to safety, as all winners do.

Raoul Walsh’s The Roaring Twenties looks and behaves like a classic gangster film, a very impressive one too, but it is essentially a very accurate deconstruction of a distinctly American philosophy of life that has not aged one bit. It initiates it while following closely a couple of WWI survivors who return home, discover that the place they left behind has moved on without planning to reintegrate them, and after being bounced around for a while begin searching for their shortcut to safety, which turns out to be the National Prohibition Act.

James Cagney plays the first character, Eddie Bartlett, who comes home to New York ready to resume working in the same garage where he used to make ends meet and save enough to open his own business. After he is politely told that there is no longer room for him, Bartlett begins driving a taxi and eventually bumps into Panama Smith (Gladys George), a speakeasy owner, who reveals to him how profitable bootlegging liquor can be. Several months later, Bartlett launches his manufacturing and distribution center and quickly begins moving toward safety.

Humphrey Bogart plays the second character, George Hally, a meanie who was once in the same platoon as Bartlett and is now running a bootlegging operation on behalf of a prominent gangster. After they accidentally meet, the two agree to join forces and take over the entire bootlegging business in New York. At first, the partnership seems to be working great, but when Bartlett begins dedicating much of his time and thoughts to a young singer (Priscilla Lane) with whom he wants to grow old, Hally begins drifting away from him. By the time the market crashes, the two are already enemies.

The original material for The Roaring Twenties came from producer and writer Mark Hellinger -- whose name is also attached to They Drive by Night, The Killers, The Naked City, and Brute Force -- but the film is as effective as it is because of Walsh’s unique treatment of it. Indeed, instead of using it to make a straightforward crime drama about two war veterans who become powerful gangsters, Walsh tweaks it to present a terrific deconstruction of a distinctly American philosophy of life in which winning is the ultimate motivator. This is the reason various segments of the narrative can quite easily be inserted into a documentary about America’s evolution at the beginning of the last century -- Bartlett and Hally’s story is part of a bigger story.

One thing that Walsh and The Roaring Twenties get wrong is the read on the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, which terminated Prohibition. It is implied that it ended the careers of the gangsters who ran the bootlegging business across the country. It did not. The smart ones moved their capital to other businesses, some of which were legit businesses, too.

Walsh shot The Roaring Twenties with Oscar-winning cinematographer Ernie Haller, whose credits include such timeless films as Gone with the Wind, Rebel Without a Cause, and Mildred Pierce.

The Roaring Twenties 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Criterion's release of The Roaring Twenties is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray is Region-A "looked".

Please note that some of the screencaptures that appear with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc.

Screencaptures #1-28 are from the Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #31-37 are from 4K Blu-ray.

The release introduces an outstanding new 4K restoration of The Roaring Twenties that can be viewed in native 4K and 1080p. The native 4K presentation can be viewed with Dolby Vision and HDR grades. I viewed the entire film in native 4K with Dolby Vision and then spent quite a bit of time testing the 1080p presentation. A separate Blu-ray release is available as well.

The 4K restoration is breathtakingly beautiful. On my system, the quality of the visuals was routinely within what I consider to be 'reference quality' territory. You should be able to tell just by looking at the screencaptures we have provided with this article that the film now looks exceptionally healthy, too. The grayscale is managed very well. Unsurprisingly, even in darker areas with unique dark nuances and shadows delineation, clarity, and depth remain outstanding. However, you need to keep in mind that some parts of the film incorporate stock footage -- these are the bits that could have been extracted from a documentary feature -- so there are small but noticeable fluctuations that are not a byproduct of poor digital work. Grain exposure is fantastic. The surface of the visuals is very healthy, too. I thought that the Dolby Vision grade handles dark material quite well, which is not easy because in some areas with restricted lighting shadow definition can be pretty tricky. I think that the 1080p presentation does a slightly better job there, but the difference is negligible. Fluidity is very good. I did not notice any encoding anomalies to report in our review. All in all, I think that The Roaring Twenties looks quite incredible in native 4K and 1080p, so regardless of which release you choose to add to your collection, you will be very pleased with your acquisition.

The Roaring Twenties 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

There are several shootouts throughout the film that sound great. All exchanges are clear, sharp, and stable. The music performances sound very good, too. Is there any room for meaningful improvements? I do not think so. I had the volume of my system turned up quite a bit and I did not notice any traces of age-related imperfections. The audio appears to have been optimized as best as possible.

The Roaring Twenties 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this archival audio commentary was recorded by film historian Lincoln Hurst in 2005. Mr. Hurst explains in great detail why The Roaring Twenties is considered one of the all-time greatest gangster films and discusses its massive production history, the unique qualities of the characters that are at the center of its story, the film's reception and lasting appeal, etc.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this archival audio commentary was recorded by film historian Lincoln Hurst in 2005. Mr. Hurst explains in great detail why The Roaring Twenties is considered one of the all-time greatest gangster films and discusses its massive production history, the unique qualities of the characters that are at the center of its story, the film's reception and lasting appeal, etc.

• Garry Giddins - in this new program, critic Gary Giddins explains why The Roaring Twenties is a great and entertaining old-fashioned studio film and discusses the unique qualities of its character as well as the era from which it emerged. Also, there are some quite interesting observations about the ways in which bad guys in gangster films changed after the The Roaring Twenties. The program was produced exclusively for Criterion in 2023. In English, not subtitled. (22 min).

• Raoul Walsh - presented here is an episode from The Man Who Made the Movies, which originally aired in 1973. It it, Raoul Walsh discusses his collaboration with James Cagney on The Roaring Twenties and the film's famous finale. In English, not subtitled. (5 min).

• Trailer - presented here is a vintage U.S. trailer for The Roaring Twenties. In English, not subtitled. (4 min).

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by film critic Mark Asch as well as technical credits.

The Roaring Twenties 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A lot of people consider Raoul Walsh's The Roaring Twenties to be the greatest gangster film that old Hollywood produced. They are probably right. However, the gangster story that is told in The Roaring Twenties is part of an even bigger story about America and its evolution, which is timeless, and I think that this is the real reason the film is so special. This upcoming 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack introduces an outstanding new 4K restoration and should remain the film's definitive home video release. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.