Warner Bros. Pictures Tough Guys Collection (1937)

Warner Bros. Pictures Tough Guy's Collection

If you remember Million Dollar Movie or the Late Show (New York & N.J.) You will love this box set, Picture quality and sound are excellent. This is a "MUST HAVE" in any collection. ... December 30, 2007

Positive Tough Guy's Collection

This pack is very entertaining, with excelent movies. If you like noir or 30's films this is a must. All the movies are enjoyable, but are not truely GREAT. San Quentin and A Slight Case of Murder were the two worst of the pack I would only give these movies a 3 star rating. As for G men and Each Dawn I Die are marvalous films; and deserve a 4 star rating. Bullets or Ballots is a interesting movie featuring a feindish Bogart and a well known ruff and tough by the book cop played by Robinson. Its an OK flick but yet again a 3 star film. However, the real surprise was City for Conquest. I went into the movie thinking it would be the one I would dred; this was not the case at all. Though it has a few odd moments, for the most part the movie is brilliant. Without a dought one of Cagneys best preformances, and the movie mixes heart ach, boxing, and music into something that works. I would rank this as probably my favorite boxing movie. Maybe its from the way it peaks and falls and repeats until the passive yet memorable climax. This is defently a 5 star film and was a real treat. The whole set is well worth it if you like 30's humor and lingo. August 7, 2007

Tough guys abound in a wide variety of films

This is a great and worthy companion to the Warner Gangsters Collection. However, this collection of films is much more varied than what you found in the Warner Gangsters bunch of films. It's not so much that we have a pre/post code comparison here of how Warner handled tough guys and gangsters in their films - there were only two precode gangster films in the Gangsters collection. Instead, we have WB's top three tough guys of the 30's - James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and Humphrey Bogart - taking the lead in a variety of roles and films that often aren't about guys that are gangster tough, or even cop tough for that matter.

Edward G. Robinson stars in "Bullets or Ballots" and "A Slight Case of Murder". In the first film, he is the hard-working cop turned out to pasture by a past associate the minute that associate gets a promotion. Now, suddenly past offers for employment by underworld figures in return for big bucks look pretty good. Will Robinson's character turn against the system and department he has worked for his whole career? In "A Slight Case of Murder" Robinson ably shows his hand at dark comedy as a gangster who is made legitimate by the end of prohibition. Now he can sell his beer legitimately. The only problem is, nobody has the heart to tell him that his beer is awful.

James Cagney, Warners' number one gangster picture star of the 30's, shows up in three films. In "G Men" he is a lawyer who decides to go to work for the F.B.I. His education was bought and paid for by a local mobster, and thus his new associates are suspicious of him although Cagney's legal career has been on the up-and-up. This is an action-packed film with Cagney as a new G-Man who eventually has his loyalties to his old friends somewhat tested. "Each Dawn I Die" has Cagney as a crusading journalist set up on a manslaughter charge and wrongly sent to prison by the corrupt officials he was trying to expose. Month after month passes as he is sure he will be vindicated and released - but nothing happens. Only his convict friend - played by George Raft - who escapes while Cagney is inside, can find the witness that can free him. But will Raft's character bother to keep his promises once he is out? Cagney gives a top-notch performance of a straight guy turned bitter and hopeless as he realizes he may never get out of prison. Cagney's final film in the set "City for Conquest" is a very good film that has little or nothing to do with tough guys and a lot to do with tough breaks and melodrama, all of which Cagney's character gets. He and Ann Sheridan are sweethearts in a tenement district. Ann seeks escape from poverty with her dancing skills, Cagney with his boxing. Unfortunately, Cagney's character runs across a corrupt boxer who rubs a corrosive material into his gloves to temporarily blind Cagney so he can win the match. It works a little too well as Cagney's blindness is more than temporary. This film is a real tear-jerker that is a favorite of mine.

Finally, Humphrey Bogart headlines a very short "San Quentin" at only 70 or so minutes in length. Bogart is a tough-as-nails convict who believes that his special treatment by Pat O'Brien - captain of the yard at San Quentin - may be because he is exchanging Bogart's treatment for his sister's romantic favors, to put it politely. However, Bogart's character has misunderstood the entire situation. The two knew each other and began falling for one another before Bogart's character even went to jail. He decides to escape and give O'Brien the 38-calibre reward he thinks he deserves for dishonoring his sister. Will he come to his senses in time?

Bogart shows up as a supporting player in "Bullets or Ballots" in this set and as a supporting player in several films in the Warner Gangsters Collection. It's hard to believe that Humphrey DeForest Bogart - now recognized as the greatest actor of the 20th century - had to spend a decade slumming at Warner Bros. in supporting roles before his talent was finally recognized for what it was in 1941's "High Sierra". The rest, of course, is history.

In summary, this really is a great set of films supplemented by Warner's Night at the Movies treatment, commentaries on the films by film historians, and various featurettes on the gangster genre. Highly recommended. August 3, 2007

Superb 30's movie collection but...

This movie collection of the depression era is AWESOME but the reason that Im dissapointed is that G-Men is the ONLY action-packed movie of the collection, the rest of the movies have all the action in the end! except for Bullets or Ballots and A Slight Case of Murder which they didn't have ANY action at all!!!
But at least! the movies that have action are GREAT! they have car chases, lot's of shooting, boxing (City of Conquest) and cool dialoges!

I HOPE that the Gangster collection is the one that Im looking for because the ONLY thing that I care about theses movies is the action!!!!

Adios. June 20, 2007

Dames, Gunsels, the cars, you know, noir

Great selection of noir era films and every one a hit. Just work through the selections and imagine what they would be like if the directors had color, better sets and modern effects. This is when men were men and women were glad of it. And if the dame ruined your life, so be it, you were the sap this time. Great value for the money!!!

November 3, 2006

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