☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
City
Streets (1931) – R. Mamoulian
Rouben Mamoulian adds a dose of style to
this otherwise ordinary gangster picture – but that style makes all the
difference. Instead of simply plot
mechanics (girl whose stepfather is a racketeer tries to persuade her boyfriend
to join the gang but then regrets it later when he does and her eyes are opened
to the brutality), we have something more poetic. Some of this is montage and some of it is
inserted shots and some of it is a more natural approach to the settings and
events (the couple have a rendezvous at the beach and we and they watch the
waves). In any event, the flow of the
picture seems different, even if there is still rough stuff among the hoods and
some dirty double-crossing familiar to fans of the genre. Reviewers of the time didn’t like Paul Lukas
as the big boss, but his lilting accent and sophisticated manner inject a
little more weirdness to the proceedings.
Sylvia Sidney (young!) is captivating as the girl who wants to escape
the gangster life (after a stretch in jail) and Gary Cooper (young!) is charismatic
as her man who falls in and then falls out with the gang. Mamoulian would later direct “Love Me
Tonight” and, while City Streets is not a musical, the director’s flair for
romance is clearly evident.
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