Undescribable Perfection

The Worst Film Ever

the audience applauded

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

"City Streets" (1931), Directed by Rouben Mamoulian was an interesting film, and very advanced for its time. The two main characters Sylvia Sidney and Gary Cooper were very strong actors and portrayed their lines and scenes with great truthfulness. It was great to see how the fact that this film was made pre code era had such an influence on what the filmmakers showed. It has elements and scenes that expand the story much better than some post code films could. The scenes never got stale and the camera panning, angles, and close ups were very well done. There weren't too many dull moments, it kept me interested throughout.

Visually striking pre-code gangster picture starring Gary Cooper as a carnival sharpshooter who wants nothing to do with girlfriend Sylvia Sidney's father's bootlegging business until she is sent to prison and he needs money to help get her out. Cooper uses his "aw shucks" persona well here. Sidney is absolutely gorgeous and does a great job as the naive girl who grows up fast when she's betrayed by her own father. Paul Lukas and Guy Kibbee are probably two of the more unlikely gangsters to ever appear on screen, but both make their parts work to their strengths. Based on a story by Dashiell Hammett, with characters who have names like The Kid and Big Fella. But the story isn't the main selling point. That would be Lee Garmes' camera-work and Ruben Mamoulian's direction. It's a beautiful-looking picture with some interesting techniques on display that are very impressive when you consider this was released in 1931. Mamoulian's jogging at a time when other directors are still learning to walk. One of the best gangster pictures not released by Warner Bros., who pretty much had the market cornered on that genre during the 1930s.

The movie wasn't bad. The characters we alright but I wasn't too impressed with them. I guess it is because I have seen so many mob movies that I wasn't blown away by it. It did have some clever lines. What the director did do in this film was the interesting show of time with the clocks and going back and forth with different angles when shooting the scenes. The car scene at the end was really good with showing the car against the train, the person in the train, the conflict inside the car. The scene did a good job of balancing things leading up to the finally. The other notable scene was when Nan and Big Fella were in the room and the other woman was trying the listening on them but could only see. So you heard the city streets but not what was going on inside. Another scene I liked for the camera work was when Nan and Big Fella were dancing and the camera would follow them around the room so you could see the faces of Kid and the other women and how they were upset. Other than those scenes I wasn't too impressed with the movie. It was a mob movie and a had some quirky characters but their really wasn't much development of characters besides the Kid. I would recommend this movie to better appreciate the advancement of film in general. It wasn't a bad film, just a little underwhelming.

I enjoyed this mob movie because it seemed a little different than other mob movies. In this movie the woman gets accused of murder and gets mad at the kid for not being racketeer like her step dad to make some money whos involved with the mob because he was just working in the circus but was really good with a gun. The woman gets accused of murder and gets put in prison even though she thought and was told that the mob would get her out. While she is in prison The kid comes to visit her and she sees him in this nice fancy coat he tells her he's in the mob now telling her how much he loves it and thinking she would pleased. But she is actually very unhappy about it because she knows something bad could happen to him, and the mob does try to get him. I wanted to see this movie because I saw that it had Gary Cooper in it, I have not seen any of his movies before but I have heard about it him and how great his movies were. And it was pretty good but not what I expected from a Gary Cooper film.