CITY STREETS

US, 1931, 86 minutes, Black and white.
Sylvia Sidney, Gary Cooper, Paul Lukas, Guy Kibbee, William (Stage) Boyd, Stanley Fields, Wynne Gibson.
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian.

City Streets is an early sound film, very sophisticated. It has gangster themes (one of the co-writers of the screenplay being Dashiell Hammett). But it is also a tour de force of film style by director Rouben Mamoulian, who had already shown skill with Applause and was to make a variety of films including Becky Sharp (first in Technicolor) and films like Blood and Sand, Summer Holiday, Silk Stockings.

While the dialogue is a bit creaky, the fluid camera work - sequences at a carnival, at the beach, a car speeding up the Los Angeles mountains - show great style and the possibilities that would be developed for cinema photography.

Gary Cooper gives a kind of "Aw, shucks" role as the carnival man who becomes a gangster leader. Sylvia Sidney, star of many films at this time, is the strong heroine. Paul Lukas appears as the gangster boss and Guy Kibbee gives an uncharacteristic performance as a smooth-talking sinister gangster.

1.Popularity of gangster films at the time? How typical was this? Images of the '20s and '30s? The film in its period? Now?

2.Black and white photography, the score? Rouben Mamoulian and his fluid visual style? Techniques and flair?

3.The title, '20s and '30s, people, prohibition, gangsters? melodrama?

4.The chief and his style, his henchmen, his hold over Pop, Pop killing for him? Using Nan for his alibi? Her taking the rap, in jail, her bitter experience?

5.Nan as heroine, attractive, covering for her stepfather? At the carnival with the Kid, shooting, in love with him, suggesting that he work for the mob?

6.The kid, Gary Cooper's gawky style, skill in shooting, not wanting to work for the rackets, pressured by Pop for the sake of Nan, his success, clothes and car, the visit to the prison and Nan's disappointment?

7.Beer, prohibition, the rackets? Protection? Violence?

8.Nan getting out, the Kid welcoming her? The boss, the party, his flirting with Nan? Clash with the Kid? Aggie's jealousy? The boss wanting to get rid of the Kid, the assassins, being foiled?

9.Nan and her plan with the boss, at his home, Aggie overhearing and shooting? The meeting of the gangsters, the Kid taking over?

10.The final ride, the speeding up the mountain, the gangsters and their fear, saving Nan, knowing the truth? Aggie and her jealousy? Pop and his two-timing - and his girlfriend? The other gangsters?

11.Basic ingredients? Treated in cinematic style?