MovieChat Forums > Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) Discussion > Dead End Kids terrorize Bogart? What?

Dead End Kids terrorize Bogart? What?

posted 16 years ago by deontee2002
8 replies | jump to latest

From the trivia section:

"The Dead End Kids terrorized the set during shooting. They threw other actors off with their ad-libbing, and once cornered costar Humphrey Bogart and stole his trousers. But they didn't figure on James Cagney's street-bred toughness. The first time Leo Gorcey pulled an ad-lib on Cagney, the star stiff-armed the young actor right above the nose. From then on, the gang behaved."

Hmm...somehow I just don't see Bogart being intimidated by the likes of a little punk like Leo Gorcey. And Cagney snuffs Gorcey in the face? For ad-libbing?!!!! What kind of sh-t is THAT!?! Good thing him and Brando never worked together. Somebody's ass would've REALLY got kicked!!!

[–] michael-hilton 16 years ago

I don't imagine Bogart was intimidated by the kids, he just probably never went as far as cagney by getting rough with them, apparently Bogart humored the kids at first by talking about how he himself used to get up to various kinds of mischief and the different pranks he pulled on people, however when Bogart was taking a nap the kids threw some firecrackers into his room or something and they fell out after that. In Leo Gorcey's later years in his biography he states that he regrets not making a better impression on stars Cagney and Bogart.

[–] homerj208 16 years ago

Bogart wasn't as rough and tumble as the characters he played, so while I wouldn't say the Dead End Kids terrorized him, they probably gave him a hard time. Cagney, I believe the story. He grew up in a rough and tumble neighbor hood and I could see him not tolerating much from these punks. Plus, ad-libbing was something to be done only by the most veteran of actors, and usually not in a scene with another great actor.

[–] docmananoff-885-218028 12 years ago

Yes, Cagney was from a tough background (The story goes that he first wanted to be a boxer but his mom said that he could...Only IF he could beat her...Tough family.) While Bogart was just...an actor who only played a tough guy onscreen.

[–] HoneyBakedHam 12 years ago

Bogart also hadn't broken it big then so maybe he was still in his shell a little, being a support guy. No way those kids would have done that if he was a movie star the way he was in the 40s after Falcon/Casablanca. Bogie would have put them in their place otherwise.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] thesnowleopard 8 years ago

People tend to forget that Bogart was in the process of getting into an ugly marriage with hard-drinking Metho Mayot during this time that got them labeled "The Battling Bogarts." He knew how to throw a punch in real life. Mayot certainly got him into enough bar fights for it.

It is also often glossed over in the Cagney-vs.-Bogart debate about who was "tougher" that Bogart was a war vet and Cagney was not. There is some question about whether or not Bogart ever actually saw any combat when he was over in Europe, but he was certainly in the Navy and out on the Atlantic in potential harm's way during WWI, and had lost whatever snobbery and indolence his outwardly pretentious upbringing had put in him by the time he got out.

It's a shame that Bogart and Cagney don't seem to have got along (or, at least, that Cagney doesn't appear to have remembered Bogart too fondly) because I think the two of them were very similar in a lot of ways in their old school work ethic and hard-knocks-school approach to acting. Maybe they were too similar and that was the problem.

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[–] TheArgentinian (6432) 3 years ago

So OP doesn't believe a tough guy like Bogie could be a yellow because it would ruin the image in his head of Bogart? The irony...

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

Story about Cagney: When he was no longer young, fan ran into him on the steps of one of these grandiose buildings that has 50-100 steps spread around the base. They chatted pleasantly, and the dialogue went something like this:

Fan: "Hey, you wanna get a drink?"
Cagney: "Well, I'm sorry, but I don't drink at all."
Fan: "Wanna go to a place I know and get some girls, then?"
Cagney: "I'm a married man, I don't fool around!".
Fan: "Uh, wanna fight?"
Cagney: "Are you kidding? I've got the high ground on these steps, I could have you off balance with one punch and you'd roll all the way to the street!".

Yeah, Cagney knew how to fight.