City Streets
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
Written by Oliver H.P. Garrett; adapted by Max Marsin from a story by Dashiell Hammett
1931/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/YouTube
[box] The Kid: When you talk to me, take that toothpick out of your mouth.[/box]
Rouben Mamoulian brings “art” and flashy camera moves to the gangster flick. It works out remarkably well.
Spunky Nan Cooley (Sylvia Sidney) lives with her sleazy stepfather (Guy Kibbee) who is a bodyguard to bootleggers. She is in love with “The Kid” (Gary Cooper), who runs the shooting gallery at Coney Island and is a sharpshooter in real life. Nan would like him to get a job with the racketeers to earn money so they can get married. He refuses.
Loyal Nan is called on to help her stepdad by hiding the gun he has used to bump off his boss. She is caught with the gun and refuses to cooperate with the police by naming its owner. Though Pop promises she won’t spend a day in the pen he essentially forgets about her once she is in jail. That is, until he runs in to The Kid and persuades him to carry a rod for the mob in order to get money to spring her.
The Kid finds he loves the high life in the beer racket. But he’s still madly in love with Nan. When she gets out, evil Big Fellow Maskel (Paul Lukas) develops a yen for her and simply will not leave her alone. The confrontation between the Kid and the Big Fellow takes up the remainder of the movie.
I really enjoyed this movie. Sidney and Cooper are two of my favorite early stars and do splendidly. Mamoulian is at his most experimental trying out every angle and gimmick he can think of. It doesn’t hang together as well as in some of his other films but does keep up the audience’s interest throughout. Recommended and available on YouTube.
Clip – I actually gasped when the gorgeous young Gary Cooper turned around and smiled!
