ST. JAMES THEATRE.

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 131, 30 November 1939, Page 8

ST. JAMES THEATRE.

With Dirty Faces."

Dedicated to thousands of slum boys of the great cities who next week or next'year must choose between crime and honesty, "Angels With Dirty Faces," a powerful human document dramatically enacted: by James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, the "Dead End" Kids, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, and George Bancroft, opens tomorrow at the St. James Theatre. It tells the story of two boys—ordinary dirty-faced kids, brought up in the teeming slums of a great cify—who took opposite .roads. One to the shadowy realms of the underworld, the other to priesthood's serene light. The conflict between these two. characters, with the lives of thousands of boys as the grim stake, is strong, dramatic, fare and carries with it a deep social message. The film starts out with the two boys committing a petty crime, .then running for freedom, with police in hot pursuit. A split second—a single stride—and one of them was made into a killer. tie returns to the slums to get his vengeance on the world—a big-shot killer leading hundreds of kids into a life like his. The boy who ran a little faster made a vow to save a million other dirty-faced kids from the fate that was almost his. Ordained as a priest, he returns to\the slums to battle against the forces of crime for the lives of the dirty-faced angels who never had a chance to go straight. "Angels With Dirty Faces" is the story of two of those kids—and the men.they grew up to be. Powerfully produced with' stark realism, it is destined to be a great and memorable experience for all those who see it. James Cagney and Pat O'Brien have the strongest roles of their careers and each makes the most of the character, he brings to life on the screen.