City Streets **** (1931, Sylvia Sidney, Gary Cooper, Paul Lukas, Guy Kibbee, William Boyd, Wynne Gibson) – Classic Movie Review 7808

‘When you talk to me, take that toothpick out of your mouth’ – The Kid. The young Gary Cooper stars as The Kid, a fair worker shooting gallery showman, who falls for a gangster’s daughter Nan (Sylvia Sidney), in the 1931 film noir gangland romantic drama City Streets. It survives as an ancient movie treasure thanks to its pedigree as a work of Dashiell Hammett, the cinematic bravura of Rouben Mamoulian’s expressionist direction and Lee Garmes’s noir black and white cinematography.

On the acting front, Paul Lukas and Guy Kibbee as the showy villains Big Fellow Maskal and McCoy tend to upstage the stars’ performances, which perhaps have not worn too well, but are still remarkable, especially that of Sylvia Sidney.

The screenplay, adapted by Max Marcin and eventually scripted by Oliver H P Garrett, is based on Dashiell Hammett’s only original story and screenplay written directly for the movies, and, unsurprisingly, it is quite out of the ordinary. It is one of the first American gangster movies in a popular cycle that also produced Little Caesar (1931) and The Public Enemy (1931) that same year. It was the golden age of the gangster movie.

Also in the cast are William Boyd, Stanley Fields, Wynne Gibson, Betty Sinclair, Robert Homans and Barbara Leonard.

It has the first sound flashback in the movies when earlier dialogue is repeated over Sylvia Sidney’s tear-stained face in close-up as she recalls the past.

The two china cats shown as a symbol of people arguing came from Mamoulian’s own collection.

It was to have been Clara Bow’s last film of her five-year contract, but after she suffered a nervous breakdown, Nancy Carroll was offered and declined the part and Sylvia Sidney took over.

City Streets is directed by Rouben Mamoulian, runs 84 minutes, is made and released by Paramount, is written by Max Marcin (adaptation) and Oliver H P Garrett (screenplay), based on Dashiell Hammett’s original story and screenplay, is shot in black and white by Lee Garmes, is produced by E Lloyd Sheldon and Rouben Mamoulian and is scored by Sidney Cutner.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7808

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