The Doorway to Hell (1930)

With Chicago effectively a lawless city controlled by warring gangsters fighting over their turf and their lucrative prohibition income, opportunistic “Louie” (Lew Ayres) sees an opportunity to centralise things. A meeting, a few machine guns, and some sheer brass neck soon sees him running the racketeers and presiding over an unusually peaceful city. Then he marries his sweetheart “Doris” (Dorothy Matthews) and has something of an epiphany. He wants to hand over the reins to his deputy “Mileaway” (James Cagney) and retire to the panhandle for some well earned rest and recuperation. Without him holding down the truce, things at home start to unravel but can he stay away and enjoy his new life, or will he be unable to resist the magnetic attraction of his old job? I thought Ayres did quite well here. He brings a handsome prince sort of glamour to the role, sure, but he also suggest something of the charismatic courage and menace that his character would have required to glue together his enemies into something effective, even if it was precarious. Cagney also serves well as his deputy/foil; Matthews adds a little more than just the typical bimbo/moll and the whole film has a certain grittiness to it that I found plausible, and towards the conclusion, even touching. It’s not frightened of livening things up, either, with plenty of action and quite an excitingly filmed prison escape too. It’s a well told story of addictions and of the struggles to control them, and with Tom Wilson stealing a few scenes as the never more than temporarily trustworthy “Big Shot Kelly” I found it well worth eighty minutes.