Grade: C+
Synopsis: Booze and pride combine to bring down a top racecar driver (James Cagney).
Director Howard Hawks has a knack for movies featuring tough guys in dangerous professions that would just as soon go it alone. In Hawks’ hands, these men become captivating, near mythological, entities, strutting through a world lucky to have them. So it’s no surprise that The Crowd Roars, a story about a boozing racecar driver, should work so well.
Cagney’s great in the lead, delivering the same perfect combination of vulnerability and machismo that so many of Hawks’ leading men seem to master. It’s this pathos that elevates many of Hawks’ films to greatness and The Crowd Roars proves he’d tapped into it early in his career.
What Hawks had yet to master, however is the characters around his lead. Eric Linden doesn’t really register as Cagney’s character’s younger brother, and Ann Dvorak seems totally one-note next to Joan Blondell. Still, this doesn’t detract from some great racing scenes (you’ll never believe how rough and dusty racing was in those days) and a solid, fast paced script that clock in at a brisk 85 minutes.
Bottom Line: A somewhat uneven, but nonetheless fun action-drama that Hawks and Cagney fans should both enjoy.
