Underworld

Bull Weed is a well known gangster in Chicago. He finds a drunk in the street, takes pity on him, brings him along and nicknames him Rolls Royce. The man is a former lawyer. A closeness develops between Rolls and Bull's girlfriend Feathers, and Bull learns of it after he goes to prison. The subject is not crime but how far loyalty goes. Bull breaks out wanting only to settle with the two of them, and the decision he finally reaches carries the whole weight of the film. The form is considered the founding example of the gangster genre: dark streets, florist funerals, an armed gang war, a gangsters' ball. Every later American gangster film feeds off this template. The story idea is Ben Hecht's; he had been a police reporter in Chicago and knew gangsters at first hand. He won the original story award at the first Academy Awards for it, meaning the first Oscar given for writing went to this film. Hecht later said he disliked how romanticised it had become. Josef von Sternberg directs. George Bancroft plays Bull, Evelyn Brent plays Feathers and Clive Brook plays Rolls Royce. Who it is for: viewers curious about silent cinema and the origins of the gangster genre. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a modern tempo; the film is short but its storytelling is slow by today's habits.