The Crowd Roars

Crowd Roars, The (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Standard Warner drama about a cocky race car driver (James Cagney) who brings his younger brother (Eric Linden) into the sport and soon the two have a falling out. Cagney eventually loses his nerve and falls from grace and must try to works his way back up. Hawks is credited with the story but it's somewhat hard to believe that he would come up with such a standard and typical story. The movie is entertaining due in large part to Cagney who once again turns in a good performance. He's his usual cocky self and the screenplay allows him to do things we've seen from him in the past including one scene where he gets tough with Ann Dvorak. Cagney shines the best during his breakdown scene, which comes off very well. Joan Blondell co-stars as Cagney's girl and she does a nice job as well. The story is very predictable and really doesn't have one original idea but there's some very good racing scenes. The screenplay is also quite hard on racing fans and the claim that all they want to see is blood. There's one violent death scene that happens during a race that is very memorable.