City Streets (1931 film)

City Streets is a 1931 American Pre-Code romantic melodrama directed by Rouben Mamoulian from a story by Dashiell Hammett and stars Gary Cooper, Sylvia Sidney and Paul Lukas.She finds that her father is unrepentant and involved with a loose, gold-digging woman named Pansy (Betty Sinclair).[9] Mamoulian, to evade studio artistic control, refrained from making any explicit alterations to the Garrett/Marin scenario in advance of filming.The voice The Kid (Gary Cooper) is heard speaking when the screen shows only Nan's (Sylvia Sydney) face, in a sense superimposing Cooper's spoken thoughts on that of Sydney's as a dramatic device, a form of “subjective sound.”[14][15] Paramount publicity personnel warned that audiences would be disconcerted by hearing a character speak without seeing the actor's lips moving.Rejecting any ersatz facsimiles of grand symphonic recordings, Mamoulian insisted on having genuine masterpieces as musical embellishments.[17] The New York Times observes that director Rouben Mamoulian “photographic artistry’ trades character and narrative development for “clever cinematic ideas” manifested in “unusual camera stunts and angles” and not without “photographic artistry.” The reviewer finds the actors generally appealing, but regrets the “hapless casting” of Paul Lukas as Big Boy Maskal.[19] Though the story involves bootlegging and power struggles among mobsters, the stylized treatment of the topic resembles Paramount's 1927 silent classic “fantasy” Underworld by director Josef von Sternberg.
Sylvia Sidney and Paul Lukas in a scene from the film.
Rouben MamoulianOliver H.P. GarrettMax MarcinDashiell HammettE. Lloyd SheldonGary CooperSylvia SidneyPaul LukasLee GarmesParamount PicturesPre-CoderomanticmelodramaAmerican Film InstituteTop 10 Gangster Films listGuy KibbeeStanley FieldsWynne GibsonWilliam "Stage" BoydRobert HomansClara BowOliver H. P. Garrettslice of lifeB. P. SchulbergNew York Timesgangster genreLittle CaesarThe Public EnemyScarfaceUnderworldJosef von SternbergThompson machine gunAl CaponeAndrew SarrisSlant MagazineSenses of CinemaUniversity of Wisconsin PressMilne, TomThames and HudsonThe Scarecrow PressAnthony SlideAFI Catalog of Feature FilmsTCM Movie DatabaseApplauseDr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeLove Me TonightThe Song of SongsQueen ChristinaWe Live AgainBecky SharpThe Gay DesperadoHigh, Wide and HandsomeGolden BoyThe Mark of ZorroBlood and SandRings on Her FingersSummer HolidaySilk StockingsRed HarvestThe Dain CurseThe Maltese FalconThe Glass KeyThe Thin ManThe Continental OpSam Spade Ned BeaumontNick and Nora CharlesAfter the Thin ManShadow of the Thin ManWatch on the RhineSecret Agent X-9Roadhouse NightsWoman in the DarkSatan Met a LadyAnother Thin ManThe Thin Man Goes HomeSong of the Thin ManNo Good DeedLillian HellmanHammettDash and Lilly