Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics

Warner Bros., which emerged during the 1930s as the studio of scrappy, snappy, street-smart films, was also the godfather of the gangster movie, four classic examples of which debut on Blu-ray with new HD transfers in this boxed set. Mervyn LeRoy's Little Caesar (1931), starring Edward G. Robinson as ambitious punk crook Caesar Enrico Bandello (aka Rico), who blasts his way to the top of the criminal underworld, established the classic rise-and-fall arc of the genre—and there's always a fall, because after all of the thrilling violence, these films end with the moral that crime doesn't pay. Even better is The Public Enemy (1931), directed by William A. Wellman and featuring James Cagney, who became a star playing criminal dynamo Tom Powers, whose demise—and its effect on his family—is portrayed in starkly unsentimental terms. The Petrified Forest (1936), based on a stage play by Robert Sherwood and helmed by Archie Mayo, stars Leslie Howard as hitchhiking author Alan Squier and Bette Davis as Arizona diner owner Gabby Maple, but it's more famous for giving supporting player Humphrey Bogart his breakthrough role as Duke Mantee, a mad dog fugitive killer who takes the pair hostage. Raoul Walsh's White Heat (1949) showcases Cagney in an explosive performance as the psychotic Cody Jarrett, who breaks out of prison and regroups with his former gang to carry out a payroll heist at a chemical plant. Each film includes the special features from previous DVD releases—audio commentaries, featurettes, archival shorts, and other supplements—plus the set includes a bonus disc with the documentary Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film and various classic cartoon shorts, as well as a 32-page booklet. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)