Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

escalation in illegal drinking places occurred. So did the popularity of nightclubs, with
their jazz and dancing girls, making them a stylistic requisite of the gangster film genre
(and certainly an inspiration for film noir later). Prohibition, moreover, contributed to boost
criminal behaviour, from “moonshining” (people who distilled alcohol illegally) to
bootlegging (those who sold the alcohol and imported it from other countries). It also led
many directors to approach these topics as compelling subjects for films. 13
However, as the introductory quotes above correctly point out, criminal activity had
started long before the thirties. In fact, criminal or gangster films date back to the early
days of film during the silent era, with, for instance, The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), a
17-minute silent film directed by D. W. Griffith. From a documentary perspective, and
shot in the exteriors of the Lower East Side of New York (more specifically on 12 th West
Street, not very far from the production studios of Biograph), the movie offers a view of
organised crime (Pig Alley is precisely the name given to the dregs of the marginal streets
where the protagonists live) and reveals Griffith’s concern with the plights of poor working
people, left to the mercy of criminals. From this point of view, The Musketeers of Pig Alley
can be understood as an anticipation of many other gangster productions – especially
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) – which during the second half of the thirties analyses the
social phenomenon of the causes of delinquency. That noted, the real importance of this
movie derives mostly from the fact that it introduces themes and motives that would be
representative of this cinematographic genre, namely police corruption, the confrontation
of rival gangs, and so forth.
Three years later another silent feature came out, following the same social concern
and bears a suggestive title, Regeneration (1915) by Raoul Walsh. 14 It follows the tale of a
young boy’s life who becomes a ragged orphan when his mother dies. This type of
“regeneration” from child abuse and beating, from slum to settlement, sounds totally unreal
as Owen Conway can be reformed by love. In fact, it proves too difficult for him to resist
the pull of his past life, and therefore denying any possibility of regeneration (fig. 13).
13
Several films were later made on the subject of Prohibition, particularly bootlegging. A 1958 production by
Arthur Ripley, called Thunder Road, is a good example. The film, virtually owned and carried by Robert
Mitchum, is a battle-and-chase crime drama of a Kentucky moonshiner, the US Treasury agents cracking
down on bootleggers and the mobsters who make every attempt to take things over themselves.
14
The script was adapted from a play which was itself based on a book, the autobiography of gangster Owen
Kildare.
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