It's a really good movie (if a bit corny), but it belongs heart and soul to Jimmy Cagney, not Bogart. If memory serves me right, Bogart plays a sleazy lawyer who betrays Cagney. Although the part is central to the storyline, and Bogart does his best with it, it's a relatively one-dimensional character. Instead of Bogart, the plot focuses on the life-long friendhship of Cagney's character and that of Pat O'Brien. Friends since childhood, Cagney's Rocky Sullivan grows up to become a criminal while O'Brien's Jerry Connelly becomes a priest, whose mission in life seems to be to save the Dead End Kids from a life of crime by getting them to play basketball. Corny? Sure it is, but Cagney and O'Brien are such magnificent actors that they manage to pull it off with aplomb. Cagney, as usual, is sensational. He was and remains one of my all-time favorite actors. I love the final scene where he walks to the electric chair with a knowing smirk on his face before staging his last-minute "break-down" at the request of O'Brien, who doesn't want his boyhood chum to die "game" and become even more of a hero to the Dead End Kids (some claim there's confusion as to whether Cagney's character is putting on an act or is truly afraid, but to me it was obvious that he was honoring O'Brien's request). I used to love the Dead End Kids (or the Bowery Boys, as they were sometimes known) when I was a kid, but they get on my nerves when I watch them now. What a quaint notion and premise--that we can save street thugs from a life of crime by getting them to play basketball!