Undercover Money (1930s Movie)

Undercover MoneyAmy Spencer and Annie Cappetta

Plot Summary:This movie follows Howard F. Stowe, or “Stowie” as his old friends call him. Stowe grew up on the streets, and was heavily involved in gang activity. Somehow, unbeknownst to the audience, he breaks free from the gang life and become captain of his city’s police department. He has a great family, three kids, and goes to church every Sunday. On his way home from church one day, he sees a bank robbery take place, and a man fleeing the scene (bank robbery was the aim of most of this gang’s crime). He arrests this man, and upon the arrest realizes the man was his best friend from childhood Jimmy Smalls, presumably still involved in gang activity. Stowe gets back involved with his old gang going undercover pretending to be a dirty cop. Through this investigation, he uncovers evidence of the corporate heads at several of the banks the gang has robbed being involved with fraud costing the people of his city millions of dollars. Stowe arrests the bankers, and the evidence also exonerates Smalls, who Stowe then convinces to join the police force and leave the gang life. We also find out at the end that Smalls was the one who helped Stowe get out of the gang life when he was younger, and Smalls has avoided being involved ever since.
Relevance to 1935:
A 1935 audience would enjoy this movie because it's under their favorite category of gangster films, but the story has an original twist that they'll love. Given the Great Depression is going on during this time the audience will resonate with the idea that banks are the bad guys. Also, people will be able to relate themselves to "Stowie" because he's kind of your "average Joe". 

Style:
This film would take on a critical feel towards banks while still maintaining a gangster-esque quality. In addition, the movie would exude a feeling of slight confusion as to what side "Stowie" is playing for and a touch of humor and sarcasm.


Message:
The basic message is a few things.
1.) Banks are the bad guys
2.) Despite having a "stretchy" past you can make something of yourself it you're willing to try and work for it. ("Stowie" used to run with gangs as a kid and grew up to be a cop, and Smalls ends up joining the "good side".)
3.) Sometimes the lines between doing the right thing and doing the wrong thing are blurred. (Stowie seems to be doing some "sketchy" stuff with his old gang, but in the end he "saves the day".)

Genre:
As far as genre goes, this movie is obviously a gangster movie. This genre goes well not only with the studio we chose (Warner Bros. known for doing gangster movies), but it also goes well with much of our cast. (James Cagney and Paul Muni were common gangster film actors.) We liked the idea of doing a gangster film since in the 1935s everybody liked a good old gangster movie. (Violence sells, more about in the Hay's Code section)

Studio:
We decided that Warner Bros. would be the best fit for our movie for a few reasons.
1.) Warner Bros. was known as the gangster film "kings"
2.) They were known for doing movies that were bold and dealt with some of the contemporary societal issues going on. (Banks and Depression)
3.) They had contracts with the actors we wanted to star in the film.
4.) We wanted our movie to make sound a big part of the movie and they were one of the first ones "out of the gate" with sound technology. (Vita-phone, sound-on-disc.)
5.) They targeted a "blue collar" audience and we feel that our movie would do well with that particular audience. (We think our movie would do well with all audiences, but especially blue collar due to the Great Depression/Bank connection.)

Scale:
Given the studio we chose we knew we couldn't have an extreme budget, but since we decided to go with a sound focus, we would be able to save money on what would be expensive violent scenes. (Sound would replace some of the more "dicey" action in the movie as a way around the Hay's Code as well.) While some of our crew is a bit pricey (James Cagney) our supporting actors would make up for some of the losses there. Also, our director, though known and talented, is not someone really expensive, like Capra or Hawke.

Cast and Crew:
Lead Actors:
James Cagney: We chose Cagney for his background in gangster films, his relationship with Warner Brothers, and his relationships with the other actors that were chosen. He commonly worked with Joan Blondell as well as playing opposite role of Humphrey Bogart. He was is famous movies like Public Enemy, Little Caesar, and Smart Money. 
Paul Muni: We chose Muni for similar reasons as Cagney. Muni was also a well known gangster star and he has a familial background in acting. In addition, he had the lead role in Scarface (1932), a famous gangster movie.
Supporting Actors:
Humphrey Bogart: We chose Bogart for his partnership with Warner Brothers, his commonality for playing as a supporting actor, and his experience with gangster films. He was also commonly casted as Cagney's opposite as I mentioned before.
Joan Blondell: We chose Blondell for her acting relationship with Cagney, her pre-existing contract with Warner Brothers, and her skill as a supporting actress.
Director-Raoul Walsh: Walsh was our choice director for a number of reasons. We knew he was a great director because of his success previously. When he was younger, his first feature-length film was a gangster movie by the name Regeneration which came out in 1915. He also worked with the famous D.W. Griffith as his assistant and had a relationship with Warner Brothers as well as Bogart and Cagney. As a side note, he wore an eye patch because he got into a car accident.
Sound Engineer-Nathan Levinson: Levinson seemed to be a perfect fit for our movie given his extensive successful background. He has won 16 Academy Awards for best sound and he worked on the all famous first sound film The Jazz Singer. In addition to that, he worked with Warner Brothers.

Hay's Code:
Due to the nature of gangster films, violence is a must, but since the code doesn't like violence or the demonstration of how to carry out a criminal act we are replacing scenes that would otherwise be screened by the code with intense detailed sound that would be able to portray what is going on. Another part of the movie that was molded around the code was the decision of Smalls to break his ties with his gang for the "good" life of a cop.

Technology:
Due to Warner Brothers being one of the top-runners when it comes to sound, sound is going to play a big role in our movie. Vita-phone technology used with the sound-on-disc idea will allow the audience to experience a great gangster film that will leave a memorable impact on the viewer whether they paid attention to the plot or not. Our only other important technological choice was that we want the movie to still be a black and white film. While color could have been made possible, for the particular movie we felt black and white sufficed for many reasons. Most importantly, color would have been too expensive for the lower end budget of our movie. Another valuable reason that black and white would be better for our film is that it's what the people were used to and black and white was seen to portray reality over what was at the time considered colorful surrealism. As was later seen in the Wizard of Oz, color was more used in movies to represent the unreal. A minor reason would also be that black and white films tend to make the idea of good vs evil more prominent, if only slightly.

Changes?
While I hadn't really had what our result was in mind when I thought about this project, now that it is completed, I wouldn't really change a thing. I felt that all out big decisions seemed to be good ones that made sense with the time period and what would have happened. My only change may have been in making the plot of little clearer since I myself still don't really know how everything would work out in the end. Since we didn't need to really know how our movie would work itself out though I don't really have much to say for change. Fortunately, Annie and I were on the same page about our project and we made our decisions unanimously.