The first thing that stuck me as I was watching this gem was the lack of a sound track. Other than the club scene where a band is jamming there is no music at all. The introduction of sound in film was so recent that technique hadn't been fully developed yet. But the strange thing is that the dialog was enough to fill that void. It actually didn't even appear as a shortcoming. And another strange thing: the bad guys were played by actors who always play honorable characters, Paul Lukas and Guy Kibbee, and boy are they despicable. Very good at it too, especially Kibbee. I never thought of that jovial, ebullient character actor as able to bring it off but he does, and well. As for Lukas he is evil incarnate. There's plenty of other reasons to watch this one. The story is gripping. The camera work was way ahead of its time. Character development is superior. And I could go on and on. If there was ever a film deserving to be digitized this one is it.
Review of City Streets
