The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938)

6.5/10
A pretty good movie, maybe a bit of a disappointment as far as movies with Hitchcock's name on them go. I liked the initial staging in the snowed-in made-up town where you meet most of the characters. The premise starts out with a lot of promise: a lady disappears on a train and a young woman is the only one who seems to know of her existence. I like the initial mystery where it's not clear why other passengers (who have clearly seen the lady in question) are now denying her existence. As the plot unfolded it got more and more lame, culminating in a weirdly out-of-place shootout between train passengers and coppers and leading to a very abrupt, kind of corny ending.

Angels with Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938)

6.5/10
Gangster film from the 30's featuring James Cagney is his first real star turn (he is quite good) and an underused Humphrey Bogart. It deals with a common trope in the gangster movie era, that of the two childhood friends whose lives go in completely opposite directions (Cagney of course becomes a crime world king while his pal becomes a priest). Caught in the middle are the Dead-End Gang, a group of kids increasingly turning away from wholesome endeavours like basketball at the rec centre to follow in the footsteps of gangster idols. Personally I found it lacked action and the good/evil struggle felt played out, but it made up points with its remarkable, unexpected ending that leaves you wondering about Cagney's character's true nature.