. . . Ann Dvorak says to James Cagney after five minutes of THE CROWD ROARS. Warner Bros. feels that Ann's observation is so important that they have Cagney repeat it to his kid brother five minutes later for the benefit of theater late-comers. Was Warner cautioning ONLY contemporary audiences about "race" cars Snailing along at Today's Go-Kart pace with this line of dialog? Obviously not, since little if any effort is made toward Realism with THE CROWD ROARS' production. Depicting "Indy Cars" tooling around on a dirt half-mile horse track in blinding clouds of dust as their tires fray faster than Firestones in a desert surely was intended then (and now) to be taken as a metaphorical allegory by Warner Bros.' always prophetic Early Warning Providers. A few years following the release of THE CROWD ROARS, Warner's future Farm Team--MGM--rehashed the Racist Confederate Red Staters' perennial fascination with and hankering for Bloody Wrecks during the opening party scene of GONE WITH THE WIND. Because Southern Bigotry could not long survive without a Fellow Traveler, Warner itself dropped the other boot stomping America to death around the same time as MGM's yawner (the snooze-fest GWTW).
Warner's CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY shows large subsets of the USA's Urban Population as they fall under the sway of Rich People Party Fascism. In THE CROWD ROARS, Cagney half-strangles his sister-in-law Joan Blondell and literally burns his employee "Spud" to death in front of Spud's family. The latter incident causes Cagney to complain about Air Pollution (anticipating the Real Life on-site Nazi Death Camp wive's lament a decade later), but Cagney doesn't give a thought to Spud's widow and child. This, of course, foreshadows the Deplorable Misogyny and Miserly Callousness later epitomized by America's Fascist President #45. THE CROWD ROARS' Irish-on-Irish violence takes GWTW's Racism to its ultimate extreme, as subtle clan and class distinctions cause Cagney to reject Blondell as being "beneath" his kid brother. Warner's implication is that only some sort of Incestual In-Breeding can satisfy these insular insecurities demanding a "Purer" Breed. Warner further warns us of the dangers of putting Trainwrecks on any ballot in America: The Confederate Nazis will rig the election for the Choo Choo Crash every time!
Warner's CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY shows large subsets of the USA's Urban Population as they fall under the sway of Rich People Party Fascism. In THE CROWD ROARS, Cagney half-strangles his sister-in-law Joan Blondell and literally burns his employee "Spud" to death in front of Spud's family. The latter incident causes Cagney to complain about Air Pollution (anticipating the Real Life on-site Nazi Death Camp wive's lament a decade later), but Cagney doesn't give a thought to Spud's widow and child. This, of course, foreshadows the Deplorable Misogyny and Miserly Callousness later epitomized by America's Fascist President #45. THE CROWD ROARS' Irish-on-Irish violence takes GWTW's Racism to its ultimate extreme, as subtle clan and class distinctions cause Cagney to reject Blondell as being "beneath" his kid brother. Warner's implication is that only some sort of Incestual In-Breeding can satisfy these insular insecurities demanding a "Purer" Breed. Warner further warns us of the dangers of putting Trainwrecks on any ballot in America: The Confederate Nazis will rig the election for the Choo Choo Crash every time!