The Bowery [1933] [DVD]

Lovable Wallace Beery and child star Jackie Cooper had a huge public and critical success in The Champ (1931), and here they're reunited in a film based on some romantic legends of old New York.

Tough guy George Raft is Steve Brodie, who (in)famously jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886 (an incident shown to dramatic effect here), while Beery plays his sparring partner in this fast-paced Raoul Walsh production, complete with colourful Bowery language and even more colourful Bowery characters.

This was one of eleven pictures “scream queen” Fay Wray made in 1933 (King Kong was another); the director's younger brother George, the original first choice for the silent Ben-Hur, also has a key role.