The Doorway to Hell

The Doorway to Hell is a 1930 American PreCode crime film directed by Archie Mayo and starring Lew Ayres and James Cagney, in his second film role. The film was based on the story A Handful of Clouds, written by Rowland Brown. The films title was typical of the sensationalistic titles of many PreCode films. It was marketed with the tagline, The picture Gangland defied Hollywood to make

A recent review by Allmovie that was reprinted in The New York Times noted that the picture was an innovative film and featured a lot of elements that would become standards in the gangster genre including tommy guns carried in violin cases, terrible shootouts, and lots of rumrunning rivalry. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing, Screenplay

Source: Wikipedia