The Doorway to Hell is a 1930 Pre-Code crime film directed by Archie Mayo

Archie Mayo

Archie Mayo was a movie director and stage actor who moved to Hollywood in 1915 and began working as a director in 1917....

 and starring Lew Ayres

Lew Ayres

Lew Ayres was an American actor, best known for starring as Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front and for playing Dr...

 and James Cagney

James Cagney

James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...

 in his second film role. The film's title was typical of the sensationalistic titles of many Pre-Code films. It was marketed with the tagline, "The picture Gangland defied Hollywood to make!" Ayres plays a young Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 man who attempts to go straight, but is continually pulled into the gangster lifestyle. A recent review by Allmovie that was reprinted in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

noted that the picture was an "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 shoot-outs, and lots of rum-running rivalry."