Stool Pigeons and Pine Overcoats: The Language of Gangster Films (2006 Video) User Reviews

They Were Just 'Regular Guys,' See?

[ccthemovieman-1 · 6/10 · 3 July 2007]

This documentary mainly points out the difference between the "haves" and the "have-nots," how gangsters in these 1930s films talked in a more realistic way than most of the other characters in films of that decade, meaning the "rich men sounded English and snooty."

This also is a tribute to James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart and George Raft, four guys who "talked like normal people" and were men that the public could relate to "because they talked liked us," according to people interviewed in this documentary. Cagney, it seems, has the most fans.

These 1930 gangsters were a shock to the audiences because they guys talked so differently than the refined, fake-sounding accents and dialogs that so many actors used in so many of the other films.

I am repeating some of this but that's what the documentary does, too, emphasizing a similar point but expressing it in different, with different people. You get film historians, critics and modern-day actors (i.e. Michael Madsen, Theresa Russell, Talia Shire) all comment about how these old-time guys (and women) sounded. The consensus is the same: everyone related to them and loved 'em.

A Brief But Interesting Conversation

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 20 February 2013]

Although this documentary is very short, and thus not very in-depth, it does raise two interesting points.

One, apparently there were only two ways to talk in early films -- with excellent English, or like a gangster. And gangsters talked the way regular people talked. This suggests that it was the people talking correctly who were strange and the gangsters who were actually a good reflection of society. Oh?

And two, the question is raised: did the movies imitate gangsters, or did the gangsters imitate movies? Of course, the correct answer is both. Gangsters who grew up with gangster movies would surely emulate their heroes and borrow the language, and to some degree the films had to be based on real people and events. As for the origins of such terms as "stool pigeons" and "pine overcoats", the answer is never really explored here. Unfortunately.

From Little Caesar to The Roaring Twenties, oh how fabulous.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 7 April 2017]

A great look back at the days of EGR, Cagney, Bogart, Raft and the many others who moved onto the wrong side of the law. It was the era as "Nya", " Shut your pie hole!", "You dirty rat", as Bogart would say "the era of dee's and doe's". Even today, you'll hear someone from the Bronx or Jersey (" Joisy") speak like that. But the days of the Warner Brothers gangster film is fortunately preserved, criminals with ties, expensive suits and crass ways of speaking the English language. But the criminals were also sometimes well educated and well spoken, and they represent the men behind the rackets, those with the money, power and influence to get the racket off the ground. Dumb cops, sassy kids, wise cracking molls, all covered in thus 20 minute mini documentary. I can watch those films over and over, and in seeing these brief histories, I learn a new perspective. All the other studios did these types of films, but Warner Brothers by far did it the best.

Those looking for a dictionary of gangster-speak . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 19 February 2015]

. . . most likely will be sorely disappointed by STOOL PIGEONS AND PINE OVERCOATS: THE LANGUAGE OF GANGSTER FILMS. Distinct examples of "Whaddya hear? Whaddya say?" (such as those in the title of this 21-minute documentary short) are few and far between. No now-archaic slang terms are explicated by the 16 "talking heads" given face time here, including Michael Madsen, Frank Miller, Theresa Russell, Martin Scorsese, and Talia Shire. A much more accurate title for this haphazardly-edited collage of opinions might be WHAT GANGSTER MOVIES MEANT TO ME. That's pretty much what we get here: an endless stream of personal anecdotes (intersperced with sometimes apt film clips) from the talking heads, many reaching back to their childhood years. Several film profs are numbered among STOOL's Pontificators. If one of their students turned STOOL in as a senior project, I doubt it would have any chance of getting a mark higher than a "C" from any of them.