The 1938 James Cagney gangster classic « Angels With Dirty Faces » inspired the iconic scene in « Home Alone » where Kevin watches a vintage movie
“Keep the change, ya filthy animal.”
It’s the sarcastic final line of an iconic scene, etched into the minds of countless “Home Alone” fans as a classic and quotable moment in a movie full of them.
And yet, when fans actually go to search for “Angels With Filthy Souls,” the Depression-era gangster flick that Kevin McAllister (Macaulay Culkin) pops into his VCR while he’s, you remember, home alone, they’re hit with the sudden realization: the film never actually existed.
Also Read: ‘Home Alone’ 25th Anniversary: Daniel Stern Talks Macaulay Culkin, Painful Stunts and Never Seeing the Sequel
Instead, the movie-within-a-movie was created specifically for “Home Alone.” The 80-second clip was shot inside an abandoned high school in early 1990, at the beginning of the movie’s production, as Vanity Fair reported in 2015. Venetian blinds were added to give the scene its signature film noir touch.
The fake movie was heavily inspired by a real film, though: “Angels With Dirty Faces,” a 1938 crime film with a cast that featured James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Pat O’Brien.
Cagney stars as Rocky Sullivan, a New York City crook who takes the fall for an attempted armed robbery in exchange for $100,000 and not ratting out his co-conspirator Jim Frazier, played by Bogart. But once he’s out of prison, Sullivan has a tough time collecting his money from Frazier — a payment Frazier has no plans of making — quickly pitting the two gangsters against each other.
