Angels With Dirty Faces - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• Warner Brothers created a 1939 cartoon that spoofed a film called Thugs With Dirty Mugs.
• In the episode It's Never Too Late of Batman: The Animated Series, some elements of the film were used.
• A parody of the film appears in Home Alone as Angels with Filthy Souls. In the parody, the gangster Johnny fires a lengthy machine gun salvo before remarking, "Keep the change, ya filthy animal."
  • In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, scenes from a sequel to that film, Angels with Even Filthier Souls. In the sequel, Johnny fires his Tommy gun before saying "Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal. And a Happy New Year". In the two movies, Kevin uses the movies as an illusion to make others think that they were talking to Johnny, and that he was shooting at them.
• A 1993 episode of the British TV comedy Hale and Pace featured a seven-minute sketch parodying Angels with Dirty Faces. Entitled Angels with Big Trousers, the black-and-white faux-movie sketch featured Norman Pace playing "James Cagney as Rocky Pantaloon" and Gareth Hale playing "Somebody O'Brien as The Irishman" (Hale actually plays two Irishmen, Rocky's priest friend and a policeman). The sketch generally follows the plot of the movie, condensed and with some comedic differences. Rocky Pantaloon is a gangster whose trademark is wearing enormous trousers, and it is implied that he and the priest had a homosexual relationship in their youth. In addition to crying and sniveling on his way to the electric chair, Rocky suffers from extreme nervous flatulence and whilst on the chair, his trousers inflate with gas and he explodes. Hale and Pace brought the characters of Rocky Pantaloon and the Irishman back in another sketch, entitled Somebody Up There Wears Big Trousers (a partial parody of the film Somebody Up There Likes Me).
• Ram Jaane is an Indian Bollywood remake of the movie in 1995. Shahrukh Khan was cast as Rocky in the movie aside Juhi Chawla in one of his early villain roles during his first years in Bollywood. It took almost three years to complete.
• Trip hop artist Tricky released an album named Angels with Dirty Faces.
• The 2011 video game LA Noire offers this film as one of 50 gold film canisters scattered around the game world.
• A parody was performed in recurring Sesame Street segment Monsterpiece Theater, with the title Monsters with Dirty Faces. Police officer Grover shows monster gang leader Rocky how to wash his face.