Tag: James Cagney

Footlight Parade (1933)

Footlight Parade (1933). 102 minutes. Directed by Lloyd Bacon. Starring James Cagney (as Chester Kent), Joan Blondell (as Nan Prescott), Ruby Keeler (as Bea Thorn), Dick Powell (as Scott Blair), Frank McHugh (as Francis), Ruth Donnelly (as Harriet Bowers Gould), Guy Kibbee (as Silas Gould), Hugh Herbert (as Charlie Bowers), Claire Dodd (as Vivian Rich), Renee Whitney (as Cynthia Kent), Paul Porcasi (as George Apolinaris), and Barbara Rogers (as Gracie). Musical numbers directed and choreographed by Busby Berkeley. Music by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, and Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal.

It is hard to believe that the pre-Code Footlight Parade is James Cagney’s first musical film. The actor, who became a superstar because of the gangster film The Public Enemy (1931), had actually trained as a singer and dancer on Broadway before making the leap to movies. But Footlight Parade is not merely notable for being Cagney’s debut as a tap-dancing featured player. It is an outstanding work … Read the rest

White Heat (1949)

White Heat (1949). 114 minutes. Directed by Raoul Walsh. Starring James Cagney (as Arthur “Cody” Jarrett), Virginia Mayo (as Verna Jarrett), Edmond O’Brien (as Hank Fallon), Margaret Wycherly (as “Ma” Jarrett), Steve Cochran (as “Big Ed” Somers), John Archer (as Philip Evans), Wally Cassell (as Giovanni “Cotton” Valletti), and Fred Clark (as Daniel “The Trader” Winston). Screenplay by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Based on a story by Virginia Kellogg.

When James Cagney starred in the pre-Code gangster film The Public Enemy in 1931, little did he know that his on-screen thug persona would quickly become so iconic that he would still be starring in crime movies eighteen years later. Cagney largely considered himself a song-and-dance man, and it was challenging for him to escape from the shadow of The Public Enemy. Aren’t we lucky, however, that Cagney was repeatedly persuaded to act in the crime genre, because he gave us not only Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) in … Read the rest

The Public Enemy (1931)

The Public Enemy (1931). 83 minutes. Directed by William A. Wellman. Starring James Cagney (as Tom Powers), Jean Harlow (as Gwen Allen), Edward Woods (as Matt Doyle), Joan Blondell (as Mamie), Mae Clarke (as Kitty), Donald Cook (as Michael Powers), Leslie Fenton (as Nails Nathan), Beryl Mercer (as Ma Powers), Robert Emmett O’Connor (as Paddy Ryan), and Murray Kinnell (as Putty Nose).

The Public Enemy is the pre-Code movie that solidified legendary actor James Cagney’s reputation for playing tough-guy criminal types. It made a major contribution to the gangster genre under development in the early sound period, which included such groundbreaking films as Little Caesar (1931) and Scarface (1932). Pre-Code gangster films typically feature slick criminal characters who at times are positioned as worthy of our admiration for their personal style, confidence, and strident disregard for authority. One of the wonderful things about the best of those movies, however, is the way that they also provocatively ask us to … Read the rest

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938). 97 minutes. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Starring James Cagney (as William “Rocky” Sullivan), Pat O’Brien (as Father Jerry Connolly), the Dead End Kids (as Soapy, Swing, Bim, Pasty, Crab, and Hunky), Humphrey Bogart (as Jim Frazier), Ann Sheridan (as Laury Martin), and George Bancroft (as Mac Keefer).

Angels with Dirty Faces was famously parodied in the Home Alone franchise as Angels with Filthy Souls, an old violent crime film with an outrageous title that the young protagonist Kevin McCallister watches when his parents are out of town. If you have seen one of the Home Alone movies, you might think that violence and the glorification of the gangster are the defining features of the parody noir’s source material. Yet while Angels with Dirty Faces does depict violence and crime, the movie nevertheless features a complex ending that undermines its gangster protagonist’s rebellious, law-breaking streak, making him appear cowardly and weak. It is an essential … Read the rest

The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941)

The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941). 92 minutes.  Directed by William Keighley.  Starring James Cagney (as Steve Collins), Bette Davis (as Joan Winfield), Eugene Pallette (as Lucius Winfield), and Harry Davenport (as “Pop” Tolliver).

The Bride Came C.O.D. is reminiscent of two other films that I have reviewed recently.  Like von Stroheim’s Greed, it was filmed in Death Valley when temperatures were high.  Like It Happened One Night, it features a wealthy heiress who wants to marry a dashing celebrity of whom her father disapproves, and the plot involves her displacement and an elaborate hunt to locate her.

By the early 1940s, Bette Davis and James Cagney were looking for new material.  Cagney had flourished playing gangster characters in movies such as The Public Enemy, and Davis had had great success in melodramas such as Jezebel and Of Human Bondage, but both actors thought a comedy was necessary to move their careers in fresh directions.  What they … Read the rest