Movie Picks: Cagney (again)

Lady Killer is another great pre-Code film with Cagney. 1933 brought out another bad-boy-goes-good tale from Warner Brothers.

James Cagney plays a grifter named Dan Quigley who goes on the run with his gang and moll (Mae Clarke, she of the grapefruit scene in Public Enemy), only to find out one of them poisons her against him; when he gets pinched the gang runs off with his money so he can't make an easy bail.

He wallows in his sorrows a while once let out, and a movie director sees him, scruffy and dirty, as the perfect bit player for a prison break scene. With Dan Quigley's genius for manipulating a situation--and some genuine talent--he becomes a star.

The gang comes back, of course...and away we go! Another slam-bang finish, courtesy of the redhead from New York. This film is perfect old Hollywood entertainment. Go find a copy, make a barrel of buttered popcorn, and dig in.

Movie Picks: Cagney in Picture Snatcher

It's probably dull reading day-to-day accounts of the not so rich and famous. Isn't it?

So I will try to drag out something interesting on a regular basis. The Yarn Harlot says Tuesdays are for spinning. In that case, I'll say that Sundays are for movies. I like movie blogs and read a few of the ones that concentrate on old films. (This does not mean 1980s. Think the films your grandparents...or THEIR parents...watched in the cinemas.)

My personal favorites are usually screwball comedy or at least pre-Code, and if it's got elements of both, so much the better.

Accordingly, I'd like to mention Picture Snatcher, with James Cagney and Ralph Bellamy. 1933.

It's a film about an ex-con (Cagney) who has already decided he wants to go straight. He heads to the editor who encouraged him in his dreams of becoming a journalist (this is Bellamy's role), and the games begin.

This one is a good ride. There are some serious and even ugly moments in the film--1933 was a great year for fashion, but not a good time for the common man or woman, especially in the sordid world of this flick. Cagney uses his lightning reflexes and reactions for laughs and to pull you in further. There's even a Mae Clark type scene with an old girlfriend who doesn't want to be the ex.

The girl of his dreams, of course, is the daughter of a cop from the prison. Not just any cop, either; this one filled him full of lead and sent him up the river.

Bellamy gets to play a lush, Cagney gets to mug, and honestly, you're not sure until the very end just what the end will be. I have it on DVD and recommend it wholeheartedly if you're a Cagney or pre-Code fan. It's a helluva good outing for Ralph Bellamy, too.