El guapo

New York criminal (James Cagney) takes it on the lam and winds up in Hollywood. There he gets a job working in movies, first in bit parts and eventually as a leading man. But when his old gang hears about his newfound success, they come knocking on his door and risk ruining everything for him.

I hesitate to call this a gangster picture like everybody else seems to be doing. Cagney's character starts out the movie joining a gang but it's a gang of confidence men. Then they graduate to robbing houses before someone is shot and they have to leave town. These aren't racketeers or guys shooting it out with tommy guns. So, in my view, they're criminals for sure but not what I would call gangsters. Not that it matters much in the end. This movie reunites Cagney with his Public Enemy costars Mae Clarke and Leslie Fenton. Clarke is a treat to watch and has great chemistry with Cagney. Lovely Margaret Lindsay plays the movie star Cagney falls for. I'm a fan of hers so of course I enjoyed her in this. Highlights include Cagney dragging Clarke out of his room by her hair and Cagney forcing a movie critic to eat his own review. A fun crime comedy from Warner Bros. with another great Cagney role.

When you think of James Cagney, you think of a gangster in films like The Public Enemy, where he smashed that grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face. But Cagney won his Oscar for Yankee Doodle Dandy. He also received nominations for Angels With Dirty Faces and Love Me or Leave Me.

Here he shows just how far his range extends in a romantic comedy which also includes Mae Clarke in a bigger role than you are probably accustomed to seeing her. There is a lot of action in this 76 minute film. Cagney is a theater usher who gets fired and ends up following Mae as she is trolling for suckers to get fleeced by her partners in a card game. He joins the group and they pull bigger more sophisticated cons until a trigger happy gang member kills a servant during a home robbery.

He and Mae head to Los Angeles, and when the LA police hold him for what happened in New York, Myra and one of the gang make off with Cagney's money. The LA police ultimately have to let him go, but penniless he gets increasingly shaggy and ragged looking. This causes him to get picked up for a series of bit parts by a local movie crew exactly because of his scruffy looks. One of the fascinating bits here is seeing how movies were made at the time. He hooks up with star Margaret Lindsay and uses his conning skills to make himself a star. (As an aside, Lindsey made 12 films that year, her second year as an actress.)

Soon, Mae and the gang find him and they want to pick up where they left off, using Cagney to get into posh places that they can rob. He tries to get them out of town, but they see dollars in LA and are going nowhere. How will this all work out? Watch and find out. And like I said, there's a lot of action for 76 minutes and Cagney really shows he can do romance, comedy, and gangster all in one film.

If you want to know how James Cagney become such a huge star, just watch this - not quite this story about a con man who becomes a Hollywood star but how he outshines the rest of the cast. Even though they are all passable actors, Cagney is somehow in a different league. The downside was that by outshining his co-stars, their contributions make the whole film seem a little amateurish. The upside was that to keep up with him eventually everyone had to get up to his standard but this hadn't quite happened by 1933.

This film is super-fast, super-snappy and both reasonably funny and gripping at the same time. Overseen by Warner's production head Daryl Zanuck, it was written specifically for Cagney to highlight his own particular talents and loveable rogue personality.

Warner Brothers knew exactly what they were doing - making a star and making a lot of money but didn't account for Cagney's demands for staggeringly enormous wages. They did their sums and reluctantly always gave in - just watching him in this you can see why.

Lady Killer (1933)

*** (out of 4)

James Cagney plays a movie usher who gets fired and then gets mixed up with some gangster being led by Douglas Dumbrille and Margaret Lindsay. Soon a crime goes wrong so Cagney runs off to Hollywood where he starts work as an extra but quickly becomes a movie star. This is an enjoyable little comedy that works pretty well as a spoof of Hollywood and it gives Cagney a chance to make fun of his own image. Cagney is very good in his role, which once again shows him as a cocky, high tempered thug but there's also other moments including Cagney playing an Indian as well as showing off his comic side. Mae Clarke plays Cagney's love interest in Hollywood and the two are very good together with that infamous scene of Cagney dragging her across the floor by her hair. Both Lindsay and Dumbrille add nice support in their roles. One of the film's highlights is when Cagney orders two dozen monkeys to a party where they escape and cause all sorts of trouble. There's also plenty of nice gags aimed at Hollywood and directors. The film starts to run out of steam during the final act but if you're a fan of Cagney or films of this era then this is certainly worth checking out.

If you like James Cagney, and I sure do, you'll love this comedy melodrama from the pre-code years at Warner Brothers. Cagney portrays a cheap hoodlum who falls in with a gang of petty con artists, gets wrapped on the knucklesl by the long arm of the law, and winds up becoming a movie matinee idol. It's fun all the way, with enough wise-cracking dialogue, rapid action, car chases, gunfire, and double-dealing to satisfy any fan of the early gangster films, yet it's a lively, tongue-in-cheek comedy from start to finish. Enjoy!