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Cagney departs from his tough, street smart persona to play the gullible, not so tough Biff Grimes. Notice how he loses fight after fight; in one scene he's a barroom bouncer tossing his drunken father out asking his father not to put up too much of a fight "I'm supposed to be a tough guy".

He gets suckered time after time by Hugo and Virginia. That wouldn't have happened to other Cagney characters! His best scenes are with Olivia DeHavilland. What chemistry. Sometimes no dialog, just glances.

The main characters play off each other phenomenally. Even the minor characters are superb. Who was that fat German who blew beer foam into Cagney's face? He was great! The period music is so woven into the story that the movie almost becomes a musical. The lovely theme that's played whenever Olivia DeHavilland come into the scene is "When You Were Sweet Sixteen". Unlike the title song "Strawberry Blonde", it's never sung in the movie but it was popular at the turn of the century. Perry Como made it one of his hits in the early 1940's.

The movie is such a nostalgic, funny, (sad at times) look back at the turn of the century that you wish you could go back there with them.

It's amazing that director Raoul Walsh also made the brilliant, violent, cynical "White Heat" with nary a sentimental, lovable character.

Biff Grimes (James Cagney) struts around like a pugnacious, vainglorious banty rooster in this piece of wartime escapism that harkens back to Victorian America. He has his eye on Virginia Brush (Rita Hayworth), but so does his buddy Hugo Barnstead (Jack Carson). One of them weds Virginia and the other "settles" for her girlfriend Amy Lind (Olivia de Havilland).

The story follows the two couples through good times and bad in an absolutely charming recreation of turn-of-the-century society. The music includes all of the classics of that earlier time, including the enchanting "When You Were Sweet Sixteen." Costumes by Orry-Kelly help revive the formality and stiffness of Victorian manners, but also accent the beauty of Hayworth and de Havilland. If only they had been shot in color!

Miss de Havilland is a revelation as an unconventional young woman who challenges the headstrong Biff. Her role might not have been extremely challenging, but she rises above the script and creates a persona that viewers could fall in love with.

This is not a spoiler, but the end of the film includes an audience sing-along that would have allowed viewers to fully indulge in memories of better times. One can easily imagine their voices rising as one in the darkened theaters of 1941.

Almost all of Cagney's early roles were that of a gangster or a fast-talking con-man. Starting in the 40's as the major studios ramped up their production of patriotic films in anticipation of war, Cagney starred in some military roles such as "The Fighting 69th" and "Captains of the Clouds". However, it was still the same old wise-cracking gangster or con-man - he was just in uniform. Don't get me wrong, I never get tired watching Cagney play these kinds of parts, but I've read that the typecasting was a source of friction between himself and Warner Brothers.

This film is a real departure from the kind of role that Cagney had grown tired of by 1934. In it he plays Biff Grimes, a dentist at the beginning of the 20th century. Biff has had a series of misfortunes heaped upon him throughout his life. To begin with his Dad (Alan Hale) is a ne'er-do-well, and he has a "friend" Hugo F. Barnstead (Jack Carson) who is always managing to get the best of him and then some. Hugo works up from small slights such as not paying back money or leaving Biff with the tab to stealing and marrying Biff's ideal girl and finally setting Biff up to take the fall in some substandard work Hugo's company has done for the city. After Biff gets out of prison after serving time for a crime he didn't commit, he has a chance to get even with Hugo -as in killing him - and make it look like an accident. Since most of the movie is told in flashback, and Cagney is playing a likable if somewhat gullible fellow who has been deeply wronged, you don't know how it will end or what he will do. The supporting cast is great in this one. Jack Carson was always playing the slippery type in Warner films around this time, and he does the job of playing Hugo with believable gusto, always making excuses for his part in Biff's predicaments. Rita Hayworth is cast as "the strawberry blonde" that Biff loses to Hugo, and Olivia De Havilland plays the girl Biff ultimately marries. She turns out to the one piece of good luck that Biff has as she is tough and loyal in a crisis.

A bittersweet romantic comedy, this is one of my favorite post-code Cagney films.

With film stars such as James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, Rita Hayworth, Alan Hale, Jack Carson and George Tobias featured in this film you can expect a highly entertaining romance/drama. Yes, the storyline has been re-done more than a thousand times over and over where boy (James Cagney as Biff Grimes) meets stunning girl (Rita Hayworth as Virginia Brush) and falls blindly in love by the attractive but more cunning woman, and where the third string girl (Olivia de Havilland as Amy Lind) is ignored and insulted by Biff even though she outwardly shows how much she cares for Biff and does not want to see him get hurt by the vixen Virginia.

Biff's father old man Grimes (Alan Hale) is reluctant to find steady work and he would much rather foolishly try to win over a string of already married women that all live in Biff's neighborhood with his charm. Biff is a typical tough guy who is smitten with the out of his league Virginia who likes to play the field and take advantage of as many men as she possibly can date, dine then leave broken hearted at her front door step.

For Biff, there is always the registered nurse Amy Lind who seems to appear and interfere with Biff's attempts at wooing the beautiful Virginia, who was responsible in the first place for Biff and Amy's first few dates.

Yes this is a simple love triangle story seen many times before. the difference though is in the depth of star performances who signed on to make this particular film more than just a cut above its competitors. Although the film is now 77 years young at the time of my writing this review, and where horse and carriage was the preferred method of transportation, and gas lighting before electricity was more common, and the film is in black and white, it rates 4 **** out of 5***** stars in my review. I give the film a solid 8 out of 10 rating and I wish there were more films made like this today.

Hint: Look for a young 27 year old George Reeves as the neighbor's college tough guy Harold in his turtleneck lettered sweater, more than ten (10) years prior to taking on his most famous and popular role in the syndicated (1952-1958) TV series The Adventures of Superman.

What an enjoyable movie with the three stars making it so! James Cagney as Biff Grimes, the local dentist, is a joy and shows how well suited he was to this type of serio-comedy, and what a pity he did not get the opportunity to play this type more in his early days at Warners. I think Olivia de Havilland is the real surprise as Biff's wife and she also showed a wonderful gift for comedy mixed with minor drama - her very special "wink" added so much - she was just great! As the Strawberry Blonde, Rita Hayworth in one of her earliest roles was excellent, and was well supported by Jack Carson, while "Superman" George Reeves had a cameo role early & late in the movie. If you see this, make sure you watch the very end for the sing-a-long, it certainly leaves you with a very good feeling. Alan Hale as Biff's father was a bit over the top, and his scenes dragged a little, but that is irrelevant in the total package.