Un tiburón en la calle

A Lion Is In the Streets wastes enough talent for at least a half-dozen good movies. It had an excellent director, Raoul Walsh, but a bad script. James Cagney is energetic in the lead, as a Huey Long-like Southern pol, but his accent is poor, and he seems out of place running around the bayous in a white suit. The fine supporting cast,--Barbara Hale, Anne Francis, John McIntire, Warner Anderson--don't have much to work with, and the dialogue is mediocre throughout. Franz Waxman's dynamic, stirring score is wasted also, and deserves a better film. The movie looks anachronistic for its year of release (1953), and might have worked better had it been made in black and white, five or ten years earlier, while color just makes it seem artificial and unreal. I kept on expecting Lon Chaney, Jr. to turn into an alligator man every time he showed up.

The idea of this movie is an interesting one and the political shenanigans are convincing but unfortunately the performance by James Cagney is distinctly over the top. A certain amount of playing to the gallery is appropriate to campaigning but the constant declaiming by Cagney is very wearing; to say nothing of the singing and hammy marching!

It's a shame because some of the supporting performances are excellent, particularly Barbara Hale and Jeanne Cagney.

I would have given this a lower score were it not for the worthwhile content; it's a pity that was let down by the realisation.

A Lion is in the Streets (1953)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Raoul Walsh directs this incredibly uneven and at times poorly written tale of a poor peddler (James Cagney) who finds his calling in politics. After the death of his friend, the man begins to slowly rise up and lead the poor people against the evil rich but this game contains one twist after another. A LION IS IN THE STREETS features a terrific cast, some great cinematography and at times a compelling story but there are just way too many beyond stupid moments that keep this film from being a complete success. I must admit that I got caught up in the story and it made for a mildly entertaining film but at the same time there were moments where I was wanting to scream at the television. There's no doubt in my mind that this was an incredibly poor screenplay that needed a major re-write. There's no doubt that those involved wanted to get their message across but they should have done it with better, more realistic writing. I won't spoil anything but there's a court scene and the sequence at the end, which should have been terrific but they're just so far fetched that the message involved in them are just lost. Another problem is that stuff will come up in the story and never get explained or even commented on again. There's an entire subplot with Cagney's swamp girl lover that comes and goes. Cagney's wife gets pregnant but this disappears from the screenplay only to then pop back up out of no where. There are some terrific performances here including Barbara Hale as the wife, Anne Francis as the swamp girl and we've also got strong work from Lon Chaney, Warner Anderson, John McIntire, Jeanne Cagney, Onslow Stevens and Cagney's old buddy from Warner, Frank McHugh. As far as Cagney goes, there's no question that he's got some passion and fire going on. The performance is incredibly energetic, although the accent comes and goes at times. A LION IS IN THE STREETS isn't a complete success but the cast alone makes it worth sitting through.

I am a massive fan of James Cagney as an actor. I've loved some of the films he starred in, tolerated more. This one falls into the second camp. It is by no means a bad or unworthy film, but it really fails to compel.

Cagney is of course, irreproachable and effortlessly walks away with the film, but he just isn't quite as compelling a figure here as in "White Heat", "Angels with Dirty Faces" or that splendid musical, "Yankee Doodle Dandy". Perhaps it is because the character is really more predictable than most of his characters; based on the Huey Long template. There was not the sense that I was rooting for his character in the same odd way that I usually do when he is essaying a villainous part.

The film is visually quite opulent, but hardly overpoweringly. Perhaps monochrome would have better suited the film's fairly straight forward moral message. The characters, save Cagney's demagogue, are far from that interesting, and play little part, other than be part of the rural "mob" that Cagney is inciting, or part of the slick, gangster-swayed metropolitan set, who replenish Cagney's corruption.

This film just isn't compelling enough; it has a lack of interesting incident, character or dialogue, and while it is morally in a worthy cause (in the era of McCarthy) it is too small a fry in the largely incendiary career of Cagney.

Rating:- ***/*****

It's unfortunate that A Lion Is In the Streets came out after All the King's Men. Both films were based in part on the legend of Huey Long. I think All the King's Men is better, but A Lion Is in the Streets has its moments.

For one thing it has the dynamic presence of James Cagney. You would hardly think that the very urban Mr. Cagney could pull off the role of a southern demagogue, but pull it off he does. It's the story of a man who is an itinerant peddler with a good gift of gab. You like him in those first few minutes of the film as the peddler takes shelter in Barbara Hale's one room schoolhouse. But as he discovers his gift for demagoguery he fascinates and repels the viewer as much as he enthralls the crowds in the film.

For another since our protagonist doesn't quite get to the heights that Broderick Crawford did in All the King's Men, it instead concentrates more on the man's humble beginnings. Instead of being a farmer who was educated by his wife as Broderick Crawford was in All the King's Men, the real Huey Long in fact was an itinerant peddler who was educated by his wife Rose McConnell Long. In fact Huey, Rose, and Russell are the answer to a trivia question as being the only parents and child who served in the United States Senate. Rose was given a temporary appointment to his seat following Long's assassination and son Russell had a considerable career in the Senate himself.

Barbara Hale's role is pretty modest, but that's how Rose McConnell was in real life. In their marriage she put up with quite a lot from Huey.

James Cagney produced this one himself with brother William Cagney taking on the administrative responsibilities and both of them giving little sister Jeanne Cagney her career role. She's the wife of luckless sharecropper John McIntire whose death Cagney demagogues for all its worth. The scene with the dying McIntire in court will chill you with fright. Jeanne is a true believer in Cagney the man and it's her disillusionment with him that leads to the shattering climax.

Other good performances in the cast are Anne Francis as bayou mantrap Flamingo, Larry Keating as the stuffed shirt that Cagney attacks for his own ends, and Lon Chaney, Jr. who is Francis's stern father.

It's not as good as All the King's Men, but A Lion is in the Streets has a lot to recommend it.