The St. Louis Kid

St. Louis Kid, The (1934)

*** (out of 4)

Exciting Warner Bros. "ripped from the headlines" film has James Cagney playing a truck driver who gets involved in a battle between farmers and the businessmen who aren't paying enough for milk. This is a fast, fun and action packed film, which is what audiences expected from a Cagney film. Cagney is very good in the role of the fast talking, quick to throw punches truck driver and the supporting cast helps him well.

Jimmy the Gent (1934)

** (out of 4)

A crooked businessman (James Cagney) pretends to go straight to win back his ex (Bette Davis). Considering the two leads and director Michael Curtiz, this was a major disappointment that really didn't work on any level. The only real reason to watch this is the performance from Cagney as well as his shaved head. Davis is very boring throughout and really brings down the film because she has no chemistry with Cagney.

Jimmy Cagney plays a 'little tough guy' truck driver who is pulled into a dispute between farmers and a dairy syndicate. Great old WB social drama with a cast of solid character actors like Charles C. Wilson, Robert Barrat, Hobart Cavanagh, Addison Richards, Arthur Aylesworth, and the always terrific Allen Jenkins. Patricia Ellis is the girl who hates Cagney at first but comes around to loving him by the end of the picture. Cagney's the main reason to watch, of course, and he's loads of fun as the cocky, wise-cracking runt that's quick with his fists. It's a fast-paced and entertaining movie with a little bit of a then-topical message for flavor. If you're a fan of Cagney or these types of movies WB put out in the 1930s, you'll probably like this a lot.

Tough guy eddie kennedy and his sidekick buck are a truck driver team. They run into trouble in a little country town when they cross the local big shot. But eddie does hit it off with the cute owner of the local diner. And gets caught up in a battle between the local farmers and the big boss. Cagney already had his quick, new york city mobster accent, yeah, see? He and the nasal allen jenkins had been in hollywood for a couple years. Milton kibbee, one of the kibbee brothers, is in here as the supervisor. Pretty good script ! Some pretty dated references, like when two local girls sit at buck's table and ask for the expenseive champagne cocktails, and he yells "two beers!" to the bartender. Beer would be much cheaper, as prohibition had just been repealed when this was being shown in theaters. A whole lot of story stuffed into this warner brothers tale of 67 minutes. Directed by ray enright. Pat ellis died so young at 53. And cagney would get his oscar for yankee doodle about ten years after this film. It's pretty good. Very entertaining. A snapshot of the times.

People watch the old Cagney films to see tough Cagney do some beatdowns and charm the girl, and there's a lot of that in this flick. Especially beatdowns - Cagney is always fighting and in and out of jail, even when he can't use his hands (he'll just head-butt everyone within range instead). Heck, he even gives his sidekick a good shot (it was deserved though).

While "The St. Louis Kid" won't win any awards, it's mid-1930's Cagney talking fast and doing his thing, this time battling, well, pretty much everyone. He even goes after a girl who hates him, but she's pretty hot so that's no mystery why he'd do that. There's a few cool old-timey car and truck crashes too that are fun to watch.

Plot? There's a plot in there somewhere, but really this is just simply fun Cagney viewing.

In practically every Jimmy Cagney film of the early through mid 1930s, he plays a fast-talking lovable jerk. However, in this film, he is so obnoxious and so pugnacious that the character actually crosses an invisible line for me--to being unlikable and even ridiculous. This is saying a lot because I generally love Cagney films and will put up with a lot from his loud-mouthed characters! In this case, he plays a guy that seems to be in court ALL THE TIME for assault. His character makes Mike Tyson's out of the ring behaviors seem restrained--he's that quick to fight. In fact, in the first half hour, he goes from one jail to another in the space of a day--he's that out of control. As a result, I kept thinking to myself that sooner or later, this character MUST be sent to prison for "hard time" instead of bouncing in and out of jail again and again. Plus, even if he never got sent away for a long stretch in prison, he should be in debt for the next 600 years due to his getting fined almost every day for fighting.

All this fighting just defies common sense--as does his behaviors when trying to woo the lady who hates his guts. He's in jail in a small town and he waits until the jailer falls asleep and lets himself out of jail so he can stalk and annoy her! And, naturally being a Hollywood film, he DOES charm the lady with his relentless and obnoxious ways! This pushiness is NOT vintage Cagney, but once again a super-obnoxious and ridiculous character--the guy once again crosses the line.

The rest of the film does get better once you get to the final third, but by then I was so irritated with this film (in particular Cagney's character), that I just wanted it all to end. This has to be among the worst Cagney films I have seen despite the improvement towards the end.