Winner Take All

James Cagney plays a dim-witted boxer who falls for a widow with a sick kid, then for a sexy socialite (Virginia Bruce). This is notable for being Cagney's first boxing movie but, beyond that, there isn't a lot to recommend here. The script's kind of all over the place, with the early scenes seeming out of sync with the rest of the picture. Cagney's performance is fine, even if he doesn't have a lot to work with. A nice supporting cast including Guy Kibbee, Alan Mowbray, and Clarence Muse helps. George Raft has a bit part as a bandleader in a night club. Blink and you'll miss him. Clips from this were used in Cagney's final movie, the made-for-TV "Terrible Joe Moran". If you're a Cagney completist, give it a shot. Everybody else go watch City for Conquest.

Resting in the country, lightweight boxer James Cagney (as Jim "Jimmy" Kane) meets sweet widow Marian Nixon (as Peggy Harmon) and her adorable six-year-old son Dickie Moore (as Dickie). You can almost hear the wedding bells warming up when Mr. Cagney gives Ms. Nixon his winnings to save the ranch. But, when manager Guy Kibbee (as Pop Slavin) helps Cagney to the top of the boxing circuit, the champ is lured away from his new sweetheart by shapely New York socialite Virginia Bruce (as Joan Gibson)...

Cagney tries to fit in with the upscale crowd by getting his broken nose and cauliflower ear fixed, but learns looks aren't everything. This variation on the routine boxing picture was unofficially re-made as "Kid Monk Baroni" (1952), an unintentionally amusing drama starring Leonard Nimoy. "Winner Take All" owes its limited success to Cagney's deliberate comedy, although it recalled as his first appearance in a boxing movie. For some reason, Cagney is always funny with a "dresser" and his timing is perfect herein.

****** Winner Take All (7/16/32) Roy Del Ruth ~ James Cagney, Marian Nixon, Virginia Bruce, Guy Kibbee

Winner Take All is an early Cagney punch and rudie, in which he plays Jimmy Kane, a fighter with an ambiguous relationship to the ring. Although a top contender, he's taking off for a rest to a dude spa out west. He says his goodbyes at the Garden and even allows the fight fans to throw money into the ring to speed him on his way. A pre-Gabby George Hayes welcomes him to the Rancho. He meets s single mother with a small child, the always terrific Dickie Moore. Cagney is sporting a bulbous nose and puffy ears and talks through lower eastside mush, but he's always the man. Soon he's back in the ring in a grueling bout in Mexico to raise money for his new sweetheart. The character of Kane is interesting because he seems to have no ties to anyone and is a loner of an extreme even Cagney didn't play much. Cagney, of course excels. There is a nifty little scene with Ralfe Harold who sells hot jewelry, and Virginia Bruce, who should have been a much bigger star, scorches the furniture in every scene she's in. I'll take V.B. any day over most of the other '30s fire-eaters . This picture was new to me and deserves a place in the pantheon of Warner Bros. fast and snappys, if only for the scene where Cagney delays Bruce's ship sailing.

This begins slowly: James Cagney is boxer who needs some rest. He gets sent to a rural area by his manager, Guy Kibbee. There he meets Marian Nixon and her son, the (ostensibly) adorable Dickie Moore. He falls for her.

He goes back to New York and falls for high-class Virginia Bruce. And here it picks up. The early scenes are a little soppy. Back on familiar turf, Cagney can strut his stuff.

Without giving anything away, Bruce humiliates him. He makes himself over for her. There's lots more to come; so I have not given away the plot.

The cast is excellent, including the great actor Clarence Muse as a trainer named Rosebud. Nixon's role calls for her to be a little saccharine. But Bruce is excellent.

This is a change from the early Cagney movies in which he is a cocksure guy who knows the score. He knows the score, but loses track of it for a while.

There are some effeminate stereotypes, including a character played by the always entertaining Alan Mowbry. I can't hold these against the movie, though. They were of its time.

It's not Cagney at his best but it's by no means his worst, either.

Winner Take All is a typical example of the roles James Cagney was so trying to get away from in those early years at Warner Brothers. In this programmer he's a lightweight prizefighter whose fans have to take up a collection in Madison Square Garden to send him away for a rest cure. Seems that Cagney liked the night life just a little too much and its put his health at risk.

While in New Mexico he meets and falls for good girl Marian Nixon and her son Dickie Moore. She's there with Moore for his health problems. An out of condition Cagney takes a local fight there to help pay for their expenses on a winner take all basis and barely survives the bout.

Then when he gets back to New York he starts hanging around with bad society girl Virginia Bruce and her crowd. She makes a chump out of street smart Jimmy.

I don't think I have to say too much more. Guy Kibbee as Cagney's manager and Clarence Muse as his corner man fill their roles very well.

The only two things that Winner Take All became noted for was that this was the first time Cagney did a boxing film. He got into the ring later on in The Irish in Us and City for Conquest. But also footage from this film was used in that last Cagney made for TV film Terrible Joe Moran.

That film was a mistake whereas this one is strictly routine.