Torrid Zone

Good movie - love the way Ann Sheridan goes head to head toe to toe with Cagney in some very snappy dialogue.

This film is basically "The Front Page" set on a banana plantation, with the "Oomph Girl" thrown in for a love interest, but somehow it manages to transcend that sort of genre-typing.

Everyone from Jimmy Cagney and Pat O'Brien (in one of the best of their 10 films together) to George Tobias shines in this snappy action-romance, sprinkled with the kind of dialogue that made the movies of the '30s and early-'40s the most fun ever. My favorite exchange in the history of film is in this movie...

Helen Vinson (Gloria) is kissing Jimmy Cagney (Nick), and her cigarette has slipped from her fingers to the floor. The camera follows the cigarette down, and then a hand reaches in from out-of-frame to pick it up...the camera pulls back to reveal Ann Sheridan (Lee):

Lee: This is how the Chicago Fire got started.

Gloria: The Chicago Fire was started by a *cow*.

Lee: History repeats itself.

Now, how can you not love a film like that? Ann Sheridan singing! Pat O'Brien conniving! George Tobias as a Latin American bandit! Jimmy Cagney with a mustache!

Sadly, Torrid Zone is not yet available on video, but it shows up on TV from time to time. Don't miss it!

Even in comparison to today, when films shoot on location, Warner Brothers' tropical set looks like the tropics. It's not distracting; I'm thinking of the obvious painted backdrop in the last scene of "Treasure Island." In 1940's "Torrid Zone," Pat O'Brien is Steve Case, who manages the Banana Company in the Caribbean. His life has been no game since his co-worker, Nick Butler (Cagney) left to take a job in Chicago and continually sends him mocking telegrams - collect.

He needs Nick to take over one of the plantations, so he makes a deal with him - just work for two weeks. Nick agrees; the money will be useful.

There are also troubles with the rebel Rosario (George Tobias), who is on a hunger strike. The prison is afraid that he'll die before they can shoot him. Steve says, then just shoot him now. But Rosario escapes.

Then there is Lee Donley, an earthy, sexy nightclub singer whom Steve wants on a ship bound for the U.S. She doesn't want to go and tells Steve "The stork who brought you must have been a vulture." Lee meets Nick, and sparks fly. Nick meanwhile has a flirtation with the wife Gloria (Helen Vinson) of a former manager Bob Anderson (Jerome Cowan). Lee ends up staying at their house and walks in on a kiss between Nick and the wife. There's a lit cigarette on the floor. Lee picks it up. "I believe Chicago fire started in a very similar manner," she says. "The Chicago fire was started by a cow," an aggravated Gloria says. Lee remarks, "History repeats itself." You just can't beat dialogue like that, and that's one of the things that makes "Torrid Zone" so much fun. Cagney, O'Brien, and Sheridan are all known commodities, with Sheridan at the top of her game, sparring with both Cagney and O'Brien, looking great, and doing her own singing. When she has to be serious and heartbroken, she is.

Even Rosario's impending death is handled with some humor.

Very good and recommended, a real treat from Warners.

This was the final film for James Cagney and Pat O'Brien who in my opinion invented the buddy film. O'Brien would be leaving Warner Brothers the following year and the two of them would not get together in another film until Ragtime in 1981 in which they both had small parts.

It's a typical fast paced comedy for both of them, they were incapable of doing anything else together. O'Brien slowed down when he was in a clerical collar and Cagney when he was doing a nostalgic film, but together the lines go at light speed.

Except when Ann Sheridan is concerned. Director Bill Keighley always slowed the pace for Sheridan because he didn't want anyone to miss some of her tart sayings. She has some of the best lines ever in her career. Typical being when she tells O'Brien that the stork that brought him must have been a vulture. Or when she's constantly one upping Helen Vinson who made a career of playing the other woman.

O'Brien is the hardnosed manager of a tropical fruit company and he's in big trouble because a local Sandinista type bandit leader, George Tobias, is wrecking his operations. Another distraction is Ann Sheridan whose redheaded beauty he figures is too much of a distraction to the men where redheads are scarce. Notice how O'Brien tells the local authorities what to do. More truth than humor in that situation.

He's desperate enough to hire back his number one troubleshooter James Cagney who gets the job done, but always gets himself in a jackpot where women are concerned. He's taken a fancy to Sheridan and she him.

A couple of other reviewers have pointed out the obvious similarities between this and The Front Page. The first film version of that classic play is the one where Pat O'Brien made his screen debut as the ace reporter. However he did it on Broadway in the role of the editor which he's playing here.

Perhaps this might be better described as another version of His Girl Friday. I can't say remake because both films came out at the same time. Sheridan comes off the same way as Rosalind Russell does in His Girl Friday, but Keighley also wants to accent her sensuality as well as her sharp tongue. He succeeds admirably because no woman in their previous films quite put off both Cagney and O'Brien the way Sheridan does.

The woman sure had oomph.

I think this is one of the funniest comedies ever made. This film should be considered a masterpiece. James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Pat O'Brien, Helen Vinson, Jerome Cowan, Andy Devine, George Tobias and George Reeves star in this fast-paced action comedy. The dialog is very very fast and so funny. Why this film isn't on DVD is a crying shame. The real star of the movie is the legendary movie star and sex goddess Ann Sheridan. She steals every scene she is in. Its not easy to steal a film from James Cagney, but Ann Sheridan does in this one. I remember when the American Film Institute picked the 100 funniest films of all time, this was missing, but it was in their top 500 for the voting category. It should have been in the top 100 as far as I am concerned. If you never saw the film, please look for it on Turner Classic Movies they play it often. Why they don't release this movie as part of an Ann Sheridan box set is beyond me, she is an incredible actress and even a better comedienne. I won't give anything away. Just sit back and enjoy a bunch of pros do it for you.