Hard to Handle

Ignore the haters that didn't appreciate this unpolished gem from the gold digger era. It's Cagney in a romantic comedy as a low-grade con man, against a mother-daughter team in matching outfits looking to bag a rich husband. When his scams profit, mother Ruth Donnelly thinks he's a perfect mate for daughter Mary Brian, but when his fortunes turn as they often do, the ladies switch polarity. Donnelly never misses an opportunity to kick him while he's down, meanwhile Brian's passion for underdogs cools when he's in the black.

If you're looking for Cagney as a toughguy gangster this isn't it, although the film takes some timely, self-aware potshots at Cagney's image including grapefruit jokes. Here his schemes are mostly harmless like rigging a dance contest, and he's as likely to be scammed as he is to make a big score. I can see how his fans might be disappointed, but Cagney was also a song-and-dance man and a self-depricating comedian. Gold digger comedies, like crime-genre and noir, are filled with amoral characters and backstabbing frenemies but played for laughs. It's easy to forgive shady motives when the leads are wholesome Dick Powell and sunny Priscilla Lane. James Cagney on the otherhand has electricity and an edge that plays for darker characters. Here he's forced to rely on charm and guile - you may be waiting for him to bust up the joint and rub out his enemies, but gold digger heroes are lovers not fighters. This isn't his best fit, but "date movie" Cagney is the nicer guy who doesn't smash citrus in women's faces.

Ruth Donnelly anchors the meandering plot as the most gold digger-y character in a gold digger comedy. What kills the film is the casting of elegant Mary Brian who mostly stands around looking pretty. Her "inverse barometer" reactions to Cagney's ups and downs would have played better with a more sexual screen presence. She represents the female sexual urge, while mother Donnelly represents the brain, conflicted over bad-boy Cagney's tumultuous circumstances. They dress alike because they metaphorically are one woman, but also because it's funny hanging a lampshade on their mother-daughter bear trap. The clever subtext is that Cagney can't win the girl until he figures out how to appeal to both women's sensibilities at the same time.

This film holds up really well and can still raise a laugh.The mother is hilarious as she sways to and from Cagney as a prospective husband for her daughter according to his financial position at the time. The film breezes along with some predictability but the sparkling script and entertaining cast more than compensate. A great pity that the film is unavailable but I recorded it on Channel 4 in the UK some years ago and was pleased that I have now finally got round to watching it! Set during the Depression era, the opening marathon dance scenes sequences capture the desperation of the poverty-stricken at that time who would do almost anything to get ahead.The power of advertising and the gullibility of the public are admirably portrayed with a tongue-in-cheek humour that constantly appearing throughout the film. I laughed out loud several times which has not always been the case when I have been watching so-called comedies of recent times!

Hard to Handle has James Cagney dusting off his role as con man that he debuted with in Blonde Crazy. That film was a bit more serious and had the virtue of Joan Blondell.

Here the Blondell role is split in two and Cagney deals with a mother/ daughter duo of Ruth Donnelly and Mary Brian. Like Blondell, Donnelly gives as good as she gets from Cagney.

Donnelly and Cagney were roughly the same age and Brian was about six years younger than Cagney. Ridiculous now when you think about Donnelly and Brian being mother and daughter. No film maker could get away with that casting now.

There's no real story to this film, Cagney moves from one con to another, skirting ever so close to illegality. Donnelly and Brian are alternately for and against him and not at the same time either at certain points.

It's a film that relies solely on the charm of Jimmy Cagney which is considerable. And it's the stuff Cagney was disputing with Jack Warner over.

His last con involved the marketing of grapefruit, from the man who made grapefruit tossing a national past time at breakfast/

I have seen this numerous times and loved it the same each time. Being a devout cagney fan I love all his traits and especially his laughter.

Don't get me wrong he plays the script and follows his lines but as any actor has he has his own mannerisms and quirky ways.

This is the story of a con man who teams up with the usual blonde with one exception he gets the battleaxe mother too and she is exceptionally funny with it. Cagney laughs in every scene as he goes from one con to another. His energy is big, it's like he is dancing through this film.

The usual ups and downs, dumb blondes, twists and double crossings make this a short, energetic film a good one.

Overall funny film, fun and happy times.

James Cagney is better in the Roy del Ruth movies of this period. However, he was a dynamic, unstoppable force. He is believable here as a goodhearted con artist with a good heart.

He has some great scenes: In one, he runs down flight after flight of a winding staircase.

Mary Brian is the nominal leading lady. She's OK. But Ruth Donnelly is really Cagney's co-star here. Playing Brian's avaricious, canny mother, she is hilarious. Nobody can put one over on her. If anyone tries, she'll bounce right back. She'll change her tune. She'll double-cross and triple-cross to get what she wants for herself and her pretty daughter.

Donnelly was a reliable supporting performer in more movies than anyone could easily count. Rarely did she get such a role. She grabs it and runs with it. She and Cagney are fantastic together. It's a shame they were never teamed again.