The St. Louis Kid

"The St. Louis Kid" was just another routine "Warner Bros" film for James Cagney. By the time of this film's release in 1934, working relations between Cagney and the studio were becoming more strained. It wouldn't be long before Cagney filed his lawsuit against "Warner Bros." The story of the above film is about as simple as it gets. Cagney plays a trucker who takes on a rival trucking firm after they plan a hostile takeover. Real life friend and regular studio player, Allen Jenkins is on hand as the rather dumb sidekick. Patricia Ellis is a capable leading lady after she did well opposite Cagney in "The Picture Snatcher." The fans wanted to see our hero scrap with the villains and charm the ladies. We get plenty of both.

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 Beer would be much cheaper, as prohibition had just been repealed when this was being shown in theaters.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.

... because the first half has a hard time getting started. Ed Kennedy (James Cagney) and Buck (Allen Jenkins) are long haul truckers who get into trouble with fist-to-cuffs throughout their runs. Ed decides to stop this behavior, but out on a run a local girl runs into the back of their truck ( Patricia Ellis as Ann Reid) and claims it was all their fault. They get dragged to a local court but get out of their mess by talking up the virtue of the farmer and how he doesn't have a chance against the dairy cartels- Ed just read the local paper. The judge lets them go, impressed with their knowledge of local issues. But they are right back in it again when a real war starts between the dairy farmers in the same locality and truckers trying to bring low priced milk from other places into these areas.

There are just lots of fights and one-upmanship that isn't particularly funny and doesn't lead anywhere until Ed is framed for the murder of a farmer that Ann witnessed, and Ann is missing too, kidnapped by the gangland thugs who really committed the murder. At this point the suspense goes up and the film intensity level became more what I expect from a Cagney film. Had both halves been as good as the second half, I'd have given the whole thing a 7 or 8 out of 10.

Patricia Ellis just doesn't work for me as Cagney's love interest in this. I think WB was trying to build her up into being a new Joan Blondell type, but the character she is playing is just too unlikable and self righteous.

An interesting aside - Cagney was sick of being the guy who goes around punching people, so he had the makeup man wrap his hands in bandages, and in the opening scene tells Allen Jenkins he won't be punching people anymore. When a fight does break out, Cagney hits the other guy's head with his own head, and down they go. Cagney was just trying to vary the old punching formula, but director Ray Enright thought Cagney was trying to hurt his means of making a living and get him in trouble with Jack Warner.

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.

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.