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City for Conquest (1940)

Great credentials here, from director Anatole Litvak to photographers (two of them) James Wong Howe and Sol Polito. That's enough for any movie. And music by Max Steiner, and throw in James Cagney, and you get a sense of the rich tapestry of New York that gets better and better as it goes, with even a small (sensational) part by Elia Kazan and Arthur Kennedy's first role.

Now it's a little stretch to see Cagney as a fighter--he's fit about as much as I am, and has no boxer's physique. But the movie is a hair lightweight in a heartwarming way (this is no Raging Bull, nor even James Garfield, later in the 1940s). But it creates a great milieux, just as the war is going in Europe and the Depression is ending in New York. The streets are abuzz, and love is in the air. There are a lot of 1930s era effects that are quaint--the fast montages of the city, or of dancers--and the plot itself, of a couple destined for each other but buffeted by life's usual distractions, is sweet.

And it all unfolds with such well-oiled perfection, the same era as Kane and Casablanca, and the same studio system and film stock. Great stuff, well made, and overcoming whatever conventional sentiments that thread through it all. It's even enjoyable without the plot, the boatride at night (think Weegee), the street scenes with kids everywhere (think Helen Levitt). It's a surprisingly honest, vivid movie.

James Cagney, Arthur Kennedy and Ann Sheridan all live in the "City for Conquest" - New York, that is - in this 1940 film directed by Anatole Litvak and also starring Frank McHugh, Donald Crisp, Anthony Quinn and - yes, Elia Kazan.

Cagney and Kennedy are the Kenny Brothers, Danny and Eddie. Danny is a truck driver in love with Peg, his childhood sweetheart. He has two dreams - Peg and his brother's composing career. When he's discovered by a fight manager (Crisp), Danny becomes a fighter for the money.

The ambitious Peg has her eyes on fame and fortune and pairs up with a brutish but equally ambitious dancer, played with force by Anthony Quinn. Eddie, meanwhile, is discovered not for his magnificent composition "City for Conquest" but for his Broadway musical capabilities.

When he realizes he's losing Peg, Danny, who is being brought up gradually into the bigger fights, demands to go for a big purse that will give him the championship - and, he thinks, Peg.

Thanks to a crooked mobster, the fight nearly destroys Danny and he has to give up fighting. Down but not out, he insists that Eddie still pursue his dream of a classical career.

This is a good movie that tugs at the heartstrings, very melodramatic, with excellent acting all around. Cagney is wonderful and sympathetic as a simple, loving man who takes what life gives him; Crisp gives a fine performance as his caring fight manager.

Ann Sheridan, always an earthier, tougher version of Rita Hayworth, is marvelous as a young woman who, though she loves Danny, can't fight the lure of the glamor and fame offered by her dance partnership.

Kazan, in a small role as a gangster, is great, though his contributions as a director are far more valuable than what he might have given film history as an actor.

The standout for me was one of the most brilliant and underrated actors of our time, Arthur Kennedy. Kennedy enjoyed a wonderful career in film and on stage in a variety of roles, but because he wasn't a true leading man and not a Warners "tough guy" like Cagney, Robinson, or Bogart who could graduate into lead roles, he toiled as a supporting actor, earning no less than 5 Oscar nominations.

Here he is young and good-looking, and his performance is passionate without being maudlin. Surely there wasn't a dry eye in any movie house after the speech he gives about his brother the night his symphony (very much modeled on "Rhapsody in Blue") debuts. Truly a great treasure, and he was discovered by James Cagney, who knew talent when he saw it.

A heartfelt movie, and you'll need that box of tissues nearby. See it and celebrate the good old days of the rough streets of New York and movies about the common man and dreams coming true.

I saw this movie a long time ago (about 1968) and was quite impressed by the story, acting, and filming. Cagney plays a typical role for him--the decent little guy who's out to do big things but gets beaten down by the bad guys. As in "Angels with Dirty Faces" and "Torrid Zone," he teams up well with Ann Sheridan. Ann worked often and well with the movie tough guys of the late 30's and early 40's (e.g. John Garfield, George Raft, et al) but seems to have become rather forgotten over the years. All I remember of the Arthur Kennedy role is him sitting at a piano in a New York apartment composing a symphony, which he ultimately succeeds in doing due to the sacrifices of his on-screen brother played by Cagney. As I recall, the symphony is titled "City for Conquest."

The ending of the film is exceptionally moving. But for me the best and most memorable sequences were those few brief scenes involving Elia Kazan as Googi Zucco. With his cocky bearing and slick black hair, Kazan plays as good a mob-like thug as anyone I've ever seen.

With a first-rate cast, good boxing sequences, an excellent music score by Max Steiner, a smattering of romance and action sequences, this film has got to be one of James Cagney's best films. Besides, you get a chance to see Arthur Kennedy and Elia Kazan in their first film, and both are excellent. If Kazan weren't such a great director, he easily could have made a career as an actor. Be sure to notice the surprising scene where Anthony Quinn seems to force himself on Ann Sheridan, who pleads for him to stop as the scene fades. Surprising, because even an implied rape was against the strict code in 1940. I wonder how that scene got past the Hays Office.

As working class stiff Danny Kenny who drives a truck for a living, James Cagney created one of his most unforgettable screen heroes and one of my favorite Cagney films in City for Conquest.

No studio could do a working class film like Warner Brothers and this is one of the best. It does get melodramatic and has large doses of sentimentality with it, but never to extreme.

For a guy who eventually makes his living as a prizefighter, Danny Kenny is one of the gentlest heroes James Cagney brought to the screen. His greatest pleasures are found in the girl friend he has from the neighborhood, Ann Sheridan, and in listening to the music creations of his brother Ed, played by Arthur Kennedy in his film debut. Kennedy has ambitions to be a serious composer and Sheridan has ambitions herself to get out of the Lower East Side of New York via show business as a dancer. To realize those ambitions she hooks up with a no good dancer/gigolo in Anthony Quinn.

So Cagney who if he had his way would have been content to spend his life driving a truck, to help Kennedy with his dream and to win Ann Sheridan back, takes up boxing. It all results in some terrible sacrifices he makes for both of them.

Director Anatole Litvak gave Cagney and Sheridan a fine supporting cast to help carry the story along. Donald Crisp is Cagney's manager, Frank McHugh in his ever familiar role as best friend, and future director Elia Kazan as another pal from the neighborhood who becomes a gangster,

Kazan exacts some vengeance on Cagney's behalf, but then pays for it himself in a never to be forgotten death scene.

My suggestion is that when you watch City for Conquest do it alone, because if you do it alone you might more easily give way to tears at Arthur Kennedy's dedication to his symphony to his brother.

Unless you cry better in a group. Kennedy's performance and this scene in particular insured that man of the long and great career he had.

But the film is really for James Cagney fans in every generation.