User reviews

Lady Killer (1933)

I love these multi-part stories, where one set of scenes shifts to a whole new set, and then they eventually intertwine. And I also love movies that show the inside of Hollywood, with actual recreations of movie sets and movie shoots.

Lady Killer has both, and James Cagney, too. It's fast, furious, funny, and shot with a bright, glinting intelligence. Not quite a gangster film, it does have crime and some crooked thugs. And not quite a comedy, it pulls out quite a few laughs, mostly because Cagney is a card. There are two fabulous first ladies (and they naturally must view for our man), Mae Clark and Margaret Lindsay, and a slew of second men who hold up their characters with caricature.

In all, there is no Warner message here, except maybe the virtue can sometimes prevail. It's just a lot of great scenes, witty dialog, and a play of good guys against bad guys. Look for some stunning rain scenes in California (yeah, I know), and for a huge range of interior and exterior set ups, fairly elaborate for Warner Bros. budgets.

For Cagney fans, it's a riot to see him take on, briefly, a series of roles as Indian chief, Italian lover, and prisoner on work detail. The latter, of course, is close to the real roles that made him famous, and his role here is actually a little lighter than that, a bad guy who is all wisecracks and cheerfulness. Look for some insider jokes, like the poster (and mention) of the Edward G. Robinson film, and the movie ushers wearing hats all with the Warner Brothers logo on it.

Great stuff. I loved it even as I knew it wasn't quite a masterpiece. Oh, and the new (2010) Warner DVD is sparkling, a first rate print!

If you like James Cagney, and I sure do, you'll love this comedy melodrama from the pre-code years at Warner Brothers. Cagney portrays a cheap hoodlum who falls in with a gang of petty con artists, gets wrapped on the knucklesl by the long arm of the law, and winds up becoming a movie matinee idol. It's fun all the way, with enough wise-cracking dialogue, rapid action, car chases, gunfire, and double-dealing to satisfy any fan of the early gangster films, yet it's a lively, tongue-in-cheek comedy from start to finish. Enjoy!

Jimmy Cagney plays a gangster in this film. However, despite having seen him play such a role in countless other films, this one is unique and well worth seeing because it STILL dares to be different.

Cagney is a wanted man back East, so he gets the idea of going to the West Coast to hang out and wait for things to die down. However, once there he is discovered by Hollywood and stars in gangster films because he is "so natural and believable". Well, despite his very shady past, Cagney tries to go straight and likes the life of a star. However, old associates realize who he is and try to blackmail him.

The film is a light comedy that invigorates the standard gangster genre. For its uniqueness and excellent acting and writing, the film gets an 8.

If you want to know how James Cagney become such a huge star, just watch this - not quite this story about a con man who becomes a Hollywood star but how he outshines the rest of the cast. Even though they are all passable actors, Cagney is somehow in a different league. The downside was that by outshining his co-stars, their contributions make the whole film seem a little amateurish. The upside was that to keep up with him eventually everyone had to get up to his standard but this hadn't quite happened by 1933.

This film is super-fast, super-snappy and both reasonably funny and gripping at the same time. Overseen by Warner's production head Daryl Zanuck, it was written specifically for Cagney to highlight his own particular talents and loveable rogue personality.

Warner Brothers knew exactly what they were doing - making a star and making a lot of money but didn't account for Cagney's demands for staggeringly enormous wages. They did their sums and reluctantly always gave in - just watching him in this you can see why.

Look out, world! Jimmy Cagney's coming to Hollywood and whether they use bullets or make-up the con artists haven't got a chance, in this raucous send-up featuring a New York crime boss who lands himself where the real action is – on a theater marquee.

Cagney is a wise guy named Dan Quigley who can't make it as a movie usher, so he raises his sights from lavatory dice games to breaking into rich folks' homes with the help of a nasty gang. When that goes bad and the gang leaves him flat, Quigley finds a new line in Hollywood, first as an extra, soon after as a "Famous He-Man of the Screen." But what will happen when the old gang shows up for a piece of the action?

The marquee in lights near the start of the film advertises someone called "The Prince Of Pep." He might as well be Cagney in this streamlined star vehicle, written entirely to showcase his fast patter and easy charm. Cagney's so good they don't even bother to build a coherent film around his character, and it hardly matters.

If you want to see a great Cagney film, there are perhaps a couple dozen better candidates. But if you want to see why the guy clicked so hard in the days of early sound, and still packs a punch 80 years later, this should be on your short list.

Cagney's lines here are priceless. To a dog being held by a theater manager who just fired him: "Listen, Fido, this guy's got a wooden leg. Try it sometime!"

To a group of card sharps who just cleaned him out: "I think I'll stick to checkers."

To the same group, after he's figured out their scam: "You kick back with my fifty bucks, or I'll fold your joint like an accordion!"

Just seconds later, he proposes a partnership. "You got a sweet racket here. Maybe I can show you a few new wrinkles."

"Lady Killer" was made just before the Hays Code was seriously enforced, which makes for interesting viewing. Reviewers here have already pointed out a scene when we see Quigley sneak Mae Clarke's character Myra a peck on the breast. The film takes even greater advantage of the liberal mores then still in effect by letting Quigley get away with his crimes. Sure, he goes straight, sort of, but only because he finds a better racket than potentially homicidal B&Es. There's no moment of Quigley coming to regret his wicked past, as censors would have required just months later.

That makes for a more entertaining Cagney vehicle, but a somewhat disjointed film. Director Roy Del Ruth keeps things moving quick, but in odd directions in tone, turning "Lady Killer" from a semi-serious gangster story to a genially goofy Hollywood satire. In his DVD commentary, Drew Casper calls "Lady Killer" a "shyster satire." It might also be called a "crooked comedy;" no one is on the level, whichever side of the law they're on.

So in Hollywood, we see Quigley break big after really slugging an extra in a mock prison break scene, and further his path toward stardom by faking fan letters. It's shallow stuff, but fun, especially as it all plays so fast. Other than the star, pacing is "Lady Killer's" ace in the hole.

Clarke should have graduated from the grapefruit league with this performance. She and Cagney resume their fireworks from "Public Enemy," this time with even more outrageous stunts, but Clarke, here the first- billed female, does wise work making sure we enjoy her comeuppance. Even her catty asides to Cagney, or the way she shamelessly plays with her hair while shaking him down for (more) dough, is on par with Barbara Stanwyck's star-making wickedness.

But make no mistake, "Lady Killer" is Cagney's baby, and he makes it work, despite the tone shifts and the odd title (Quigley's not a killer himself, and doesn't play with women's affections). You root for the guy despite his crookedness, and that's all that matters in the end.

"Lady Killer" represents a combination of talents Hollywood will never see again. There is fast talking James Cagney, who starts the movie as a dice playing, gum chewing usher who makes wise guy, but funny, comments to everyone. In Cagney's opening scene, he just makes it to a count out of the 25 ushers, held on the roof of the movie theater they work at. All wear Warner Bros. uniforms, including a cap with the WB logo on it. As Cagney advances in life, he becomes a partner in a gambling operation. One of his confederates slugged too hard a maid and almost kills her during a home robbery, another criminal activity Cagney's gang is involved in. Cagney tells the confederate (played by a snarling Leslie Fenton), what does he think, the police are dumbbells. Dumbbell was a favorite word of screenwriter Ben Markson, who used it to good advantage in another movie he co-wrote, "Gold Diggers of 1933."

Roy Del Ruth does his usual super job, cramming a ton of action into 76 minutes. There is one scene,where the cab of Mae Clarke's character is stopped at one of those old traffic devices, which has two signal vanes, one marked stop, and the other go. The stop signal goes up, another of Cagney's partners,Douglas Dumbrille, happens to be in the adjacent cab, he gets into Clarke's. He tells her "things are plenty hot in New York, I just jumped my bail and beat it out here by plane," to Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Cagney is being questioned by the LA police, who previously picked him up at the train station on a New York warrant. Cagney tells the police chief, he went West for the climate, on account of his asthma. This scene represents the first mention I know of asthma in a mainstream movie. Later, after Cagney is sprung loose, Brannigan, the cop (played by Robert Elliot, almost typecast to cop roles in the 30s) who first pulled him in at the train station, tells him that if he doesn't find a job, he will be picked up as a "vag" (for vagrant) and get 30 days in jail.

When you look at this scene, notice the outline of the Venetian blinds on the office wall, and the dark shadows falling on the the faces of the Chief, Brannigan and Cagney's character. This scene, and the subsequent scene of Cagney trying to keep a low profile in a pool hall, unshaven and furtive, look as if they were from a film noir movie, only these scenes were made more than 12 years before the film noir cycle started.

The scenes showing Cagney working as a movie extra show how movies were made in the early 1930s, at least according to Roy Del Ruth. There is a scene of Cagney as an Indian chief on an imitation horse riding in front of a back projection screen, the movie director shouting, with a heavy European accent, "Ride, That A Boy!" Later, on a 15 minute lunch break, box lunch in hand, Cagney identifies himself to his future girlfriend, Margaret Lindsay as a Chief with the name, said in Yiddish, Pain In The Ass. I could be off in the translation, but Cagney used a Yiddish phrase.

The movie plot has one unexpected connection to real life. In 1939, there was a New York gangster named Greenbaum, nicknamed "Big Greenie." As I recall, from reading Burton Turkus's book, "Murder, Inc." years ago, Greenbaum fled to the West Coast, where he worked as an extra in movies while avoiding Lepke's killers. Greenbaum knew too much, and Lepke eventually managed to have "Big Greenie" killed.

"Lady Killer" was made in 1933 fast, by great talents. I saw it playing the laserdisc of the movie, part of the double laserdisc of James Cagney movies that Image released in 1992. The second movie on the LD set, "Blonde Crazy," made in 1931, is good also, but the advances made in movie making in two years are really something, comparing the two movies.

There is only one slight flaw in "Lady Killer." In every other pre-Code movie I saw from Warner Bros., when someone reads a telegram, you see the telegram message on screen, the telegram made by the prop department. When the LA police chief shows a telegram to Cagney, explaining the situation, he tells him New York authorities asked him to hold Cagney's character. You never see the actual telegram message, Warners usual practice then, a practice not usually followed by other studios. Maybe Warners' prop department did prepare a fictitious telegram but movie director Roy Del Ruth thought it looked "fakey."

New York criminal (James Cagney) takes it on the lam and winds up in Hollywood. There he gets a job working in movies, first in bit parts and eventually as a leading man. But when his old gang hears about his newfound success, they come knocking on his door and risk ruining everything for him.

I hesitate to call this a gangster picture like everybody else seems to be doing. Cagney's character starts out the movie joining a gang but it's a gang of confidence men. Then they graduate to robbing houses before someone is shot and they have to leave town. These aren't racketeers or guys shooting it out with tommy guns. So, in my view, they're criminals for sure but not what I would call gangsters. Not that it matters much in the end. This movie reunites Cagney with his Public Enemy costars Mae Clarke and Leslie Fenton. Clarke is a treat to watch and has great chemistry with Cagney. Lovely Margaret Lindsay plays the movie star Cagney falls for. I'm a fan of hers so of course I enjoyed her in this. Highlights include Cagney dragging Clarke out of his room by her hair and Cagney forcing a movie critic to eat his own review. A fun crime comedy from Warner Bros. with another great Cagney role.

When you think of James Cagney, you think of a gangster in films like The Public Enemy, where he smashed that grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face. But Cagney won his Oscar for Yankee Doodle Dandy. He also received nominations for Angels With Dirty Faces and Love Me or Leave Me.

Here he shows just how far his range extends in a romantic comedy which also includes Mae Clarke in a bigger role than you are probably accustomed to seeing her. There is a lot of action in this 76 minute film. Cagney is a theater usher who gets fired and ends up following Mae as she is trolling for suckers to get fleeced by her partners in a card game. He joins the group and they pull bigger more sophisticated cons until a trigger happy gang member kills a servant during a home robbery.

He and Mae head to Los Angeles, and when the LA police hold him for what happened in New York, Myra and one of the gang make off with Cagney's money. The LA police ultimately have to let him go, but penniless he gets increasingly shaggy and ragged looking. This causes him to get picked up for a series of bit parts by a local movie crew exactly because of his scruffy looks. One of the fascinating bits here is seeing how movies were made at the time. He hooks up with star Margaret Lindsay and uses his conning skills to make himself a star. (As an aside, Lindsey made 12 films that year, her second year as an actress.)

Soon, Mae and the gang find him and they want to pick up where they left off, using Cagney to get into posh places that they can rob. He tries to get them out of town, but they see dollars in LA and are going nowhere. How will this all work out? Watch and find out. And like I said, there's a lot of action for 76 minutes and Cagney really shows he can do romance, comedy, and gangster all in one film.

Hustler gets hustled, goes to Hollywood and hits big.

Hustler's friends arrive to hustle him again... and get hustled in return.

All this and the boy gets the girl too.

Very simple Cagney gangster type film, but lighter on the bullets. It rolls along at a fair pace and sews itself up pretty well.

With revisits from some 'Pubic Enemy' cast-mates, Cagney does a great job turning out 'A' list material in a 'B' list film, just as his career was built on.

If you're an Cagney fan or a fan of 'Dream Factory' old school films, bring some popcorn.

For anyone who enjoys James Cagney, this is a must-see. Yes, it's early in his career, but it's vintage Cagney: cocky, quick-tempered but humorous and likable as always. I am excited to see it finally coming out on DVD in March of 2008.

Instead of being a gangster throughout the story, he starts off that way in New York, runs off to Los Angeles and then goes straight after being hired as a Hollywood extra in a movie. He becomes a star but then his old gang catches up with him and he has to deal with them.

Along the way, three of the supporting actors combine with Cagney to make this a very fast- moving 74-minute film. They are Mae Clark, as the female villain "Myra Gale," Margaret Lindsay at the good woman "Lois Underwood," and Douglass Dumbrille as "Spade," the former leader of the New York gang. All are very convincing in their roles under the able work of director Roy Del Ruth.

You can tell this was a pre-code film just looking at Lindsay's ample cleavage, something that would have been covered up a bit more if the film had been made the following year. Other than that, and a few minor innuendos, the film is pretty clean, morally speaking.

One thing you certainly wouldn't see in today's films was the scene showing Cagney grabbing Clark by the hair and dragging her across the room, then booting her out in the hallway! (This is the same actress who received the famous grapefruit-in-the-face from Cagney in "Public Enemy.")

Anyway, yes the film is dated in much of the dialog and attitudes but it's so entertaining, so much fun to watch that it would still appeal to a good-sized audience today, too.

Though dated quite a bit, Lady Killer is still enjoyable today though the film is the victim of some bad editing and plot holes.

James Cagney gets fired from his job as a movie usher and gets picked up by Mae Clarke who's the moll and come-on for a gang of crooks who have many sidelines. Currently they are running a poker game and Cagney gets taken. Of course he discovers it shortly, but instead of turning them in, he joins them.

But murder he doesn't figure on after he fingers a job at a rich widow's mansion. He beats it to California on the lam and gets work as an extra. But through a little chicanery gets a featured role in a film and becomes a movie star. Of course the old gang looks him up and there are consequences.

There's some bad editing in Lady Killer. Cagney starts courting star Margaret Lindsay and in a scene that must have been cut she expressed to him to have monkeys, elephants and yodelers at her birthday party. It was a joke because in what we do see, Cagney brings all those things to her party and Marx Brothers like chaos results. It was a very funny scene, but it had no foundation.

There's one interesting scene that is a commentary on the times. When Cagney arrives in Los Angeles, he's immediately picked up by the LAPD and held for questioning for those New York activities. They let him go for lack of evidence, but threaten that if he doesn't get a job in two days he'll be picked up on a sodomy rap. Though the word they use is an offensive euphemism.

When Cagney is spotted by some agents from the studio looking for various types as actors his natural instinct in this next scene is to run. Not a good thing to have a sodomy rap hung on you whether it was true or not. He had every reason to fear it. Then this was before the code, in two years the topic was never even mentioned.

Lady Killer is typical of the type of film that Cagney was being used in by Warner Brothers, enjoyable for his fans, risqué a bit, but badly edited as well.

Lady Killer (1933)

*** (out of 4)

James Cagney plays a movie usher who gets fired and then gets mixed up with some gangster being led by Douglas Dumbrille and Margaret Lindsay. Soon a crime goes wrong so Cagney runs off to Hollywood where he starts work as an extra but quickly becomes a movie star. This is an enjoyable little comedy that works pretty well as a spoof of Hollywood and it gives Cagney a chance to make fun of his own image. Cagney is very good in his role, which once again shows him as a cocky, high tempered thug but there's also other moments including Cagney playing an Indian as well as showing off his comic side. Mae Clarke plays Cagney's love interest in Hollywood and the two are very good together with that infamous scene of Cagney dragging her across the floor by her hair. Both Lindsay and Dumbrille add nice support in their roles. One of the film's highlights is when Cagney orders two dozen monkeys to a party where they escape and cause all sorts of trouble. There's also plenty of nice gags aimed at Hollywood and directors. The film starts to run out of steam during the final act but if you're a fan of Cagney or films of this era then this is certainly worth checking out.

When you think of James Cagney, you think of a gangster in films like The Public Enemy, where he smashed that grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face. But Cagney won his Oscar for Yankee Doodle Dandy. He also received nominations for Angels With Dirty Faces and Love Me or Leave Me. Here he shows just how far his range extends in a romantic comedy which also includes Mae Clarke in a bigger role.

There is a lot of action in this 76 minute film. Cagney is a theater usher who gets fired and ends up following Mae as she is trolling for suckers to get fleeced by her partners in a card game. He joins the group and they pull more cons until a trigger happy gang member kills a maid. He and Mae head to Los Angeles, where he gets picked up for a series of bit parts because of his scruffy looks.

One of the fascinating bits here is seeing how movies were made at the time. He hooks up with star Margaret Lindsay and uses his conning skills to make himself a star. (As an aside, Lindsey made 12 films that year, her second year as an actress.) Soon, Mae and the gang find him and they pick up where they left off. He tries to get them out of town, but they see dollars in LA. They hit Lindsey, who is his girlfriend, and he strikes back, but ends up back in jail. But, he ends up turning the tables at the end.

Like I say, a lot of action for 76 minutes and Cagney really shows he can do romance, comedy, and gangster all in one film.

Thought I had seen all of James Cagney's films, but this film was a complete surprise to me and I enjoyed the unbelievable talents of Cagney in this film which is filled with comedy and drama. Cagney plays the role as Dan Quigley who is an usher in a movie house and gets himself fired for not abiding by the rules. Dan meets up with a bunch of con-men who try to cheat him out of fifty bucks and he discovers their racket and then decides to join them in other crooked adventures. Dan decides to go to Los Angeles, California and is soon discovered by a Hollywood producer who needs a person who looks like a crook and so Dan starts getting some bit parts in films and begins to be discovered as a great actor. Dan also meets up with Myra Gale, (Mae Clarke) who is a big film star and they get along just great until Lois Underwood, (Margaret Lindsay) is found in his bedroom by Myra and the relationship cools off rather quickly. This is a very entertaining film and Cagney is at his very best as far as I am concerned.

Roy del Ruth directed this early pre-code Cagney film, "Lady Killer" from 1933, also starring Mae Clarke, Margaret Lindsay, and Douglas Dumbrille.

Cagney plays Dan Quigley, a movie usher who, after he's fired, find a woman's (Mae Clarke) purse. He tries to catch her but can't. So he goes to her house and returns it.

She's Myra Gale, and she invites him in for a drink. Turns out some men are at her place gambling, so Dan joins them and loses $50. As he's leaving, he sees another man coming up the stairs with a purse. Dan says he's related to Myra and will return it.

When Myra sees him at the door, she tries to shut it but he forces his way in, goes into the back room and demands his money back. Then he offers to expand the operation so they can all make money. The guys agree.

Soon the dough comes rolling in, and the gang go to a society woman's house, where Dan pretends to have had an accident. He's carried into the house and cases the joint.

The ambulance (his cohorts) picks him up and takes him to the hospital. Then they rob the house. Unfortunately they do it the same day, and soon the cops are onto the gang.

They all take off, and Dan is picked up in LA on a New York warrant. When he asks Myra to bring him his money so he can post bail, she splits with the money, leaving Dan to fend for himself. He's finally released due to lack of evidence.

After the police threaten to arrest him as a vagrant, Dan finds a job as a film extra. He and a friend write dozens and dozens of fan letters and the studio notices, and he becomes a film star!

Dan falls for fellow film star Lois Underwood, but runs afoul of the old gang. Now that he's making good, they hold his bad deeds over his head and want help casing Hollywood mansions.

Interesting film with lots going on in something like 76 minutes. Cagney is terrific, and he and Mae share an in joke when she reads the fruits grown in California, one of which is "grapefruit." We see a bit of behind the scenes movie making. Also, "Lady Killer" has some noirish touches, though this is a decade or so before noir.

Fun film with a nice mix of humor and drama carried by Cagney's strong performance, ably assisted by Clarke and Lindsay.

At the start of Lady Killer (a title I don't understand, since James Cagney is pretty effeminate in the second half of the film), James Cagney plays a bad boy theater usher. He chews gum, plays craps, and gives attitude to the customers. He gets fired, then played for a sucker by Mae Clarke when she "loses" her purse and when he comes to her apartment to return it, he "loses" a bankroll to her "brother" in a rigged poker game. It sparks the idea in him that crime does pay, so he, Margaret, and her non-brother Douglass Dumbrille, start a crooked nightclub with a burglary racket on the side. When one of the robberies goes wrong and ends in a murder, the gang tries to flee before they get caught. Off to sunny California they go, where Jimmy finds work as a movie extra. There's another old movie where the lead character hides out from his criminal past by becoming a movie star, but I can't remember it - in any case, this movie is more of an escapism pseudo-comedy.

You can tell this movie is pre-Code because of the naughty behavior from the ladies. In one scene, Jimmy and Mae are canoodling in the side of the screen. They're not even center stage, and Jimmy takes full advantage. He buries his head in her bosom and plants a kiss on a definite no-no place - had the movie been made just one year later.

All in all, the first half of the movie is the better half. It's funny and even though the gang is despicable, you wrestle between hoping they do and don't get caught. Plus there's a very cute joke in the opening scene at the movie theater: there's a publicity poster for the Edward G. Robinson flick Dark Hazard. Two mugs admire the poster and decide to watch the film because "he's pretty good". How adorable! The second half is kind of implausible, and Jimmy's romance with Margaret Lindsay isn't that compelling. Still, if you love James Cagney, you probably want to watch all his movies - especially the pre-Code ones.

In this pre-code comedy, Jimmy Cagney goes from movie usher to member of a gang that runs a night club as a front and uses the information about its clientele to rob their homes. But their methods include gunplay, so they have to break up and head west. Cagney goes from movie extra to star, in love with Margaret Lindsay. Then the old gang members show up. They begin to pull the same sorts of jobs as they had back east. This puts Cagney in the hot seat.

Director Roy Del Ruth handles the comedy bits in a straight-faced manner that permits Cagney to mug it up a lot, very engagingly. He speaks Yiddish, drags moll Mae Clarke by her hair, and assault Miss Lindsay with garlic-loaded kisses. The movie zips along, with frequent turns of plot, and an exciting car chase. It's the sort of high-speed programmer that Warner Brothers turned out like clockwork during this period.

This film's plot is as likely as a snow storm in Miami. But despite the unbelievable turns of fate in the film, Jimmy Cagney makes it all worthwhile. A small-time hustler graduates to the big time in crime, but refuses to get involved in murders. He runs to Hollywood and becomes a star. Now anyone who wants to believe this plot so far, should see me about buying a bridge in Brooklyn I have for sale. Forget about the plot; just enjoy the ride.

Roy Del Ruth directed this gangster comedy as Jimmy Cagney plays a recently fired movie usher named Dan, who ends up with criminals, learning their ways, but who takes the rap for one of their crimes, and goes on the run to Hollywood where he becomes a famous movie star, attracting the attentions of his old associates who want in on the action, or they'll expose him... Mae Clarke plays his love interest, and has an amusing scene that reminds you of the famous "grapefruit" sequence from "The Public Enemy". Good Cagney Performance, but film isn't particularly funny as comedy, and overly familiar as a gangster picture. Innocuous and mostly forgettable.