He Was Her Man

James Cagney plays masculinely-named ex-con Flicker who rats out his criminal buddies because they were responsible for his going to prison. Now Flicker has to hightail it out of town so he escorts ex-prostitute Rose (Joan Blondell) to a small fishing village where she is supposed to marry Portuguese fisherman Nick (Victor Jory). Staying with Nick and his mother, Flicker quickly grows to like them. But Flicker and Rose have fallen in love, which complicates things. Meanwhile, Flicker's location is discovered and two hit men are sent to rub him out.

Cagney's character is a cocky ladies' man, as they typically were, but he does evolve throughout the movie. Cagney's also sporting a mustache in this one. At first I thought maybe he just drank some chocolate milk and forgot to wipe his mouth but nope, it's a 'stache alright! Victor Jory's Nick is the saintly salt-of-the-earth common man type that you saw so much of in Depression-era movies. It's style (Cagney) vs. substance (Jory) in the battle for Joan Blondell's heart. Nice supporting cast includes Harold Huber, Frank Craven, and John Qualen, among many other recognizable faces. It's a middle-of-the-road picture in the oeuvres of both Cagney and Blondell. The last of seven they made together. It's not a bad movie but the somber tone is a tough sell when you have two firecracker actors as leads.

HE WAS HER MAN (Warner Brothers, 1934), directed by Lloyd Bacon, in spite of its torch song sounding title for a musical film, is actually an offbeat melodrama starring James Cagney (with mustache) and Joan Blondell for the seventh and final time on screen. With Cagney naturally playing a vengeful tough guy with good qualities, it's Blondell, usually bright eyed and sassy, going against type as one of the most saddest characters ever portrayed. Often classified as their weakest collaboration, the Cagney and Blondell pairing still contains their usual star chemistry mainly because they're two of a kind.

The plot gets underway at a Manhattan Turkish Bath where "Flicker" Hayes (James Cagney), a professional safe-cracker just released from prison, makes negotiations with crooks, Dan Curly (Bradley Page) and Frank "Red" Derring (Ralf Harolde) for their latest job. Because they're the ones responsible for sending him up, Flicker pulls a double-cross by notifying the chief of police (Willard Robertson) about the upcoming robbery that's to take place at the warehouse of the Empire Wholesale Drug Company. Caught in the act, Hayes makes his escape out the window as Curly is killed in a shoot-out with the law and Derring arrested for the killing of Patrolman Arthur Murphy. Because Derring was sentenced and executed for the crime, Curly hires fellow mobsters Ward (Harold Huber) and Monk (Russell Hopton) to get Flicker. In San Francisco, "Pop" Sims (Frank Craven), an informer for the mob, spots Flicker, now going under an assumed name of Jerry Allen, registered at the hotel, and notifies Curly of his whereabouts and instructions. Seeking refuge in Room 419, "Jerry" comes across a woman named Rose Lawrence (Joan Blondell) entering his room with the hotel key to retrieve a wedding dress she had hidden under the mattress before her eviction for lack of money to pay her bill. Because Rose is desperately broke and hungry, Jerry supplies her with food and assistance. Told of her upcoming wedding to Nick Gardella (Victor Jory), a man she met through a bellboy while boarding at the hotel, Jerry accompanies her by bus to an obscure fishing village in Santa Avila, unaware that he's being followed by Sims. Once there, Rose finds her love towards Jerry getting stronger and decides on going away with him after telling Nick that she can't go through with the wedding. Realizing both his gun and Pop, going under the assumed name of Jim Parker, have both disappeared, Jerry decides to leave town without telling Rose. He heads on over to the bus station the very same moment Ward and Monk arrive at Rose's bunk house asking about Jerry's whereabouts, with intentions on doing her harm if they don't get the information they want.

Taken from a story by Robert Lord, HE WAS HER MAN lacks the general humor and excitement commonly found in many Cagney films thus far. No doubt this was an attempt in trying something more dramatic and entirely different for its leading stars, even to a point of lifting that memorable love theme from the 1932 success of ONE WAY PASSAGE (Warners) starring William Powell and Kay Francis. For being a Cagney film, Blondell is the one who gets full attention this time around. Although not clearly indicated, her character is that of a former prostitute who's fallen to hard times, using a kind-hearted fisherman for financial support. Her performance might have lead to stronger parts in latter films, but really didn't, for now anyway. She then returned to her usual sassy comedies the public loved so well. Co-star Victor Jory, best known for his villainous types, is unusually cast or miscast as an understanding Italian accented fisherman, a role that might have best suited that of a J. Carroll Naish whose Italian dialect would appear more natural than Jory's. Also in support are Sarah Padden as Jory's mother; George Chandler and James Eagles. John Qualen, who specializes in playing Swedish characters, is laughable here with buck teeth that appears to have been borrowed or stolen from a rabbit.

Being the least known and overlooked of the Cagney and Blondell collaborations shouldn't be the reason to avoid viewing HE WAS HER MAN whenever it turns up on Turner Classic Movies. Often classified as one that was never be sold to commercial television might be true to some degree. Not counting other states that televised classic movies on the late show, HE WAS HER MAN did get a rare television broadcast in 1974 as part of the afternoon movie on Philadelphia's own WPHL, Channel 17, a home of obscure and famous Warner Brother films prior to 1975. Over a decade later, HE WAS HER MAN turned up on a public television's WNJM, Channel 50, in Montclair, New Jersey, around 1989-90, before becoming one of several Ted Turner cable channels in later years. Regardless of slow pacing and certain scenes to leave viewers wondering than satisfied, it's the agreeable combination of Cagney and Blondell that makes this 70 minute production worth while. (**1/2)

There's an effortless polish to this Cagney Blondell team up unlike most of their many couplings fused with brash give an take. More subdued and perhaps worn out from life they project a restrained melancholy that informs this moody overachiever that deviates from the era's formula.

Flicker Hayes (Cagney) takes it on the lam after he sets up two of his associates during a heist. A cop is killed and one of the crooks gets the chair for it. The other puts a contract out on Hayes head who has hooked up with mail order bride Rose (Blondel) in Frisco and follows her to a sleepy fishing village in order to lay low as well as deal with his conflicted feelings about Rose. Hit men in the mean time have been dispatched to the village.

Well edited with imaginative composition director Lloyd Bacon does an excellent balancing act of keeping He was Her Man's outcome masked until the very end. Subtly and with great economy he establishes the relationship between Flicker and Rose then heightens the drama and tension by introducing a beyond decent hard working sensitive groom to be increasing the pressure on Rose.

Cagney has the usual jaunty confidence but this time withdrawn from throwing punches and spraying lead to back it up. Victor Jory's sensitive understanding fisherman gives crucial weight to the film's ability to sustain itself by being a formidable opponent to Flicker. It is Blondell though amid her predicament without resorting to hysteria in conveying a lugubrious despair along with Bacon's tempered approach that gives He was Her Man a touch of morose beauty.

Something is missing from this film, and that something is the electricity that Blondell and Cagney had in all of their joint projects up to this time, the beginning of the enforcement of the production code.

James Cagney plays a Flicker Hayes, a safe-cracker who turns in his old gang to the police after they recruit him for a new job right after he gets out of prison. You see, Flicker knows his gang let him take the rap alone and he's looking for payback. However, before he turns them in he takes a large pre-payment from them in cash for the upcoming job which he knows will never happen. Flicker is now on the run as the members of the gang that did not get arrested have a hit out on him. While in San Francisco he runs into Rose Lawrence (Joan Blondell), a penniless woman on her way to marry a fisherman. Cagney has both romantic interest in and sympathy for Rose right from the start. He feeds her then escorts her and pays her way to the town where her fiancé is waiting. The most confusing part of the story is - why would Nick the fisherman decide to marry a prostitute he barely knows (that is the insinuation of what Rose's profession was) then - knowing she is penniless, leave her to find her own way to him? This part of the story probably had some aspect that caused it to be left on the cutting room floor thanks to the censors.

Once at Nick's house, both Flicker and Rose have trouble keeping both their pasts and their passions at bay. Plus a mysterious rancher shows up who wants to do some recreational fishing and also winds up a guest at Nick's house - there is no hotel in the small town.

Although the film is worth a look, don't look for the smart remarks and innuendos that previous Cagney/Blondell films are filled with. The hard edges of their past precodes are as hidden as Cagney's upper lip is under the odd mustache he sports throughout this film.

James Cagney is one of the ten greatest actors of all time. Joan Blondell is absolutely beautiful. There are several great character actors in here including Harold Huber as a standout. It is not a great movie, but it is a real movie. It was released shortly before the production code ended a great deal of artistic freedom.