The St. Louis Kid

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.

... 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.

Well here again in this film we have the lovable James Cagney playing a tough guy come foolhardy character and it's a short 67 minute ride full of giggles, slaps and even a touch of the charisma.

It's the story of two guys Cagney and Alan Jenkins who drive trucks delivering goods and along the way trouble finds them and several jail sessions occur which are humerous scenes in themselves. Cagney during all this catches the blonde and a little romance ties it all in.

The pairing of cagney and Jenkins is great, they bounce of each other in this 1930s print.

Overall this film is fun, entertaining and a joy to watch.

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.

In practically every Jimmy Cagney film of the early through mid 1930s, he plays a fast-talking lovable jerk. However, in this film, he is so obnoxious and so pugnacious that the character actually crosses an invisible line for me--to being unlikable and even ridiculous. This is saying a lot because I generally love Cagney films and will put up with a lot from his loud-mouthed characters! In this case, he plays a guy that seems to be in court ALL THE TIME for assault. His character makes Mike Tyson's out of the ring behaviors seem restrained--he's that quick to fight. In fact, in the first half hour, he goes from one jail to another in the space of a day--he's that out of control. As a result, I kept thinking to myself that sooner or later, this character MUST be sent to prison for "hard time" instead of bouncing in and out of jail again and again. Plus, even if he never got sent away for a long stretch in prison, he should be in debt for the next 600 years due to his getting fined almost every day for fighting.

All this fighting just defies common sense--as does his behaviors when trying to woo the lady who hates his guts. He's in jail in a small town and he waits until the jailer falls asleep and lets himself out of jail so he can stalk and annoy her! And, naturally being a Hollywood film, he DOES charm the lady with his relentless and obnoxious ways! This pushiness is NOT vintage Cagney, but once again a super-obnoxious and ridiculous character--the guy once again crosses the line.

The rest of the film does get better once you get to the final third, but by then I was so irritated with this film (in particular Cagney's character), that I just wanted it all to end. This has to be among the worst Cagney films I have seen despite the improvement towards the end.