User reviews

This film is basically "The Front Page" set on a banana plantation, with the "Oomph Girl" thrown in for a love interest, but somehow it manages to transcend that sort of genre-typing.

Everyone from Jimmy Cagney and Pat O'Brien (in one of the best of their 10 films together) to George Tobias shines in this snappy action-romance, sprinkled with the kind of dialogue that made the movies of the '30s and early-'40s the most fun ever. My favorite exchange in the history of film is in this movie...

Helen Vinson (Gloria) is kissing Jimmy Cagney (Nick), and her cigarette has slipped from her fingers to the floor. The camera follows the cigarette down, and then a hand reaches in from out-of-frame to pick it up...the camera pulls back to reveal Ann Sheridan (Lee):

Lee: This is how the Chicago Fire got started.

Gloria: The Chicago Fire was started by a *cow*.

Lee: History repeats itself.

Now, how can you not love a film like that? Ann Sheridan singing! Pat O'Brien conniving! George Tobias as a Latin American bandit! Jimmy Cagney with a mustache!

Sadly, Torrid Zone is not yet available on video, but it shows up on TV from time to time. Don't miss it!

This was the final film for James Cagney and Pat O'Brien who in my opinion invented the buddy film. O'Brien would be leaving Warner Brothers the following year and the two of them would not get together in another film until Ragtime in 1981 in which they both had small parts.

It's a typical fast paced comedy for both of them, they were incapable of doing anything else together. O'Brien slowed down when he was in a clerical collar and Cagney when he was doing a nostalgic film, but together the lines go at light speed.

Except when Ann Sheridan is concerned. Director Bill Keighley always slowed the pace for Sheridan because he didn't want anyone to miss some of her tart sayings. She has some of the best lines ever in her career. Typical being when she tells O'Brien that the stork that brought him must have been a vulture. Or when she's constantly one upping Helen Vinson who made a career of playing the other woman.

O'Brien is the hardnosed manager of a tropical fruit company and he's in big trouble because a local Sandinista type bandit leader, George Tobias, is wrecking his operations. Another distraction is Ann Sheridan whose redheaded beauty he figures is too much of a distraction to the men where redheads are scarce. Notice how O'Brien tells the local authorities what to do. More truth than humor in that situation.

He's desperate enough to hire back his number one troubleshooter James Cagney who gets the job done, but always gets himself in a jackpot where women are concerned. He's taken a fancy to Sheridan and she him.

A couple of other reviewers have pointed out the obvious similarities between this and The Front Page. The first film version of that classic play is the one where Pat O'Brien made his screen debut as the ace reporter. However he did it on Broadway in the role of the editor which he's playing here.

Perhaps this might be better described as another version of His Girl Friday. I can't say remake because both films came out at the same time. Sheridan comes off the same way as Rosalind Russell does in His Girl Friday, but Keighley also wants to accent her sensuality as well as her sharp tongue. He succeeds admirably because no woman in their previous films quite put off both Cagney and O'Brien the way Sheridan does.

The woman sure had oomph.

Life at a banana plantation must have its compensations, judging from the way things turn out in this fast-moving, wise-cracking comedy directed stylishly by William Keighley. PAT O'BRIEN is the hard-nosed manager of a plantation who needs his former overseer's help in keeping some criminal elements from causing too much trouble. So JAMES CAGNEY comes back to help him--but trouble brews when he and O'Brien quarrel over red-headed ANN SHERIDAN, who just about walks off with the film's best lines.

It's strictly a Warner comedy-melodrama with stock players turning up in some good supporting roles, particularly GEORGE TOBIAS, ANDY DEVINE, JEROME COWAN and, in a small role, GEORGE (Superman) REEVES.

The real surprise of the film is ANN SHERIDAN, handling herself in every situation as a gal to be reckoned with. It's fun all the way.

Even in comparison to today, when films shoot on location, Warner Brothers' tropical set looks like the tropics. It's not distracting; I'm thinking of the obvious painted backdrop in the last scene of "Treasure Island." In 1940's "Torrid Zone," Pat O'Brien is Steve Case, who manages the Banana Company in the Caribbean. His life has been no game since his co-worker, Nick Butler (Cagney) left to take a job in Chicago and continually sends him mocking telegrams - collect.

He needs Nick to take over one of the plantations, so he makes a deal with him - just work for two weeks. Nick agrees; the money will be useful.

There are also troubles with the rebel Rosario (George Tobias), who is on a hunger strike. The prison is afraid that he'll die before they can shoot him. Steve says, then just shoot him now. But Rosario escapes.

Then there is Lee Donley, an earthy, sexy nightclub singer whom Steve wants on a ship bound for the U.S. She doesn't want to go and tells Steve "The stork who brought you must have been a vulture." Lee meets Nick, and sparks fly. Nick meanwhile has a flirtation with the wife Gloria (Helen Vinson) of a former manager Bob Anderson (Jerome Cowan). Lee ends up staying at their house and walks in on a kiss between Nick and the wife. There's a lit cigarette on the floor. Lee picks it up. "I believe Chicago fire started in a very similar manner," she says. "The Chicago fire was started by a cow," an aggravated Gloria says. Lee remarks, "History repeats itself." You just can't beat dialogue like that, and that's one of the things that makes "Torrid Zone" so much fun. Cagney, O'Brien, and Sheridan are all known commodities, with Sheridan at the top of her game, sparring with both Cagney and O'Brien, looking great, and doing her own singing. When she has to be serious and heartbroken, she is.

Even Rosario's impending death is handled with some humor.

Very good and recommended, a real treat from Warners.

A couple of buddies chasing a buck, and usually a woman, in what we now call the Third World was a staple plot-line of movies from the 1930s on. Such movies were thought to offer a sure-fire recipe for entertainment: a travelogue to sultry and dangerous corners of the globe; romance sauced up with sass; exotic peril; and good ol' man-to-man rivalry.

Torrid Zone, directed by the pedestrian William Keighley, follows the recipe but lacks something in the execution – that elusive something that elevates the routine into the memorable. Down in Central America, Pat O'Brien plays the irascible operative of a banana-exporting concern (read: the infamous United Fruit Company). Besides shipping ripe but not rotten product to New Orleans, he serves as unofficial proconsul in this far-flung province of the American empire, where his word is, literally, law. (This subversive strand of the script, however, never gets explored.)

In addition to sluggish delivery from Plantation #7, O'Brien faces other problems. First, a local `revolutionista' condemned to death has escaped to rejoin rebel forces. Second, an American card-shark and shantoozie (Ann Sheridan) is stirring up trouble (O'Brien flubs his attempt to ship her home like a crate of perishable fruit). Third, his old nemesis James Cagney, former overseer of #7, is back in the country. Cagney takes a shine to Sheridan, who has befriended the revolutionary, who wants back the lands confiscated by O'Brien, who....

Barbed and topical dialogue, most of it mouthed throatily by Sheridan, proves to be Torrid Zone's chief attraction. But the needling rivalry between O'Brien and Cagney wears a little thin (as it does in the contemporaneous Road pictures between Hope and Crosby). And Keighley doggedly follows the script from one damn thing to another, so the movie ends up a fast-paced clutter.

O'Brien, a good actor who never really grew into a star (though he would shine in Crack-Up and Riffraff a few years later), suffers mostly from an unpleasant part. Cagney, in a Latin-lover mustache and the tropical answer to a 10-gallon hat, comes off as a bit of a bantam rooster. But Sheridan (whom Warner's publicists had dubbed the `Oomph' girl) remains a delight, embodying the pluck, warmth and smarts of that generation of game women who survived the Depression and would help to win the coming War.

I think this is one of the funniest comedies ever made. This film should be considered a masterpiece. James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Pat O'Brien, Helen Vinson, Jerome Cowan, Andy Devine, George Tobias and George Reeves star in this fast-paced action comedy. The dialog is very very fast and so funny. Why this film isn't on DVD is a crying shame. The real star of the movie is the legendary movie star and sex goddess Ann Sheridan. She steals every scene she is in. Its not easy to steal a film from James Cagney, but Ann Sheridan does in this one. I remember when the American Film Institute picked the 100 funniest films of all time, this was missing, but it was in their top 500 for the voting category. It should have been in the top 100 as far as I am concerned. If you never saw the film, please look for it on Turner Classic Movies they play it often. Why they don't release this movie as part of an Ann Sheridan box set is beyond me, she is an incredible actress and even a better comedienne. I won't give anything away. Just sit back and enjoy a bunch of pros do it for you.

This is a terrible movie. O'Brien shouts every one of his lines. Why, we don't know. And why does he have the power to make everyone, including the police chief, do his bidding? Even execute someone. I wonder if all those high ratings were from people who even saw the movie. The script made no sense. Was this supposed to be a comedy? It certainly wasn't funny. The biting quips were just obnoxious, not particularly clever. The only likable character was the criminal revolutionary. Maybe because, in a bizarre twist, it was played by George Tobias. Cagney and Sheridan are good actors, but they were used poorly in a bad script with bad direction. Do not bother.

Good movie - love the way Ann Sheridan goes head to head toe to toe with Cagney in some very snappy dialogue.

When seen in the 21st century, "Torrid Zone" is a very strange and dated film. After all, it's set in some unnamed Banana Republic where Americans pretty much run things...a colonial style story indeed!

"Torrid Zone" is an odd movie because the star of the film, Jimmy Cagney, doesn't even appear in the film until about 20 minutes into the story. Until then, it mostly involves an incredibly bilious Steve (Pat O'Brien) and Lee (Ann Sheridan) verbally sparring with each other. Later, when Nick (Cagney) arrives. Then, there's some more sparring between Nick and Lee as well as Nick fighting with a local revolutionary wannabe as well as Nick trying, once again, to have his way with another man's wife.

Despite a convoluted pro-colonial plot, the film has some decent scenes, decent acting (aside from O'Brien, who mostly yells and acts grouchy in every scene) and the Warner Brothers style you might expect. Is the story good? Not especially...but it's never dull.

A minor film but certainly watchable for the two leads, James Cagney and Ann Sheridan. Her ability to take care of herself and easygoing grace, his toughness and that mustache ... hey, they're just a joy, especially with a script full of banter and sharp lines. They're on a banana plantation in a tropical place, and both antagonized by its owner (Pat O'Brien). Despite a good start, the plot gets a little muddled and too crowded with other characters as it plays out, and I began losing interest in the second half.

Early on the film has elements that criticism colonialism and the absolute power the owner of a banana plantation wields over the natives, such as having people he doesn't like locked up and ordering the hapless police to carry out a death sentence prematurely. He also shouts out most of his lines and is generally quite disagreeable (O'Brien seems to have had many such roles). When a rebel (regrettably George Reeves playing a Hispanic man) says "Just because I don't like the fruit company, they say I am a revolutionist. All I want is to take back what belongs to me and my friends," it carries with it the subversive thought of what real justice would be, which was interesting. Unfortunately, this aspect never goes anywhere, and the natives are generally portrayed as childlike. Eventually we see Cagney's character take charge and hunt the rebels down, and while he's less vindictive, clearly the film's sympathies are with the colonialists at this point.

I hadn't really expected something progressive on that front anyway, but it's just unfortunate that the film tosses in another woman who is hot for Cagney (Helen Vinson), her husband (Jerome Cowan), and a mostly annoying sidekick (Andy Devine). Between romance, love triangle, comedy, business rivalry, card sharp, and native rebellion none of its elements are developed in a clean way, which is too bad, because more of Cagney and Sheridan smoldering together would have really made this a torrid zone.

"Torrid Zone" was the final film with real life friends, James Cagney and Pat O' Brien. They made several memorable films together for the studio, "Angels With Dirty Faces" being the best. The above is a light-hearted and amusing film about the various struggles on a Mexican plantation. The script is fairly standard but the cast really a lot to the screenplay by giving good performances and demonstrating a flair for light comedy. Ann Sheridan is a very good leading lady for James Cagney. She plays a card shark and nightclub singer who is on the run. They and O' Brien play off each other to amusing effect. The gunfight scenes add a bit to the proceedings as well.

Released in 1940, "Torrid Zone" probably did respectable business at the box office.

This was probably meant to capitalize on the successful chemistry that Cagney, O'Brien, and Anne Sheridan had in "Angels With Dirty Faces", even though none of them play characters remotely similar to the ones they played in that film.

Steve Case (Pat O'Brien) runs a banana plantation in South America. He runs people out of the nearby town (Ann Sheridan as Lee Donley), even putting them in jail for no reason. He makes them not only leave town but go to destinations he says they should go to, and he orders the local police commandant to execute prisoners on Case's schedule. And this is supposed to be a comedy! So he basically runs roughshod over everybody whether they actually work for him or not. Case has an overblown concept of his own importance. He's farming bananas after all, not rubber during WWII.

He cons Nick Butler (James Cagney), a trusted associate, into not going back to America and instead helping him with one last task. This is made difficult by the fact that the rebel Case tried to have executed one week early has escaped, is understandably peeved, and is retaliating against Case's banana plantation. George Tobias plays the rebel, and is not very authentic as he comes across as a Brooklyn cabbie dressed up as a rebel with a badly done Spanish accent.

This has lots of dialogue that seems almost precode, even though this is 1940, and Cagney and O'Brien were always worth watching together, but the overall production is just not very good. I'd say watch it if you are a Cagney or O'Brien enthusiast. It would probably be a 4/10 or a 5/10 without them.

Torrid Zone (1940)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A banana plantation owner (Pat O'Brien) hires a tough guy (James Cagney) to look after everything but an escaped bandit (George Tobias) causes some trouble as does a woman (Ann Sheridan). This is a slightly entertaining film that offers some nice performances but in the end there's nothing too special with the screenplay, which at times wonders around. O'Brien steals the show as the tough talking owner and this is one exception where he steals the film from Cagney. Cagney is decent in his role but he doesn't bring too much energy to the film. I'm not a fan of Sheridan but she's actually very good her delivering a tough performance. Tobias is great as the villain and Andy Devine offers nice comic support. The cast makes the film entertaining but I wish the screenplay had tried to do a tad bit more. The movie is pretty light weight, which keeps it from being better.

This remake of "The Front Page" is an improvement, as far as I'm concerned. The combination of Wald/Macaulay and the Warner Brothers stock company is sure-fire ("They Drive By Night"!) Ann Sheridan is vivacious as a trodden-upon showgirl, singing "My Caballero" and trading vicious quips with the scheming O'Brien and the dynamic Cagney. Special mention must go to George Tobias, one of the funniest character actors of the studio age, who plays Rosario, the guerilla leader sentenced to death "just because I shoot a man..."

Where to start...and yet another perfectly acceptable work completely ruined by the less than artful delivery of lines by mr obrien, who may just be the worst actor of the 30's, even worse than katherine the hep. He barks. Like a dachshund with his nuts on fire. Annoying isn't the word for it. Cagney as usual acts like he's just too good for us all, though ms sheridan is quite lovely. But, but, but, jorge tobias as 'rosario'? C'mon folks, this ain't a movie, this is (say it with me) completely utter nonsense.