I just watched the 1932 James Cagney movie Winner Take All for the first time , and it was okay . It was the first James Cagney movie I watched in Probably like 7 months before Completely focusing on Robert Downey , Jr. . . And since it was my first James Cagney movie review blog written in That sametime span , I'll Probably keep this blog short . Anyway , eventhough I was not too impressed by this movie , I thought it was typical Cagney . And he was not very good - loking in musts of the movie ( I did not know They had plastic surgery back then) . Anyhow , on w / the blog.
The New York Times review of Winner Take All (1932) begins , "After enforcement of bone highly successful in His portrayal as a gangster, a gambler , a taxicab driver , a confidence man , and an automobile racer, James Cagney , the stormy petrel of the Warner Brothers studio , turns His attention . .. to impersonating a prize fighter . " Critic Mordaunt Hall goes on to note That Cagney is far more convincing Than Most players who elect to impersonate Pugilist . " Cagney so Often overplayed gangster In His early movie career thats it 's easy to over look the variety of His performances , and his dedication to getting it right , even in routine programmers . At That Time, Cagney Recalled In His autobiography , " I was still learning , and I went along making what was Given to me . " Winner Take All May have put routine , but Cagney was not . in His first boxing role , Cagney plays an on-the -skids fighter who's drying out at a Southwest health spa . While there, he meets an impoverished young widow and her little boy , and returns to the ring to help themself financially . He wins , but once he goes back to New York , he gets tangled up with a society lady and his ego gets out of control . 
Cagney Trained for the role with a real-life boxer , former welterweight champion Harvey Parry , Who has a role in the film. Cagney Recalled In His autobiography That another professional fighter, watching him spar , was Certain That Cagney had fought professionally - his footwork Proved it . " I said , ' Tommy , I'm a dancer. Moving around is no problem . " " Winner Take All was written by Wilson Mizner , a true Hollywood character , screenwriter , raconteurs , con man and bon vivant . Mizner knew something about the fight game - his colorful suits included managing Several boxers in New York , as well as bilking miners Constantly the Alaskan Gold Rush , racketeering and Extortion rich speculator consistently the Florida land boom , and writing successful Broadway plays . Cagney wrote That he was fascinated by Mizner and sat for hours listening to His stories .
Winner Take All some unusual HAS plot twists - not many boxing pictures feature The fighter getting a nose job to fit in with society His sweetheart - That Raise IT above the run - of-the - mill . Were critics and impressed with Cagney 's portrayal . "Mr. .. .. Cagney gives Such A Fascinating picture of the boxer 's conceit and stupidity thats the original plot , Which Might Have Come From A Novelette , was repaid in the intricacies of His character , " According To the Times of London . " He Carries with him a véritable smell of the shower cream , or sweating body and sodden leather . He walks like a punch - drunk fighter, "wrote Gerald Breitgan in the New York World -Telegram. Cagney Would play boxers Twice more , in The Irish in Us (1935) and City for Conquest (1940) .
Winner Take All was another hit for Warner Bros. . . , and Cagney , who just a year EARLIER had gone on strike Until The studio raised His salary from $ 400 to $ 1600 a week , staged another strike for the second but not the last time . He did not work for six months , and threatened to quit movies and go back to New York to study medicine at Columbia University. He got a raise, but not as much as he'd asked for, and over the next decade , Cagney Would Be Both one of the studio's biggest moneymakers , and one of the biggest thorns in Jack Warner 's side .
Another strange thing I noticed about Cagney in this movie was That His voice was Thicker Than normal and he was some what dimwitted . It is the contrast Between Jim Kane's competency and his mental fogginess That makes him a Poignant figure Without His presence Winner Take All Would Have Been The Most routine child or prize fight drama with ITS protagonist caught at the apex of the must familiar shield or triangle , Between a good girl and a bad girl . Taken together with Taxi, and with two or three subsequent component component films Winner Take All Helped establishement Cagney not merely as a comic figure, but Also as a democratic one - spokesman , if u will , for Aggressively unpretentious urban populism.Anyway , in the words of Robert Downey , Jr. . in Iron Man 2 , " Ah , it feels good to be back ! "
