The Mayor of Hell (1933)

I just recently watched the 1933 James Cagney movie The Mayor of Hell, and it was very dramatic. James Cagney was good as Patsy Gargan, the racketeer-turned-deputy commissioner of a corrupt reform school; however, we don't see very much of him in the movie. Of course, he falls in love w/ the school's nurse but this is minimized to a great extent in the film.
At first, things are bad in the reform school: the fat warden Thompson eats big plates of bacon and eggs while his charges eat Oliver Twist-style gruel; later, he'll decree an effective death sentence against a tubercular boy by putting him in the hole on a cold night. The film does a delicate balancing act throughout: the system is flawed because corrupt men are involved in running it, but not everyone involved in running it is corrupt. Some kindly guards give up their coats in an attempt to keep the boy warm, and the nurse argues for their welfare on every opportunity.

One such opportunity arrives in the form of Cagney, who soon becomes head of the reform school while the former headmaster leaves for a while (on a vacation) and has the kids set up a self-government, which I admire him for. Yet, he soon leaves the school to take care of his own mobster affairs (with the intention of coming back), making the kids feel abandoned and back under the sadistic clutches of their ex-headmaster. Then Cagney goes on the lam after wounding one of his rivals and hangs around his hideout in another state, constantly sending his sidekick—the immortally funny Allen Jenkins—to check on the guy (because you see, if the guy dies, Cagney will go to jail and the reformatory will remain in its sadistic status quo).

In many ways, the film is decades ahead of its time. Not only does the black kid (who is never depicted differently than the others) feature heavily in the narrative—he becomes the defense attorney at a trial in the school's courtroom for when one of the charges steals a Hershey's® Chocolate Bar (I guess that means Warner Bros. got permission from the Hershey Company for product placement)—but Miss Griffith (the nurse) is an amazingly strong female character. At Cagney's behest, she devises the new, reformed system for the school, then feeds him portions of his improvised speech to the boys when he first takes command from the corrupt Mr. Thompson. Even so, this film pales in comparison to another Cagney film, Each Dawn I Die (1939). I didn't really watch the riot scene at the end of the film because I thought it was too dramatic.

Although it's not really a parody of this movie, there is a Simpsons episode that is similar to this movie. It's the episode where Bart and Lisa go to Kamp Krusty , which is a summer camp run by Krusty the Clown but is just like the reform school in this film—corrupt and run by violent people—since Krusty isn't even there (you could say that what he is to the camp is what Cagney is to the reform school, a savior). I would recommend this movie to James Cagney fans who like seeing him in social dramas. Happy commenting!


(Next blog: The Roaring Twenties [1939])

Related Videos for Lady Killer (1933)

(I also didn't make this video):

Another clip from Lady Killer (not mine either):

Lady Killer (1933)

I've been recently watching the 1933 James Cagney comedy Lady Killer recently, but not for the first time. It's a really funny movie; I can't believe only a few people know of its existence. Hollywood always seems to parody itself, and this film is one of the examples. James Cagney was terrific as Dan Quigley, a con-man who runs away to LA from a crime beat in NYC and quickly establishes himself as a movie star—after appearing as extras in a couple of movies.

What I really found extremely hilarious in this movie is the scene where James Cagney drags Mae Clarke—the same lady whose face he smashed a grapefruit into in The Public Enemy—across the room by the hair and kicks her out the door after he spots her in his apartment or hotel suite or something when coming home with a lady one night.

James Cagney seems to get himself set up in Hollywood really well; he writes his own fan mail (that's one to way to get started in Hollywood, if you're as dishonest and clever as Cagney) and falls in love with an actress plus gets married to her at the end of the movie. He meets her one day on the set of a Western—or more specifically, he meets her in her dressing room. (Of course, he's dressed up as an Indian when he meets her. And seeing Cagney in an Indian headdress is nothing spectacular.)

And for some reason, in the middle of the movie, Cagney gets a mustache. As it seems to me, he gives the impression of being different with a mustache, not to mention looks different and silly . He looks better without it. I mean, Cagney just isn't Cagney with that silly, curious little piece of facial hair on his upper lip. What's interesting is that he later wears the mustache in movies like He Was Her Man (1934), Ceiling Zero (1936), and Torrid Zone (1940), but only as an act of rebellion against Warner Bros. That's our Jimmy!

I didn't really watch the car chase near the end of the film because I thought it was a little dramatic. And there's a scene other than the hair-pulling-and-dragging that I find funny: it's the scene where Cagney is acting in scene for a movie with his love interest. He's dressed up as a ridiculous-looking Italian and eats pieces of garlic to simulate bad breath. And of course, his co-star is humorously overwhelmed by his breath—and then she pushes him into the nearby fountain, which is hilarious but he laughs about it, so we're laughing with him, not at him.

This film was a critical success at the time of its release. I would recommend this film for any James Cagney fan who likes to see the fellow in romantic comedies/ganster films. Again, opinions and/or comments about this film are encouraged!

James Cagney: Each Dawn I Die

Video related to The Irish in Us (1935)

(I did not make this video):


Another James Cagney video which has a few clips from this film (I did not make this video either):

The Irish in Us (1935)

I just finished watching The Irish in Us (1935), also on YouTube, and I actually found it very funny (especially the dinner scene). The O'Hara brothers were played by real-life best friends James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, and Frank McHugh (and their friendship towards each other was pretty obvious).
James Cagney was oh sooooooooooo good as Danny O'Hara and Olivia DeHavilland was so young in her pre-Gone with the Wind role (she would play a similar role in another James Cagney movie The Strawberry Blonde [1941]). Pat O'Brien sounded different, voicewise, but what do I know; I've never seen a pre-1938 James Cagney-Pat O'Brien film until now.

James Cagney made this film worth watching and what fun this film was! He seemed to be really big compared to his on-screen mother. This film also made me feel sorry that I wasn't alive during the 1930s to meet James Cagney; I would've really wanted to meet him.

As well as finding the film funny, I also found it a little sad, especially the scene where James Cagney moves out. Who knew that a romance could rip a family apart!? But I don't think James Cagney's and Pat O'Brien's fighting over the same girl is exaggerated. The same thing could happen between sisters who like the same guy! It's amazing what love can do to people.

Most of the dialogue of this film was improvised and the pace was fast. It's very sad that James Cagney films like this aren't on DVD yet. James Cagney made this film at the peak of his stardom. I think he was popular around this time and was possibly one of the top box office stars of the year. I would definitely recommend this film for any James Cagney fan like myself. Also, please chime in with your own comments about this film.

The Public Enemy (1931)

Like I said in the last blog, I thought it would be good if I did film review blogs about James Cagney movies that I saw recently but not for the first time. So this time, I thought it would be good if I did a film review blog about the very first James Cagney movie I saw: The Public Enemy. Usually, whenever I watched the movie before I gained more experience about Cagney, it would be unusual for me to see Jimmy Cagney in the film because when I first saw the film, it was also actually the first time I saw Cagney in my entire life! Isn't that wild? But now that I've gained more expertise about Jim Cagney, it's not very unusual to see him in the film. Anyway, this is the film that shot Cagney to stardom and established him as a tough guy, even though he would star in a variety of roles and receive his only Oscar™ for his portrayal of George M. Cohan in the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy. It was the famous grapefruit scene that really made people think of him as a tough guy. And the immortal grapefruit scene is forever parodied in an episode of The Simpsons; it's the episode where Bart gets a Big Brother as revenge against Homer after he picks him up from soccer practice too late, and Homer gets a Little Brother as revenge against Bart. Anyway, in the scene parodying the grapefruit scene, Homer is daydreaming—or, whatever, thinking—about how mean Bart is to him, and in this reverie, Bart smashes a grapefruit into Homer's face. Then Homer says, "Mmm...grapefruit," while at the end of the original grapefuit scene, Mae Clarke—whom we see in two other James Cagney films, Lady Killer (1933) and Great Guy (1936 or '37)—cries or gets upset. There are many debates and differing sources about how the grapefruit scene came about. But I personally thought it was funny, just like the later abuse Jimmy gives to Clarke in Lady Killer—dragging her across the room while pulling her by her hair. And we must not forget that James Cagney was not originally cast as Tom Powers; in fact, he was cast as Matt Doyle, Tom Powers' sidekick (Edward Woods, who plays Matt Doyle was originally cast as Tom Powers). If Warner Brothers hadn't switched the actors in their roles, James Cagney wouldn't have been as well-known as he is today.

Jean Harlow was good as Cagney's second girlfriend, even though she didn't have a big role, and Joan Blondell was good as Woods' girlfriend and later wife. This was one of the many movies she would make with James Cagney.

Real machine guns were used in this film; James Cagney was barely missed in the scene where he and Woods run away from gunmen. And let me tell you guys, I had a dream last night about the scene between just James Cagney & Jean Harlow, but I wasn't even in the scene so don't get any ideas! And after the scene where Cagney gets measured for a custom-made suit, I don't even know what that gesture was that Cagney did, so I thought it was weird. Anyway, this film is a must for any James Cagney fan, especially since it was one of his important and best films.

A few clips from Public Enemy (I did not make these videos):

Simpsons episode that has parody of the grapefruit scene:
The Simpsons 414