Blonde Crazy (1931)

I just recently watched the 1931 James Cagney movie Blonde Crazy, and it was very fun! James Cagney, who had just burst into major stardom around the time this film was made, was terrific as Bert Harris, the bellboy/racketeer who is nuts over Joan Blondell. And as usual, he makes his rogue character lovable. James Cagney and Joan Blondell are always great as a pair (they made seven films together), especially in this movie. I absolutely loved it when they were together in Footlight Parade. In fact, overall, I love it when they are paired together; the chemistry between them is excellent.

This film would easily give one the impression of being a Pre-Code film , especially the scene where James Cagney is turned-on by the dancing ladies' butts and the scene where he barges in on Joan Blondell in the bathtub. I also love the scene where Cagney puts Blondell's bra over his eyes like a mask and then does a long, impressed whistle while getting the money out of the bra—very risquè! What really turned me on by Cagney in this film was his mannerisms and facial expressions, especially that voice (I can't describe the voice but it's a very happy, low-in-tone voice and Cagney uses it flirtatiously).
The first half of the film is very funny in comparison to the second half, which is very melodramatic and my least favorite part; however, I did like the end of the film, which I found sweet and cute. But I didn't really watch the shooting/car chase scene because it was too dramatic. I also felt sorry for the heartbroken James Cagney as he watched Joan Blondell getting married. I also found it interesting that Jimmy Cagney achieved hi dream of going to Europe one year later, but I didn't exactly like his opinion of it ("It stinks!"); however, his opinion was probably because of his resentment by Joan Blondell dumping him. (I'm guessing that if Joan Blondell joined him on his voyage to Europe, his opinion would've been less harsh.)

This is definitely a film from the Great Depression, and since it's from the early 1930s, the quality of the film is kinda grainy. (I kinda found that strange because, in comparison, The Public Enemy, which is from the same year as Blonde Crazy, has an excellent picture quality.) At first,there was some schemes I didn't understand, but after watching this film a couple times, I quickly got them (like the phony 20 dollar bill scheme). The movie isn't one of James Cagney's best or well-known films, and I wouldn't say that I very much enjoyed it (I enjoyed Footlight Parade and Taxi! more). This film was also a quickie in production and was a hit at the box office as well as with critics. I would recommend this film for James Cagney fans who enjoy seeing him in comedy/dramas. Again, you folks may comment with your own opinions about this film, but you don't have to.

Clips from Blonde Crazy (ignore the French subtitles):

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