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])

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!

Footlight Parade (1933)

I just decided I could write a blog about a James Cagney movie that I watched recently but not for the first time, so I decided to do a blog about the 1933 James Cagney movie Footlight Parade. Yes, yes, yes, I know I'm supposed to watch White Heat, but I'll get to that later. Anyway, Footlight Parade is one of the prime examples of James Cagney's musical talents, next to Yankee Doodle Dandy and one of Busby Berkeley's masterpieces. It is a backstage story like 42nd Street and has Pre-Code humor. It is probably the only Busby Berkeley film with a major, charismatic actor (James Cagney; Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler aren't really major actors). James Cagney is so fun to watch in this film as he deals with the recent divorce with his wife and working under pressure to come up with prologues for movie theaters (I'm not very familiar with movie theater prologues snce I'm from a much younger generation). In this film, Cagney showed audiences that he was a hoofer (yes, I'm surprised I know that word too) as well as a gangster, that he shouldn't be typecast as a gangster and that his versatility should be put to good use.

I really loved the humorously fast-paced (probably wouldn't be good for a Marx Brothers movie) backstage plot that precedes the famous Busby Berkeley musical numbers—my favorite number among them is "Shanghai Lil" because that's the one where you get to see Jimmy Cagney dance and hear him sing, and that's a real treat—especially the scene where Frank McHugh choreographs the dancers in the cat number while copying the moves of a real cat, literally. I also love the scene where Joan Blondell has a catfight with Cagney's love interest. By the way, Joan Blondell is just fabulous as James Cagney's secretary who loves him but he doesn't know it, especially when he falls for a old rival of hers. (I know how that feels. I've had that happened to me in my 19 years of life.) I was really amazed by the spectacular "By a Waterfall' water sequence the first time I saw the movie. I read somewhere that the sequence was done in a pool that took up an entire soundstage, with actual water slides on the side (the water was pumped by technicians during shooting) and was lined with glass on the sides and floor. Still, I see no reason watching the sequence whenever I watch the film because for one thing, there is no James Cagney, and for another thing, it's too long. I would recommend this movie for any James Cagney fan, especially one who loves to see him in musicals—yes, even James Cagney's 1937 non-Warner Bros. musical Something to Sing About, which would've been better had it not suffered from its studio's small budget (FYI, it was made by Grand National, a small, independent studio; a prime example of the saying, "There's just no room for the little guy"). This is one of my favorite Warner Brothers musicals—next to Yankee Doodle Dandy, which is just too patriotic for me—and one of the top Busby Berkeley musicals. By the way, I know you guys love reading my James Cagney film reviews, so don't worry; there are more coming! Once again, please feel free to comment on this blog with your own opinions on this film.
Clip from this movie (I did not make this video):