Here Comes the Navy (1934)

I have just recently watched the 1934 James Cagney movie Here Comes the Navy for the first time, and it was cool!! James Cagney was good as Chesty O'Connor, a cocky, can-do civilian riveter-turned-sailor (this was before the Navy became a symbol of homosexual camp) who represents the common working man of the Depression. I'm so glad I finally got to watch this movie that I so desperately wanted to see! Even though it was very different from the trailer, I must say that I pretty much liked it!! Anyway, James Cagney is with his two best buddies--Pat O'Brien and Frank McHugh--in this film! Frank McHugh's role was big compared to his other roles in Cagney films, and he seemed to have a lot of lines as well as the most comedic dialogues w/ Jimmy Cagney. As for Pat O'Brien, well his and Jimmy's chemistry is very apparent even though their characters don't get along in the film. Their bromance is amazing; I have often compared them to Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law, who were just as good together in Sherlock Holmes!!! And Gloria Stuart, who is almost a centigenarian now, was also good as Cagney's love interest. Anyhow, I felt very sorry for Jimmy Cagney's character earlier in the movie when he is beaten mercilessly by Pat O'Brien in a fight. And his girlfriend didn't even help him, which really sucked. (And I must add that this movie, with its nautical theme, had me longing for the beach. )

Modern-day military movies are more likely to focus on Marine special forces or Navy SEALs than on ordinary sailors, but until the Vietnam era the United States Navy had enough mystique to fuel many popular films. Here Comes the Navy, made between the world wars in 1934, is a good example. Drenched in navy atmosphere, it was filmed in real navy locations and populated with real navy extras polishing guns and swabbing decks in the background. Most impressive of all, much of the action was shot on the U.S.S. Arizona, which became legendary when Japanese aircraft sunk it in the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor that propelled the U.S. into World War II. All this makes the film a natural for navy buffs and a smooth-sailing history lesson for everyone else.

The picture has good Hollywood credentials, too. Its stars are James Cagney and Pat O’Brien, making the first of their nine movies together – they did seven more for Warner Bros. and then reunited for Ragtime in 1981, the last feature for both of them. Here Comes the Navy also scored a nomination for the Best Picture Academy Award, which it lost – along with such other contenders as The Thin Man and The Gay Divorcee – to It Happened One Night, a hard movie to beat (speaking of which, I hope Avatar isn't that way @ the Oscars this year ).

While working in the shipyard, Cagney runs afoul of Biff Martin, chief petty officer of the Arizona, played by O’Brien with just a smidgen less feistiness than Cagney displays. Their squabble turns into a brawl when they compete for a woman at a dance, and when Chesty loses the fight – the lovely lady distracts him just as Biff throws his best punch – the scrappy laborer sets his sights on revenge. This is easier said than done, since Biff immediately goes to sea, so Chesty does what any self-respecting movie character would do: He joins the navy, volunteers for the Arizona, and looks forward to decking his enemy.

Eventually the two meet again, but when Chesty prepares to give Biff what’s coming to him, Biff informs him of something he should have learned in basic training: Officers rank higher than enlisted men, and if Chesty’s fists fly, the rest of his body will land in the brig. Complicating things further, Chesty sees another alluring woman and falls so much in love that he can’t give her up – even when she turns out to be Dorothy “Dot” Martin, his enemy’s loving sister. This sends all of them into a three-way feud, with Dorothy snagged between her sailor friend’s wooing and her big brother’s scolding.

Could things be any worse? You bet. Chesty sneaks off the ship to see Dorothy, and gets caught when he tries to sneak back on. Angry at being punished, he belligerently bad-mouths the navy, which shocks his shipboard buddies and turns them against him. Deciding he’s beaten all around, Chesty slinks away and transfers from battleship duty to a dirigible unit. There he shows he’s a trusty American after all, and everyone has a happy Hollywood ending.

In addition to the U.S.S. Arizona, parts of Here Comes the Navy were shot on location at real navy yards. The picture also shows maneuvers by the Pacific Fleet, and the climax -- when Chesty performs a daring rescue involving a dirigible trying to land at sea -- uses footage of the U.S.S. Macon, an American airship that was downed by a storm the following year, bringing an end to the military’s experiment with lighter-than-air vehicles. The film’s rescue scene is based on an actual incident two years earlier, when crewmen of the U.S.S. Akron held onto a blimp’s ground ropes as it lifted into the air; the real-life accident killed two men, but this didn’t stop Warner Bros. from transforming it into a chance for Chesty to save the day. Cagney did some of his own stunt work, burning his hands on a rope until they “looked like hamburger,” as he described it later.

Along with its glimpses of armed-forces history, Here Comes the Navy reflects an interesting moment in Hollywood history: It was Cagney’s first movie after the Catholic Legion of Decency gained censorship power in the industry, and Warner Bros. wanted to signal that the star’s brash personality wouldn’t be toned down as long as it kept selling tickets. That said, the movie struck some observers as unexpectedly subdued. In addition to laughs and authenticity, the reviewer for the New York Times praised it for having “the added advantage, in these parlous times, of being beyond censorial reproach.” This was especially “remarkable” in a Cagney production, the critic continued, since his “rough-and-tumble antics in several earlier pictures” had been “held up to scorn by those who would reform the screen.” While the star himself hadn’t changed his style, the reviewer wrote, “the restraining hand of the producer, writer, director (or all three), never is relinquished.”

The director who may or may not have restrained Cagney was Lloyd Bacon, whose most celebrated picture is 42nd Street, the popular Depression musical of 1933. That movie gains a lot of its pizzazz from the song-and-dance numbers staged by Busby Berkeley, and in Here Comes the Navy the military interludes serve a similar purpose, punching up a comedy-drama scenario that might easily run out of steam on its own.

The comedy episodes were enthusiastically received by the New York Times reviewer, who applauded some of “the heartiest laughs of the current cinema season” and called the finale, wherein a caterwauling old lady sings a wedding song from lyrics tattooed on her dopey son’s torso, a “perfect comedy climax.” Today’s viewers won’t be so tickled by such silliness, and it’s painful to watch the movie’s disgracefully racist material (it wasn't so painful for me to watch; trust me, I've seen worst), as when Chesty puts on blackface so he can slip off the ship among African-American sailors going on leave. Like the battleship and dirigible sequences, these are best viewed as historical artifacts from America’s not-so-distant past. Seen in this light, Here Comes the Navy has more to reveal than Cagney’s talent for high-spirited hijinks.
Here Comes the Navy is the first and best of the Cagney-O'Brien service pictures and features excellent performances by the entire cast. Cagney plays his character with just the right blend of intensity and devilish, sarcastic, Bart Simpson-like charm. Anyway, this is my favorite Cagney film next to Footlight Parade, Taxi!, and Jimmy the Gent. My prospective favorite James Cagney films, which I have yet to see, are Hard to Handle and Devil Dogs of the Air. And since I mentioned earlier that it was a contender for the 1934 Best Picture Oscar, it isn't nearly half as famous as some of its rivals, like Gay Divorcee and Thin Man. But it's just as charming and lighthearted as the two, and just as watchable, compared to some of the other 1934 films like Cleopatra and Imitation of Life.Anyway, I would recommend the film for James Cagney fans who love seeing him in military dramas. Happy commenting!!!










(Next blog [for sure]: Animal Crackers [1930])












Clips from Here Comes the Navy (1934):

Mister Roberts (1955)

I just watched the 1955 James Cagney/Henry Fonda/Jack Lemmon/William Powell movie Mister Roberts for the first time, and it was cool. James Cagney didn't really have a lot of screentime in this film, but he convincingly portrayed the tyrannical Captain as the ship dictator he was through his wonderful acting. Another appeal of this movie that took place during WWII was that it had an all-star cast and directed by famous director John Ford (well, it was mostly directed by Mervyn LeRoy; it had two directors).The film takes place on an American Naval cargo ship during the waning days of World War II. The ship's perpetual mission is to supply the United States fleet in the South Pacific. The ship’s captain, Morton, has a spotless record of cargo delivery that he maintains through an oppressive command: he refuses to let the crew remove their shirts during hot days working in the cargo hold and has not granted his men ”liberty” for at least two years, despite frequent requests from his XO, Lt. JG Douglas "Mister" Roberts, who serves as cargo chief. Roberts has an excellent working relationship with the crew, often bending the rules to allow them some leeway. Morton’s reputation for timely handling of cargo was rewarded with a palm tree from an impressed admiral, which he keeps in a dirt-filled bucket near the ship’s bridge; Morton is quite proud of his gift, however, the crew despises the tree and the Captain himself.

Mister Roberts (1955) started as a novel by Thomas Heggen, but became popular when it hit Broadway as a stage play in 1948, written by Heggen and Joshua Logan. The play starred movie actor Henry Fonda who had left Hollywood after making Fort Apache (1948) with director John Ford. For once, that turned out to be a wise decision, as the play became one of Broadway's most popular hits.

When Logan and the play's producer, Leland Hayward, went to Warner Brothers to make the film version, Fonda felt there was little chance he would be given Roberts. After all, he was then nearly fifty years old and Roberts was written as being a man in his twenties. In fact, Warner Brothers would have preferred Marlon Brando or William Holden in the lead. However, one of the first decisions the producing team made was bringing Ford onboard as director and Ford demanded Fonda. To make Fonda seem younger, most of the rest of the cast was populated with older actors; fifty-five year old James Cagney as the dictatorial Captain Morton and, after Spencer Tracy turned down the role, sixty-two year old William Powell for Doc. For the young Ensign Pulver, Ford chose a little-known actor who had made a screen test for his previous movie The Long Grey Line (1955)- Jack Lemmon.

As the filming began, sailing could not have seemed smoother. Ford used his Navy connections to find one of the old cargo scows to use for the story's setting and boat; cast and crew were all sent to Midway Island for exterior shooting. Why it all went wrong is a matter of controversy. After years playing Roberts on stage, Fonda felt he owned the role and knew how it was to be played. Ford had other ideas, introducing bits of broad physical comedy, inventing new situations and, allegedly, throwing more attention to Lemmon's Pulver than Fonda's Roberts. Fonda kept his mouth shut but Ford could tell he was dissatisfied. One night, Ford confronted Fonda in his quarters while Fonda was having a meeting with Hayward. "I understand you're not happy with my work," Ford muttered and, when Fonda confirmed it, Ford charged him, swinging wildly. Fonda managed to hold him back and Ford later apologized. The damage, however, was done and was irreparable.

Ford continued directing the movie into the next month but could not handle being subservient to an actor. His way of dealing with the humiliation was drinking, keeping an ice chest full of beer nearby and downing up to two cases a day. After exterior shooting was completed, Ford was hospitalized with a gall bladder attack. The day he went into hospital for surgery, he was replaced by Mervyn LeRoy, the director of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) and Quo Vadis? (1951). LeRoy shot all the studio-bound interiors except for two scenes, the laundry scene and Pulver's final message to the Captain, both of which were directed by Joshua Logan.

Those who knew the play well from Broadway were unhappy with the end result but their perspective may have been colored by unrealistic expectations. Movie audiences loved Mister Roberts, making it 1955's third-biggest box office hit, and earning Jack Lemmon his first Academy Award. Ford went on to what many feel was his greatest movie, The Searchers (1956), while Fonda had a long career of acting triumphs. But these two former friends never worked together again.
The movie was directed by John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy and Joshua Logan (uncredited). While directing the film, Ford had personality conflicts with actors Henry Fonda and James Cagney. When Ford met Cagney at the airport, the director warned that they would "tangle asses," which caught Cagney by surprise. Cagney later said: "I would have kicked his brains out. He was so goddamned mean to everybody. He was truly a nasty old man." The next day, Cagney was slightly late on set, and Ford became incensed. Cagney cut short the imminent tirade, saying "When I started this picture, you said that we would tangle asses before this was over. I'm ready now – are you?" Ford walked away and he and Cagney had no further conflicts on the set.


During the production of the film, Jack Lemmon started a long-time friendship with Cagney which lasted until Cagney's death in 1986. Their first introduction is as funny as the film itself. Prior to his appearance in his first film, years before Mister Roberts, he started in live television. In one particular performance, Jack Lemmon decided to play his character differently. In his brainstorming he decided to play the character left-handed, which is opposite to his own way of movement. With much practice, he pulled off the performance without anyone noticing the change. This change even fooled Lemmon's wife at the time. A few years went by and Jack met Cagney on their way to Midway Island to film Mister Roberts. They introduced each other and Cagney chimed in "Are you still fooling people into believing you're left handed?" They had a great laugh and a strong friendship endured ever since. As Lemmon noted, this was an example of James Cagney's ability to observe human behavior for his acting.

Henry Fonda wrote in his 1982 autobiography, My Life, that he believed that as good as the movie is, the play is even better. The film was William Powell's last movie, although he died decades later, in 1984. Powell was offered many chances to return to the screen but refused, apparently believing that 35 years of film acting were enough. Anyway, I would recommend this film for James Cagney fans who are also fans of Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, or William Powell. Happy Commenting!!!

(Next blog [for sure]: Horse Feathers [1932])

Clips from Mister Roberts:

The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941)

I just recently watched the James Cagney/Bette Davis movie The Bride Came C.O.D., and it was pleasant if not totally great! James Cagney was lovable as Steve Collins, the scrappy aviator who must collect $1,180 to pay off his plane so it doesn't get reposessed by kidnapping Bette Davis. This is one of the few Bette Davis films that I have seen, besides that clip from All About Eve (1950) that I watched in film class last year. In fact--and don't take this to heart--I'm not really a big fan of Bette Davis. (There! I said it once again!) For some reason, I find her acting to be really disturbing! Nevertheless, I do think that she and James Cagney were very similar, as both were dramatic and could act in a wide range of film roles. Still, there is something about her that I just don't like. But before I prattle on about my feelings for Bette Davis, I should really focus on the film! So anyway...
Bette Davis and James Cagney went for a change of pace in The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941), a slapstick comedy about a runaway heiress kept from marrying a band leader when her father (Eugene Pallette) hires Cagney to kidnap her. They got the hit they were hoping for -- it was one of the year's top 20 box-office films -- but a year later the studio gave them the bird, quite literally, when Chuck Jones spoofed their film in the Conrad Cat cartoon "The Bird Came C.O.D." For Davis' part, she would later complain that all she got out of the film was a derriere full of cactus quills.

Warner Bros. had developed the project for Cagney, who was gradually moving away from gangster roles. (I personally think that Jimmy Cagney's label as a tough guy could not be more wrong! He was a very versatile actor, just like Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep!) He was making the romantic comedy The Strawberry Blonde (1941), and advance word on the film was quite good, so another comedy seemed the perfect choice. Cagney was eager to break into independent production at the time, so he insisted that his brother, William, who was set to be his partner once he went independent, serve as associate producer.

Originally the studio considered a number of established comedic actresses for the female lead. They bypassed the likes of Ann Sheridan, Ginger Rogers and Rosalind Russell, however, in favor of rising star Olivia de Havilland. Then Davis expressed an interest in the part, and Hal Wallis went to bat for her. Both had read critics' complaints that she needed a break from serious dramatic roles. In addition, she was eager to re-team with Cagney, who like her had a history of battles with the Warner Bros. management. They had not worked together since 1934, when they teamed for the minor comedy Jimmy the Gent. Some biographers have suggested that the studio was punishing her with the film because of her notorious temperament, while others have suggested she may have wanted to emulate Katharine Hepburn, who had been equally successful in serious and comic roles. Also possible is that she was drawn to the film's obvious similarities to It Happened One Night (1934), another tale of a runaway heiress saved from a bad marriage by the love of a simple working guy. Director Frank Capra had tried to cast Davis in that film, but Warners didn't want to loan her to another studio on the heels of her loan-out to RKO for Of Human Bondage (1934). Instead, the role had gone to Claudette Colbert, who ended up winning the Best Actress Oscar® most critics think should have gone to Davis for the RKO film.

Any hopes of scoring another It Happened One Night were dashed, however, when production started and the promised re-writes from twin writing partners Julius and Philip Epstein did little to improve the script. (Director William Keighley described the atmosphere on the set as funereal.) Nor were matters helped by ten days of location shooting in Death Valley in January. When Cagney complained about the heat, with temperatures climbing to 100 degrees each day, Keighley could only console him that they hadn't shot during the summer, when the highs hit 130.As for the cactus quills, studio publicity claimed that Davis actually got them by accident when she was told to jump out of Cagney's downed plane into a sand dune that concealed the offending flora. The incident was then added to the script. By other accounts, there was a stunt woman on hand to perform the bit, but when Davis got into the cactus patch for the next part of the scene, she got "quilled" nonetheless. A doctor had to be brought in to remove 45 of the things from the star's stern. Her painful situation got worse a few days later when the script called for Cagney to fire a sling shot at the injured body part.

Although most critics welcomed the comic about face for Davis and Cagney, some were quick to point out that the property itself was hardly up to their talents. The New York Times dismissed it as "a serviceable romp," while Archer Winston in The New York Post pleaded "Okay, Jimmie and Bette. You've had your fling. Now go back to work." More recent fans have looked on the film as one of the low points in both stars' careers, though acknowledging that their first love scene, set in a mine shaft, is a standout for both. Davis would fare better the following year in the more sophisticated comedy of The Man Who Came to Dinner, also written for the screen by the Epstein brothers (adapted from the 1940 Hart/Kaufman play where the Monty Woolley character is based on Alexander Woolcott play and the character Banjo is based on Harpo Marx [True!] ) while Cagney would have a much better role as a flyer in the wartime drama Captains of the Clouds (also 1942).

And while this film is definitely not one of James Cagney's or Bette Davis' best, it is enjoyable when you watch it for the first time but when you watch it for the second or third time...Well, let's just say it all goes downhill from there. Plus I might add that in one scene Cagney and Davis sing to each other discordantly through a closed door. That scene was entertaining in the trailer but in the actual film, it was awful and obnoxious! Although some of you folks may think that Bette Davis can do anything, one of those things is obviously not singing!

Now you folks may think that I judged Bette Davis rather unfairly earlier on, and I probably did, so I thought I could watch perhaps some of her best films just to see that she ain't so bad. But I can't force myself to like her. I've discovered over time that I don't have to go with the flow and that it should be okay if I don't like Bette Davis. Now I'm not complaining or anything but it seems that around here, you folks seem to have uniform interests: You all love the same actors like Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant (by the way, did any of you know that Cary Grant was Jewish?), etc, and the same films like The Thin Man, Dark Victory, Alfred Hitchcock films, etc. (And besides, we all know you can't have too much of a good thing! ) At this moment, I should stop before I get too preachy or self-serving, but all I'm saying is we should diversify our interests! To explain my point, just as an example, I have seen no one mention, or express interest in, King Kong (1933).
To make a long story short, I personally prefer Jimmy the Gent to this film but in any case, I would recommend this movie for James Cagney fans who love seeing him in comedies and who are also Bette Davis fans. Happy commenting!!!
(Next blog: A Night at the Opera [1935])

Clips from The Bride Came C.O.D.: