James Cagney may be more strongly associated with the gangster movie than any other actor, having made several of the genre’s best films. The star was more than a film hoodlum, of course, getting his start as a vaudeville performer. His stage-honed dancing skills would serve him well in theprototype jukebox musicalYankee Doodle Dandy, for which he won his only Academy Award.
But it was for his crime movie roles that Cagney first gained wide recognition, becoming an icon, and afavorite of stars like Clint Eastwood. He was concerned about being typecast, but Cagney’s on-screen presence was so dynamic, he readily escaped being pigeonholeed as agangster movie actor. When he did play underworld figures, he created some of his era’s most memorable characters, in some of its most enduring films.
He Was Her Manteamed Cagney with Joan Blondell, the WB players' seventh pairing overall. Decidedly pre-Code in subject matter and tone, the melodrama casts Blondell as a sex worker, and Cagney as a safe-cracker on the run after turning rat. Insinuations of intimate relations between Blondell and Cagney’s characters got the movie banned by the Catholic Legion of Decency.
Cagney wears a bad mustache in this one, and his acting is tepid compared to his earlier, more forceful gangster performances. Writing forThe New Republic, film critic Otis Ferguson noted the film’s sluggish pacing, as didVanity Fair’sHelen Brown Norden. The movie is known today only by pre-Code fanatics and dedicated viewers of TCM.
Lady Killer
Cast
Lady Killer, released in 1933, follows an ex-gangster who inadvertently rises to movie stardom. As he navigates his new life in Hollywood, he struggles to distance himself from his criminal past and old associates, juxtaposing glamour against underworld temptations.
Cagney famously smashed a grapefruit into Mae Clarke’s faceinThe Public Enemy. Being mistreated by Cagney worked out so well for the actress, she signed up for more inLady Killer. Cagney’s tough-talking burglar dragging a screaming Clarke across the floor by her hair is the movie’s signature moment, for better or worse.
Lady Killer’s reviews note the film’s disjointed narrative, but praise its energy. The film seems to have been slapped together quickly, to cash in on the Cagney-and-Clarke team. They would appear together one more time, in a movie hilariously entitledGreat Guy. Cagney thought so little ofLady Killer, he didn’t even mention it in his autobiography,Cagney By Cagney.
Picture Snatcher
Picture Snatcher is a 1933 film featuring James Cagney as an ex-convict who leverages his street smarts to transition into a successful career in photojournalism, navigating the challenges of capturing sensational stories for newspaper publication.
1933 saw Cagney starring in a trio of WB releases that could roughly be considered gangster films,and two of them can be read as meta-movies about the star’s wish to escape the genre. The previously-discussedLady Killerveers from gangster flick to show-biz spoof. InPicture Snatcher, Cagney plays a mobster who quits the rackets to pursue his dream of being a photographer.
Picture Snatcherrecreates a real-life incident in which a photographer snuck a small camera into an execution chamber, snatching the first-ever picture of a condemned prisoner strapped into the electric chair.
Lady Killeris haphazard in its plotting, whilePicture Snatcherfeels like a movie about a tabloid photographer with a little crime element shoehorned in, because it could then be sold as another Cagney gangster picture, even though it really isn’t. Of the two,Picture Snatcheris the more entertaining, given its novel subject matter and lurid depiction of the newspaper business.
Each Dawn I Die
Each Dawn I Die, directed by William Keighley, stars James Cagney as an investigative reporter framed for manslaughter by a corrupt district attorney. The film follows his struggle to clear his name while navigating the harsh realities of prison life.
Cagney was all set to play the gangster inEach Dawn I Die, until cast shuffling resulted in George Raft being hired, precipitating a role swap. Raft played the hood, and Cagney the newspaperman (probably a wise move, given Raft’s limited range). The resulting hard-nosed prison-gangster movie made $1.5 million on a budget of $735,000. Critics were unimpressed, with both Otis Ferguson and Graham Greene offering negative reviews.
The movie’s publicity material played up the Cagney vs. Raft angle, with taglines like “Cagney Meets A Raft Of Trouble” and “It’s A Battle Of Killers.” Cagney won, and there would be no rematch. Gangster films were on their way out by 1939, and Cagney wouldn’t make another one for 10 years.
G Men
G Men, directed by William Keighley, follows James “Brick” Davis, an attorney, who rejects his mob ties and joins the Department of Justice after a friend’s murder. Determined to bring criminals to justice, Davis abandons his legal practice to target those responsible for the crime.
Cagney is back at the top of the bill, but this time he’s a cop. His energy is as insolent and brash as in his gangster roles, even if he’s on the right side of the law now. Converting Cagney from vicious mobster to dogged lawman worked with audiences, asG Menbecame one of the biggest box office hits of the year, grossing $1.9 million on a $307,000 budget.
1948’sG Menre-release added a prologue scene in which an actor plays an FBI instructor introducing the film to recruits (also actors) as part of a lesson about the bureau’s history.
Glorifying the cop while deglamorizing the gangster not only worked out at the box office for Warners, but it also went over well with FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, who officially endorsed the film after initially denouncing it (its box office performance changed his mind). In trying to retool the gangster genre for the post-Code era,Warners and Cagney may have invented copaganda.
The gangster movie formula was still being worked out in 1930, with big genre-defining titles likeLittle CaesarandScarfacestill a couple of years in the future. Archie Mayo’sDoorway to Hellhelped assemble a few of the more famous gangster tropes, including mobsters carrying Tommy guns in violin cases.
Cagney was a secondary player inDoorway to Hell, with the lead role being held down byAll Quiet on the Western Front’s Lew Ayres.The New York Timesgave the movie a glowing review, calling it “an intelligent and exciting motion picture.” They also praised Ayres, while failing to mention Cagney. It wasn’t Cagney’s time to shine quite yet. The film cost $240,000 to make and grossed $688,000, also snagging a Best Screenplay Oscar nomination for George Rosener’s script.
The Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties is a 1939 crime film set after World War I, following Eddie Bartlett, George Hally, and Lloyd Hart as they navigate post-war America. Eddie becomes a successful cab driver through bootlegging, partnering with George, while Lloyd practices law, impacting their personal and professional lives.
Cagney’s time at Warner Bros. overlapped with that of Humphrey Bogart, but perhaps surprisingly, the Hollywood legends only appeared in three movies together. InThe Roaring Twenties, the stars play WWI buddies who hook back up years later as criminal partners, but have a falling out when Bogart’s psychotic tendencies emerge, and the more cautious Cagney cuts him loose.
Cagney vs. Bogartshould feel like a big deal, but Bogart is a clear second-fiddle to his more-established co-star, a dynamic that prevents sparks from flying. This hardly matters, as Cagney carries the film on his shoulders. Still very entertaining today,The Roaring Twentieshas a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Writing forThe Spectator, Graham Greene called Cagney “superb and witty,” and quipped that it’s “always a pleasure to see Mr. Bogart pumped full of lead.”
The gangster movie genre erupted into full flower at the same time Cagney blew up.The Public Enemypropelled the star to the next level, while cementing the crime film as one of the era’s signature forms. Martin Scorsese citesThe Public Enemyas a major influence on his own gangster epics, explaining in 2017 how the flick informed his approach to violence (viaRolling Stone):
Don’t forget, for me, the biggest influence was William Wellman’s Public Enemy. And it’s always pointed out that the act of violence is off-screen. It’s tricky. I didn’t realize that for a few years, because I saw it when I was 12, and there’s a big gun battle at the end, But you never see it – Jimmy Cagney goes into this saloon, it’s raining outside, and you just see guns flashes. You hear screams, he comes back out and he’s shot, goes into a giant close-up, and he goes, “I ain’t so tough.” [Laughs] It’s like, you never needed to see!
Critics recognized the movie’s power upon its 1931 release.Esquire’s Dwight MacDonald found the film’s snappy pace and unpretentious approach refreshing, saying “It has more in it than a half-dozen of those lethargic three-hour-plus epics we get nowadays.”The Public Enemy’s 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, on a strong sample size of 33 reviews, reflects its status as a seminal American movie.
The era of the classic gangster movies really came to an end with the arrival of the Production Code. Post-Code mob films were tamer and less fun in the eyes of most people and then World War II stuck a fork in the genre. Cagney continued on with little difficulty, gaining his independence by leaving Warner Bros.
His career having begun to dip by 1949, a cash-strapped Cagney found himself back on the Warners lot and was immediately put back in a gangster film, reuniting withThe Roaring Twenties’ Walsh forWhite Heat. The film made $3.9 million worldwide, proving there was still a hunger for gangster movies starring Cagney.
TimelistedWhite Heatas one of its Top 100 films of all-time in 2005. It has a 94% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 80 reviews.The final scene features one offilm history’s greatest deaths, giving Cagney’s long-lived gangster persona an explosive send-off.
Early gangster movies were accused of making the criminal lifestyle look too appealing, despite their last-second gestures toward condemnation. A late-cycle ‘30s gangster film,Angels With Dirty Facesturns on a last-second move as well, but the turn is an organic one, and finishes the film off in powerful fashion. Cagney still had the goods at the box office, as the movie grossed $1.7 million.
Angels With Dirty Facesis parodied inHome AloneasAngels With Filthy Souls
Angels With Dirty Faceswas nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Actor, but was shut-out. Cagney did win Best Actor from the National Board of Review and The New York Film Critics Circle, validating him as one of Hollywood’s top artists as well as box office draws. The movie’s critical reputation remains strong, as indicated by its 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. AFI shortlistedAngels With Dirty Facesfor its 2008 100 Years, 100 Movies rundown.
