It's impossible not to compare this to "All the King's Men" since they were both inspired by the same figure, Huey P. Long, cheerfully corrupt governor of Louisiana who was assassinated.
"A Lion in the Streets" emerges much the worse. It's immediately recognizable as a "movie". There is no location shooting. Work clothes aren't dirty. The performers, many of them well known, speak and emote as if reciting their lines. As the central figure, an affable peddler who gains the cooperation of a shady but powerful wheeler/dealer, Cagney pulls out all the stops. He's been manic before but never quite this manic. And if he's a Southern peckerwood, so am I.
"All the King's Men" was a wretched novel but a fine movie with only one weakness: the transition of the Huey Long character from bumpkin to manipulator took place almost overnight. Here, there doesn't seem to be any change -- any "character arc" -- at all. Cagney is his same loud and bouncy star throughout.
It's just about impossible to believe that Cagney passionately feels that the sharecroppers he organizes and leads actually mean anything much to him. He does two nasty things -- he lies on an affidavit about the death of a friend, and he has an affair with the tempting and devoted young Anne Francis. Nothing is made of it. He never shows remorse, just shouts a little louder.
You want to see a good film about Huey P. Long? Watch "All The King's Men."
"A Lion in the Streets" emerges much the worse. It's immediately recognizable as a "movie". There is no location shooting. Work clothes aren't dirty. The performers, many of them well known, speak and emote as if reciting their lines. As the central figure, an affable peddler who gains the cooperation of a shady but powerful wheeler/dealer, Cagney pulls out all the stops. He's been manic before but never quite this manic. And if he's a Southern peckerwood, so am I.
"All the King's Men" was a wretched novel but a fine movie with only one weakness: the transition of the Huey Long character from bumpkin to manipulator took place almost overnight. Here, there doesn't seem to be any change -- any "character arc" -- at all. Cagney is his same loud and bouncy star throughout.
It's just about impossible to believe that Cagney passionately feels that the sharecroppers he organizes and leads actually mean anything much to him. He does two nasty things -- he lies on an affidavit about the death of a friend, and he has an affair with the tempting and devoted young Anne Francis. Nothing is made of it. He never shows remorse, just shouts a little louder.
You want to see a good film about Huey P. Long? Watch "All The King's Men."