"Winner Take All" from 1932, was one of many films where the presence of James Cagney was enough to sustain interest. The plot and script are nothing special and Cagney quickly tired of making the same kind of film for "Warner Bros" until 1938. He plays a talented boxer who needs to be sent to a Mexican health farm as he has been enjoying a hedonistic lifestyle a bit too much. Whilst there, Cagney meets a single mother and her young son who face being made homeless. He promises to do the right thing by them when he returns to the ring. Complications develop when Cagney attempts to mix with the so-called upper class types and he falls for a wealthy female socialite. This was the first film where James Cagney played a boxer. "City for Conquest" is the best out of all of them but "Winner Take All" includes a few effective boxing scenes. Other than Cagney, no one else is worth seeing and it is to the actor's credit that he could carry a film.
Review of Winner Take All
