The classics from the 30's, 40's and 50's are just so good, everyone has a story and they survive without the need for CGI or fast cars. This print is a neat little one with the pairing once again of James Cagney and Margaret Lindsay, a cute couple and they interact well, not as well as Cagney and Joan Blondell but well enough.
In the opening scenes we see Bat Morgan (Cagney) taking a nice break from a ship as a sailor in a bar, the bar is a seedy, dingy, smoggy place and hanging around in there is a group of undesirables who Shanghai unsuspecting men, this is a well known way of gaining ship hands back in that time. A man would be knocked unconscious and placed on a ship and when he awoke was forced to work till the ship docked again. They manage to get Bat Morgan onto a small boat but he awakes and escapes and turns tables on them and sells two of them to a ship.
He gains work in a large bar/casino on the Barbary Coast and sees how its run and decides to raise some revenue and invests with the help of the community into several places and runs them above the law and not in the gutter.
During this time many are jealous and things take a turn for the worse, many in the posh side away from the Barbary coast are dead set against them all as they are the 'lower class' in their eyes. and so trouble comes and when a judge is shot dead the town rises in a vigilante group and are out to catch those responsible and punish them....how will it all end?
of course Cagney nets the Gal, The lovely Margaret Lindsey and although she plays a smaller part she is there through the film.
its a great film and entertaining enough for me. learning about the Shanghai business for me, when i watch a film i research what i see and its usually informative of the times.
In the opening scenes we see Bat Morgan (Cagney) taking a nice break from a ship as a sailor in a bar, the bar is a seedy, dingy, smoggy place and hanging around in there is a group of undesirables who Shanghai unsuspecting men, this is a well known way of gaining ship hands back in that time. A man would be knocked unconscious and placed on a ship and when he awoke was forced to work till the ship docked again. They manage to get Bat Morgan onto a small boat but he awakes and escapes and turns tables on them and sells two of them to a ship.
He gains work in a large bar/casino on the Barbary Coast and sees how its run and decides to raise some revenue and invests with the help of the community into several places and runs them above the law and not in the gutter.
During this time many are jealous and things take a turn for the worse, many in the posh side away from the Barbary coast are dead set against them all as they are the 'lower class' in their eyes. and so trouble comes and when a judge is shot dead the town rises in a vigilante group and are out to catch those responsible and punish them....how will it all end?
of course Cagney nets the Gal, The lovely Margaret Lindsey and although she plays a smaller part she is there through the film.
its a great film and entertaining enough for me. learning about the Shanghai business for me, when i watch a film i research what i see and its usually informative of the times.