I like James Cagney especially when he plays against type. 'A Lion is in the Streets' seems to offer a promising character for Cagney to develop. Hank Martin is a Huey Long roman a clef whose rise and fall is meant to serve as a cautionary tale against left wing demagogues. I can't help but look at the year in which it was produced and notice the subject matter very much overlaps with the Red Scare. 'A Lion is in the Streets' is very much a film in that mold.
The problem with the film is that it does not work because it has no moments of genuine character growth or subtlety. Cagney is firing on all cylinders with his loud bombastic and sometimes silly southern accent. He's a cartoon character. Huey Long may have been eccentric but if you want to approach this material and actually get drama and conflict out of it you need to look at why a figure like Hank Martin might appeal to people. Martin doesn't go on any journey. He doesn't earn the hubris because there is no real starting point. I feel that the picture starts at the wrong moment. I would have liked to have seen more of the courtship between Hank and his fiancé Verity played by Barbara Hale.
The film is also very cynical. There is more than one line of dialogue about poverty being complex and that too many poor people blame their problems on others. Martin's appeal seems to be that he can smooth talk the dumb bumpkins into doing his bidding. I just can't get on board with this. It's lazy storytelling for a film like this and it just feels awful.
It's a well cast film and Cagney completists will probably enjoy it but I think it's a tired piece of rightwing McCarthy era entertainment that you can take or leave now.
I guess the one thing saving it from being a total bomb is the presence of Lon Chaney Jr...
The problem with the film is that it does not work because it has no moments of genuine character growth or subtlety. Cagney is firing on all cylinders with his loud bombastic and sometimes silly southern accent. He's a cartoon character. Huey Long may have been eccentric but if you want to approach this material and actually get drama and conflict out of it you need to look at why a figure like Hank Martin might appeal to people. Martin doesn't go on any journey. He doesn't earn the hubris because there is no real starting point. I feel that the picture starts at the wrong moment. I would have liked to have seen more of the courtship between Hank and his fiancé Verity played by Barbara Hale.
The film is also very cynical. There is more than one line of dialogue about poverty being complex and that too many poor people blame their problems on others. Martin's appeal seems to be that he can smooth talk the dumb bumpkins into doing his bidding. I just can't get on board with this. It's lazy storytelling for a film like this and it just feels awful.
It's a well cast film and Cagney completists will probably enjoy it but I think it's a tired piece of rightwing McCarthy era entertainment that you can take or leave now.
I guess the one thing saving it from being a total bomb is the presence of Lon Chaney Jr...