All big cities keep reinventing themselves, and this one, set in San Francisco in 1848, comes as the Pacific coast was building itself up, a good 60 years before Jeanette MacDonald shook things up. Fellow Warner Brothers gangster Edward G. Robinson also got in on the love for Frisco the same year, and both films are equally good, although the Samuel Goldwyn film is a bit more lavish.
With the unforgettable moniker of Bat Morgan, Cagney's bound to become an unforgettable fictional anti-hero, just as Clark Gable would be the next year as Blackie Norton. What is clear in 1848 to 1906 in both films is the fact that San Francisco didn't change for the moral better. In fact, it got more bawdy, more lawless and definitely more corrupt. Cagney is perhaps an amalgamation of several real life characters, going from rebellious sailor to racous political figure whose actions lead to violence and further corruption, although he does find romance with the beautiful Margaret Lindsay.
When you first see poor tailor George E. Stone putting on a designer suit sent all the way from New York, you can't help but think of Fred Astaire in the "A Couple of Swells" number from "Easter Parade". Poor Stone is the one who suffers from the association with Cagney as his fame makes him more notorious. Warner Brothers contract players Barton MacLane and Ricardo Cortez (rather wasted for a big star here) are among other colorful figures. Certainly this isn't true to life but it does give us an indication of how things were on a coast that had only been reached through years of explorationwhen the map of the United States as we know it now had not even been drawn out.
With the unforgettable moniker of Bat Morgan, Cagney's bound to become an unforgettable fictional anti-hero, just as Clark Gable would be the next year as Blackie Norton. What is clear in 1848 to 1906 in both films is the fact that San Francisco didn't change for the moral better. In fact, it got more bawdy, more lawless and definitely more corrupt. Cagney is perhaps an amalgamation of several real life characters, going from rebellious sailor to racous political figure whose actions lead to violence and further corruption, although he does find romance with the beautiful Margaret Lindsay.
When you first see poor tailor George E. Stone putting on a designer suit sent all the way from New York, you can't help but think of Fred Astaire in the "A Couple of Swells" number from "Easter Parade". Poor Stone is the one who suffers from the association with Cagney as his fame makes him more notorious. Warner Brothers contract players Barton MacLane and Ricardo Cortez (rather wasted for a big star here) are among other colorful figures. Certainly this isn't true to life but it does give us an indication of how things were on a coast that had only been reached through years of explorationwhen the map of the United States as we know it now had not even been drawn out.