Another "Jimmy Eats World" Warner Brothers melodrama, with Cagney once again cast as the feisty, put-upon little guy taking on all-comers, quite literally this time given that he plays a reluctant boxer in this Anatole Litvak-directed feature.
For some reason, the film begins and ends with a framing commentary by Frank Craven's wandering tramp, as if the easy-to-follow plot needs explanation or context, but putting that aside, we're next introduced to the four main protagonists as children, who will grow up to be Cagney, Arthur Kennedy, Ann Sheridan and Elia Kazan (before he went behind the camera and later ratted on his mates to the H.U.A.C.) already establishing their future characters as a fighter, dancer, composer and small-time crook.
Cagney's character Danny doesn't want to fight, despite being obviously talented with his dukes, but takes to the ring to help out his struggling brother Eddie, obviously based on the then recently deceased George Gershwin, who has inside him a great New York-inspired symphony, but who's reduced to writing snappy songs for Broadway shows to get by. Sheridan, of course, is Jimmy's "forever goil" Peggy, a talented dancer with her own Broadway ambitions, who falls under the malign influence of sinister dancer-manager Anthony Quinn, in one of his early roles. There's a strong suggestion in fact that Quinn's Burns character at one point rapes her as part of his controlling ways, which seemed an unnecessary and distasteful, to say the least, plot point, especially as Burns doesn't get any real kind of come-uppance later on.
Reluctantly glossing over this narrative flaw, the film is still highly entertaining, Cagney is at his pugnacious (sorry, couldn't resist it) best, Sheridan shines in his shadow, Kennedy is fine as the talented, sensitive sibling (although I did laugh at his windmill-like tilt at conducting the orchestra at Carnegie Hall) and even Kazan too, as the fourth musketeer, who again almost literally dies by the sword and gets an accidentally hilarious last-words speech. The dependable Donald Crisp adds some gravitas as Danny's paternalistic manager.
Good as they are, while filmed by the renowned James Wong Howe, I've seen fight scenes done better in other Hollywood fight-films of the time but I was otherwise quite impressed with the excerpt from Max Steiner's big-city symphony, obviously patterned after "Rhapsody In Blue" and wonder if it was part of a bigger, completed piece by its composer. Elsewhere, director Litvak does so with panache, especially in his use of montage and location depictions of the Big Apple of the time.
Sure, it's sentimental, clichéd and unoriginal at times, but with Cagney in fighting form, strong ensemble support and noteworthy direction by Litvak, this is another Warners' feature which certainly packs a punch.
For some reason, the film begins and ends with a framing commentary by Frank Craven's wandering tramp, as if the easy-to-follow plot needs explanation or context, but putting that aside, we're next introduced to the four main protagonists as children, who will grow up to be Cagney, Arthur Kennedy, Ann Sheridan and Elia Kazan (before he went behind the camera and later ratted on his mates to the H.U.A.C.) already establishing their future characters as a fighter, dancer, composer and small-time crook.
Cagney's character Danny doesn't want to fight, despite being obviously talented with his dukes, but takes to the ring to help out his struggling brother Eddie, obviously based on the then recently deceased George Gershwin, who has inside him a great New York-inspired symphony, but who's reduced to writing snappy songs for Broadway shows to get by. Sheridan, of course, is Jimmy's "forever goil" Peggy, a talented dancer with her own Broadway ambitions, who falls under the malign influence of sinister dancer-manager Anthony Quinn, in one of his early roles. There's a strong suggestion in fact that Quinn's Burns character at one point rapes her as part of his controlling ways, which seemed an unnecessary and distasteful, to say the least, plot point, especially as Burns doesn't get any real kind of come-uppance later on.
Reluctantly glossing over this narrative flaw, the film is still highly entertaining, Cagney is at his pugnacious (sorry, couldn't resist it) best, Sheridan shines in his shadow, Kennedy is fine as the talented, sensitive sibling (although I did laugh at his windmill-like tilt at conducting the orchestra at Carnegie Hall) and even Kazan too, as the fourth musketeer, who again almost literally dies by the sword and gets an accidentally hilarious last-words speech. The dependable Donald Crisp adds some gravitas as Danny's paternalistic manager.
Good as they are, while filmed by the renowned James Wong Howe, I've seen fight scenes done better in other Hollywood fight-films of the time but I was otherwise quite impressed with the excerpt from Max Steiner's big-city symphony, obviously patterned after "Rhapsody In Blue" and wonder if it was part of a bigger, completed piece by its composer. Elsewhere, director Litvak does so with panache, especially in his use of montage and location depictions of the Big Apple of the time.
Sure, it's sentimental, clichéd and unoriginal at times, but with Cagney in fighting form, strong ensemble support and noteworthy direction by Litvak, this is another Warners' feature which certainly packs a punch.