Runtime: 79 minutes
Directed by: Roy Del Ruth
Starring: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Louis Calhern, Noel Francis, Ray Milland
From: Warner Bros.
Featuring an incredible amount of faces slaps.
Via a DVR recording of a Turner Classic Movies airing from, I checked out this frothy bit of entertainment where the strong praise from various sources (not just Letterboxd) made me check this out… although the biggest draw was of course this starring James Cagney and Joan Blondell. Naturally, those two magnetic figures were dynamite together.
The plot is simple: Cagney is a bellhop at a nice hotel “in the American Midwest”; Blondell starts working there. Ol’ James runs various scams to earn his share of cash; as it’s the Great Depression, why not? Actually, audiences probably would enjoy such things at the time. He convinces her to be a part of his flim-flam schemes. All of the fleeces in the picture were interesting and may work in 2023… the romance between Cagney and Blondell was more complicated than the swindles.
This was charming entertainment that had some Pre-Code moments (Blondell taking a bath, Cagney taking money out of her bra… it was on her chair rather than on her person), violence that wasn’t just those slaps, love, chair-breaking, someone named Count Beluga, laughs, trains, and more. There are some faces I recognized—an incredibly young Ray Milland, Nat Pendleton, Guy Kibbee playing his typical lout, Louis Calhern and Noel Francis. There was also discussion that required an edit later done to the original print for obvious reasons. Before 1933 and the rise of the Nazi party, swastikas were seen as good luck charms. Thus, one scene deep in the film features talk of such, and a noticeable edit occurs, probably an excision of a swastika close-up.
Anyhow, those familiar with the leading duo should check this out.
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