The St. Louis Kid

The St. Louis Kid (1934)

Runtime: 67 minutes

Directed by: Ray Enright

Starring: James Cagney, Patricia Ellis, Allen Jenkins, Robert Barrat, Hobart Cavanaugh

From: Warner Bros.

This is a rather rare James Cagney movie I watched earlier today on TCM. I explain my watching of it below in my copied and pasted Letterboxd review:

Earlier today on TCM they showed 9 obscure James Cagney movies; I was only able to see one of them, but that is OK as most of the rest can be rented from Amazon for a few bucks each. The one I decided to watch was one that can't easily be streamed. In the future I'll see more of his movies, both famous and not so famous. The St. Louis Kid is the only flick where Cagney plays a truck driver who gets involved in a feud between dairy farmers and the dairy union in Illinois who are ripping off the poor farmers.

The plot: Cagney and Allen Jenkins are truck drivers from St. Louis who often get into trouble, usually because of alcohol and women. James headbutts a man & knocks him out soon after he gets into an accident with Patricia Ellis. Those two feud whenever they later meet up with each other in a small random Illinois town but of course they soon fall in love. In fact, much of the action takes place in that small town; it's obviously filmed in Southern California but I say that as I am a nerd and I grew up in Illinois. Anyhow, Cagney and Jenkins get entangled in that feud between the farmers and the union (resulting in the union bringing in guys with guns to try and stop the blockades that the farmers have set up) and it leads to such things as murder and kidnapping.


It's a drama with many humorous moments. It's a standard programmer but the charms of its cast-especially Cagney-helps. I admit that some parts of the plot aren't fully developed with its 67 minute runtime (such as there not being a definite resolution of the plot); that said, it's still an entertaining enough movie where I can say I enjoyed it. There are brawls, a tough dame or two, nice words said about the farmers of America... and not only does James headbutt several people, he even lights a gas station on fire to get out of a jam. How can I dislike a movie with such moments?