JohnHowardReid (An excellent Warner DVD). Copyright 21 August 1940 by Warner Bros Pictures, Inc. A Warner Bros-First National Picture. An Anatole Litvak Production. New York opening at the Strand: 27 August 1940. U.S. release: 21 September 1940. 12 reels. Running time variously reported as 101, 103 and 105 minutes. SYNOPSIS: The film opens with the lead characters, Danny Kenny (Cagney) and Peggy Nash (Sheridan), portrayed as youngsters. As Forsythe Street pals, Cagney wins the heart of Sheridan and she promises to "always be his girl". By the age of seventeen Cagney has won amateur golden gloves boxing bouts and has a bright future in the sports world, but he wants a steady job to finance the music of his piano-playing brother (Arthur Kennedy). NOTES: Wexley did the bulk of the screen adaptation (under the supervision of William Cagney). Robert Rossen was brought in for revisions. James Cagney himself contributed some additional dialogue. For his fight sequences - none of which were faked - Cagney trained with Harvey Perry under the direction of the movie's technical advisor, Mushy Callahan, ex-world-welterweight champion. Film debut of Arthur Kennedy. Feature film debut of Elia Kazan. COMMENT: Famed Broadway director Elia Kazan wanted to get some movie experience and what better way than to take a leading role in a picture directed by Anatole Litvak! In fact I thought this slum-to-riches-to-slum saga chiefly memorable for Kazan's bravura portrayal. He knows how to steal every scene he appears in, - sometimes just by flicking his eyes. And his fall from grace is a real topper!I don't agree with those critics who say Cagney is more restrained than usual. I think he overdoes the part. The plot is hokey and familiar and corny and over-sentimental and is played rather too broadly. Typical Owen Marks editing - the occasional splices that don't quite match giving the film that jagged texture. Some typical Litvak crane shots and a very realistic and powerfully put across fight sequence. Craven's part in the TV version has been reduced to a walk-on at the beginning of the film.

phlbrq I've watched this film over the space of 35 years and my admiration changes but never diminishes. It's a powerful story of the immigrant saga, high vs. popular art, soul killing careerism, street America, brotherhood 'hoodism'... this picture has got a lot going on.If you don't like it, I don't like you.Anatole Litvak was an immigrant along with many WB employees. Donald Crisp, Elia Kazan, Sig Ruman are all here. It's an important film for Cagney and WB in The context of their place in history. So many WB films are more highly regarded but for me this is the best representation of the WB aesthetic.

Spikeopath If taken purely on script alone the film only amounts up to the usual fare we have seen a zillion times over the years. The basic formula being that two brothers are taking different paths in career choices and the elder brother is doing all he can to help realise his younger brothers dream of being a composer, yet thankfully here the film has a great deal more to offer outside of the usual standard fare.The elder brother boxes to support his younger brothers dream but he's tragically almost blinded in a gruelling 15 round fight where foul cheat tactics are used against him. The film then follows the love interest slant of the family & girlfriend closest to our stricken boxer, but thankfully the film manages to stay clear of drowning in a bowl of sickly syrup. Playing out with a very deep emotional heart the film only functions well because of its lead actor, James Cagney was 42 when he made this film, yet he looks like a lithe athletic man in his twenties such was his commitment to the role. He imbues such gusto into the role of Danny Kenny that he alone demands you watch this film, but he is also staunchly supported by Ann Sheridan,, Arthur Kennedy, and a very brash turn from Anthony Quinn. It's a film that tugs on your heart strings at times, and yes it has the audience begging for an uplift in the final reel, but it's done well and delivers all that you hoped for at the start of the film.The back story doesn't read so well tho, Cagney & director Anatole Litvak were continually at war during filming, and most of Cagney's input into the film was cut out, Cagney was so annoyed and sad with the final outcome, he wrote to Aben Kandel (the writer of the novel the film is adapted from} and apologised with sincerity, he need not of worried because the final result is very rewarding indeed, 8/10.

edwagreen Terrific 1940 film where the great James Cagney does it again in giving a memorable performance. This time it's as a fighter who goes into boxing so that his brother, Arthur Kennedy, can fulfill a musical career as well as an escape for girl friend, Ann Sheridan, ditching him for a dancing career with Anthony Quinn, a real cad if there ever were.The film has a tremendous supporting cast and all do a fine job in showing what movie making should be.Future director, Elia Kazan, is in fine form as a mobster, a product of a rough childhood environment. In seeing Kazan here, I wonder what his acting career would have been like had he not chosen to go behind the camera.The aspect of N.Y. life is wonderfully shown by the upper class of musical life, life on the lower east side as well as the boxing center of sports. How they interact in this film is so well memorably accomplished.As a boxing magnate, I thought that the usual erudite Donald Crisp would be miscast. How wrong I was. He evoked much sympathy in trying to protect his fighter-Cagney.A truly memorable film. This is a heck of a movie classic.