tarmcgator This was Cagney's and Blondell's last film together, as well as the last film for each released prior to the onset of the Production Code Administration (the "Hays Office"). It's mainly of interest to admirers of these two justly celebrated screen stars, mainly because of the downbeat story and characterizations.Warner Brothers apparently didn't think much of HE WAS HER MAN (lousy title) and wasn't interested in spending much money on developing it. Despite the presence of two of their biggest stars, this film has the look and feel of a "B" picture, as evidenced by its 70 minute running time. Cagney apparently didn't like the film either. The awful haircut he wore in his previous film, JIMMY THE GENT, and the mustache sported by Flicker Hayes in this film, were symbols of Cagney's increasing dissatisfaction with the roles he was getting, though it would be another year or so before he would try to break his Warner Brothers contract.The film's premise is promising. Career safecracker Flicker Hayes (Cagney) double-crosses a couple of fellow criminals after they frame him for another job. In the double-cross, one of the hoods kills a New York cop and is sentenced to die in the electric chair. Flicker flees to San Francisco, seeking a hide-out. A small-time Frisco hood, Pop Sims (Frank Craven), fingers Flicker for the New York mob. Two gunmen, J.C. (Harold Huber) and Monk (Russell Hopton), head for California to take care of Flicker.Meanwhile, Flicker (now calling himself "Jerry Allen") meets Rose (Blondell), a survivor who apparently has been selling her sexual favors to various men -- one of whom, surprisingly, has now offered to marry her. (The screenwriters make much of the written marriage proposal -- this was the era when "breach of promise" was still an actionable tort in most states.) Rose, despite her immediate attraction to Jerry, is on her way to join her fiancé in his little fishing village near Frisco. Jerry is attracted to Rose, too (and it's strongly implied they have a sexual encounter just hours after meeting), but he also smells a good place to hide out, and he offers to stake her and take her by bus to her new home.The fiancé', Nick Gardella (Victor Jory), is a salt-of-the-earth fisherman who tells Rose that her past life will be forgotten once they are wed. (There's more to Nick and Rose than the screenplay tells us, or could tell us under the censorship standards of that era. Nick met Rose "professionally." Here's a guy in his thirties, living with Mom in little, out-of-the-way Santa Avila -- and he seems pleased to marry a woman about whom he knows little save she's a prostitute?) Rose and Jerry arrive in Santa Avila and the wedding plans get underway. Jerry wants to stay and hide, but Rose is increasingly torn between Nick and her attraction to Jerry. Pop Sims follows Jerry to Santa Avila, posing as sports fisherman, to set up Jerry for the arrival of J.C. and Monk.That's a lot of plot for such a slight film, and it gets better, but the "B" picture limitations get in the way. It would have been nice if the studio would have allowed a little more air into the story, fleshing out the characterizations -- especially the relationships among Rose, Jerry and Nick -- and expanding the film to 90 or 95 minutes. (The quick attraction between Rose and Jerry is especially sketchy and needs more time.) This could have been the much better movie that the story hints at.Flicker/Jerry does the right thing by Rose and Nick, though apparently he pays for it with his life. (Another interesting point: Under the Production Code Authority, a movie killer had to pay for taking a life -- unless the killer is a lawman or soldier -- either by being arrested or by dying himself. We don't actually see Flicker/Jerry getting killed, and his likely assassins aren't punished. One wonders how this outcome would have been altered by the Hays Office just a short time later.) The film ends with a subdued wedding between Rose and Nick -- a happy occasion tempered by our knowledge of Flicker's apparent fate.Fans of Cagney/Blondell will find both actors dialing back their usual exuberance/perkiness in this film and playing characters who are more like real people than in many of their other early Warners' films. Jory tries to be a little too ethnic, but he effectively portrays Nick's essential kindness and decency. Huber and Hopton, as the gunmen, are surprisingly human, as is James Eagle(s) in a small role as their driver. Sarah Padden, as Nick's mother, is a bit over the top but charming, and it's interesting to hear John Qualen in a small role sans his trademark Scandinavian accent. Frank Craven's Sims is an interesting character too -- sinister but folksy. The dependable Lloyd Bacon directs with his usual understated style but should have made more of the exotic isolation of "Santa Avila."To summarize: HE WAS HER MAN is an unusual Warner Brothers film of the period, made as Hollywood was feeling the heat from the Legion of Decency and other pressure groups that would lead to the institution of the Production Code Administration in mid-1934. It's of interest mainly for Cagney and Blondell fans who want to see them in quieter roles that sharply contrast with their usual energy. Outside those contexts, though, I doubt you'll be favorably impressed.(Does anyone know if this film, or plot, was ever remade? Seems like something that Warners would use again, though I can imagine if they did so before 1945 they would have brightened it up considerably. One can imagine RKO doing something nicely noirish with the same story c.1948.)P.S. -- A "C" from the Legion of Decency? Not according to the listing of such "C" films in Wikipedia. What was its rating?

MartynGryphon Her Was Her Man, directed by Lloyd Bacon, was sadly, the last of the seven James Cagney/Joan Blondell movies of the early '30's. In my opinion, they were the first great 'Movie Team' of the 'talkie' era. We all remember Hepburn & Tracy, Flynn & De Havilland, Powell & Loy, yet the Cagney & Blondell partnership seems forgotten in comparison.To make it sadder still, the plot of this movie is a lot darker and melancholic than their others and I feel that it's a shame their final scene together of the partnership never had that happily ever after ending.Cagney plays Flicker Hayes, a gangster who, newly released from jail, is hell bent on exacting his long awaited revenge on the gang that left him to take the rap. He becomes a 'stoolie' and rats to the cops about a forthcoming job which results in a gang member being arrested, tried and executed. His old gang obviously do not respond well to this, and won't rest until Hayes is firmly under the sod and a contract is put out on his head.He lams out to San Francisco where he assumes the inconspicuous alias of Jerry Allen. It is here that he runs into a down on her luck woman called Rose Lawrence, (Blondell). Rose is on her way to a small fishing town down the coast to marry a man who, while well aware of her shady past, is still keen to marry her regardless. Lawrence sick of the hand to mouth life she has been leading has accepted. Hayes too sees the attraction and before their first meeting is over the two have fallen very much in love. However, Lawrence is determined that her days of following the wrong guy are long over and intends to see her proposal through.Hayes takes her under his wing determined that she's the girl for him and that she's not destined to become the wife of some dull fisherman. She's still unaware of who he really is and the real reason he's in California. It is leaving San Francisco that he is recognised by a small time informer called Pop Sims, (Frank Craven), who spends no time at all in calling New York to tell Hayes's old gang of his whereabouts who immediately dispatch two hit men to finish the job.Hayes delivers Lawrence to the home of Nick Gardella, (Victor Jory), the decent, kind and good Portuguese fisherman Lawrence is engaged to. Hayes is welcomed warmly by Nick and his sweet mother, who both start to treat him as one of the family as opposed to a visitor. Meanwhile, Pop Sims, has also hit the Gardella home masquerading as a hobby fisherman named Jim Parker. The Gardella's seemingly endless hospitality is extended to him also and Sims now is perfectly placed to guide the hit men straight to the front door of the Gardella home.Lawrence is having second thoughts about the marriage as she sees Nick as nothing more than a kind man who gave her an offer of a legitimate life when all seemed bleak, coupled with her insatiable love for Hayes. Hayes is also mad about her and they agree to run away before the marriage to spend their lives together. Hayes soon has second thoughts about it, as he sees Nick and his mother as genuine, upstanding, decent people whom he can't betray and likewise loves Lawrence enough not to ruin her first, and perhaps only, chance of a decent life. He leaves only hours before the wedding, but when he hears that the hit men are already on the way to the Gardella home, he rushes back to save his friends.He arrives just in time and convinces the hit men that nobody there knows who he really is and that he will go peacefully to his doom if they leave Rose and the Gardella's alone. They agree, and Hayes is led away to his death. As the church bells ring after Rose & Nick's Wedding, it not only heralds the start of two peoples life together but the ending of a gangster's worthless life.Released just at same time as the Production Code was being strictly enforced, it makes no mention of the fact that Blondell's character was so obviously an ex-hooker but it is certainly suggested numerous times, as is the fact that Cagney & Blondell's character obviously had a sexual encounter the very night they met. All of these things led to the movie being rated C 'Condemned' by the Catholic Legion of Decency who had a 30 year stranglehold on the movie industry. If this film had been made even one year before, then the sanitisation that made the movie seem a little stagnant in parts would not have been there. It is also the only Cagney film where he doesn't even raise his voice and while we all admire his 'hood with a heart' performance, I missed the tough talking and also the action which is also kept to a sanitised minimum.Praise has to go to Victor Jory in his portrayal of Nick. An all round decent Joe. I've always relished his bad guy roles, especially the role of Yancey in 'Dodge City', but seeing him play a good guy has made me realise how much I've underestimated and misjudged his talents.I've found that most of the movies I've seen that was made between 1934-1935, (and that's a lot), seemed to be struggling to keep their plots in compliance with the newly enforced code. He Was Her Man, was no exception.Enjoy!

mayo2338 This movie would merit a ten were it only for Victor Jory's depiction of an affable, sincere, ingenuous soul. But it haply has the merit of having been released just prior to the sanctimonious moral codes having been foisted on us. Cagney is ebullient and bursting from every scene with the passion, vigor and elan that made him justly renowned. The beauty of Joan Blondell is only enhanced by her realistic depiction of a good-hearted woman who has necessarily made her way in the Depression by bestowing sexual favors. It is refreshing truth .

Evan J. Chase Warner Brothers Pictures were very prolific and they kept James Cagney busy in the early 30s. Pictures usually had snappy dialogue and swift pacing in his early career, but not this time! Very preachy and sentimental story with little for Cagney to do. I guess I can't get used to him in mustache. Backgrounds and locales interesting, especially early gas station/cafe with slot machine. Look for John Qualen(trying to sell ring in Casablanca) as Dutch, the local yokel.