Legends - James Cagney

The showing of a Cagney movie was always an event when I was a kid. Most of the movies may have been in black and white, not something us colour obsessed children of the 70's would give time to, but this was James Cagney - the little, tough guy who was a favourite with me and my friends. You see to us Cagney was the epitome of cool - he was no muscle bound giant but a little guy, just like the guys you saw on the street, but he was one tough bastard.

'Top of the world, Ma.'

Those Warner gangster films were often shown on BBC2 - Angels with Dirty Faces, The Roaring Twenties, Public Enemy, White Heat and even Each Dawn I die where Cagney wasn't a gangster but a wronged newspaper man forced to spend time in the can - he was still a hard muther though and could have had Don Corleone shaking in his boots with a single stare. Man if Travis Bickle had come up against Cagney he would have grown his hair and relocated to the country.

It didn't matter that Cagney was only 1ft, six inches tall because he was a big man who rammed grapefruits into his bird's face if she dared to give him lip. Okay, maybe that was no way to treat a lady but then grapefruits are good for the complexion.

That Cagney had an impressive backlist of films outside of the gangster cycle didn't matter - we weren't even aware of these films in any case - it was always the same four or five films that were shown.

In the days before video recorders we would watch those movies each time they were on. And even when they weren't on we would replay them over in our minds.

That was until there was a Cagney movie shown on BBC1 one Sunday afternoon.

What the????

Sunday afternoon????

Were the BBC, the protector of public morals, going to show gangster carnage on a Sunday afternoon?

The movie was Yankee Doodle Dandy - didn't sound much like a gangster picture but no matter Cagney was bound to be his usual hard as nails hoodlum with a heart. And besides, I must have figured, it didn't matter that the title sounded naff, here was a Cagney movie I hadn't seen before.

The film ran and my mouth fell open - what the f**k? Cagney had been transformed from the super cool gangster to a jessie, instead of lugging a Tommy-gun, he was dancing and skipping across the screen like a big girl. I didn't like this, nor did any of my friends. Had Cangey lost his mind? What was he doing? Real men didn't dance! From there on in Cagney was relagated from Mr Cool and we switched our worship to Bogart who most certainly didn't dance.



I clearly remember not watching all of the movie, switching the box off and going out to play in the sunshine. The friends that I talked to who had seen the movie were equally shocked and Cagney slipped from our radar. We couldn't idolise someone who danced, well not unless a machine gun was providing the rhythm - rat, ta ta, ta ta.

Course these days Yankee Doodle Dandy is a favourite movie of mine and I've learned some of his dance routines but only the easy ones - watch the routine with Bob Hope above from The Seven Little Foys and see that bad boy move. Of course the gangster flicks are still favourites but these days Cagney's whole filmography finds favour. The man was a true original, a fantastic actor, a performer whose star will never fade.

Still I'm grateful Bogart didn't dance.

MADE IT MA!

WHITE HEAT
1949
Directed by Raoul Walsh

After ten year away from the genre Cagney returned to what is arguably his best gangster performance - the character of Cody Jarrett is certainly miles away from Tom Powers, Rocky Sullivan or Eddie Bartlett. Where Cagney's previous mobsters had been flawed diamonds, the character he plays here contains no inner good buried beneath the tough guy exterior. In short Cody Jarrett is a psychotic, incestuous monster, a man of weaknesses rather than strengths. Physically it a a far more world weary Cagney we see in this movie - since he last played a mobster his face had rounded out and lined, his waist had extended and he had a pudgy but powerful look about him. And where in the past gangster flicks there had always been the theme of society being to blame for the gangsters, of the poverty thrown into their faces as they grew from innocent boys into men who would be hoods, this time there's none of that and Cody Jarrett is a product of an overbearing matriarchal upbringing - it's all comic book Freud but man, it's a fun movie.

Excuse the language but it has to be said Cagney fucking rocks in this picture.

Right from the first time he appears on screen, nervously looking at his watch as he sits in the passenger seat of a speeding car, mobster looking guys in the back and another beside him in the drivers seat, we can see that this guy means business.

Cagney's performance is flawless and amazing, no matter how many times you see the film you can't help but be affected by his characterisation of Cody Jarrett. The scene where he breaks down in prison after learning that his mother is dead is genuinely gut wrenching - it looks as if he is having his finger nails torn out and the scream that works its way up from his throat becomes a cold and desolate wail of utter blackness. And later when Cagney discovers that one of his men is an undercover cop his fury is so intense that he is almost crying as he turns menacingly on the man.

The supporting cast are superb - Virginia Mayo, as Cagney's wayward moll, plays her role in a similarly over the top style as Cagney and the intensity between the two of them sets the screen on fire. She is the essential femme fatale -desirable, deceitful and deadly. The climax is one of the best in motion picture history as Cagney standing, arms astride, yelling like a rabid monster, is consumed by the fires of Hell itself.

The Warner's DVD of this movie is great because it's packed with extra features including a newly produced documentary on the movie but the best option, least for film buffs, is the Warner Night at the Movie. Select this option and your given the same programs cinema patrons got when the film was first released - a 1948 news reel, a comedy short entitled, So You Think You're Not Guilty, The Homeless Hare which is a cartoon and a series of trailers before the main feature starts. This really is a fun option and shows the value for money that films fans got back in the day.