Picture Snatcher
Picture Snatcher
NR | 06 May 1933 (USA)
Picture Snatcher Trailers

An ex-con uses his street smarts to become a successful photojournalist.

Reviews
Matrixston

Wow! Such a good movie.

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Portia Hilton

Blistering performances.

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Taha Avalos

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

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Mandeep Tyson

The acting in this movie is really good.

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blanche-2

Jimmy Cagney stars in "Picture Snatcher," a 1933 film also starring Ralph Bellamy. Cagney is a prisoner who is finally released and impresses the editor of a tabloid-type newspaper with the photo he's able to get of a murder victim. He is hired.This precode has lots of sexual innuendo, loose women, physical abuse against women - you know, all the stuff of precode.Cagney is terrific in this fast-moving film that really shows his talents. In one scene, he manages to get back into prison to witness an execution. He's sitting down, one leg crossed at a 90 degree angle over the other, and when the execution begins, he quietly pulls up his pant leg and there's a camera attached to his ankle. Very funny scene.What makes the character great is that yes, he was in prison, yes, he lies his way in to get these tabloid photos, but he has a heart, which he finally realizes and acts on.I saw someone interviewed who said he was working in a restaurant and a hobo-like man came in wearing an old trenchcoat. It was Jimmy Cagney, probably trying not to be recognized. Whoever was being interviewed said he was the sweetest man he'd ever met in his life. Look at all the low- down guys he played.He was definitely worthy of the devotion of my father when he was a boy - he went to see Midsummer Night's Dream because Cagney was in it.Entertaining.Entertaining.

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utgard14

Ex-con Danny Kean (James Cagney) becomes a successful newspaper photographer by getting the pictures nobody else can because he's not afraid to take risks. He falls for a dame who turns out to be the daughter of the policeman that arrested him years before. So naturally Pops isn't pleased. But he is convinced by Danny's boss (Ralph Bellamy) that Danny has changed for the better. That is until the ambitious Danny does something that lands him in trouble and turns his boss, his girlfriend, and her father against him.Another of the many entertaining, fast-paced films Jimmy Cagney did in the '30s. Whether they were gangster pictures, comedies, war movies, or anything else, Cagney always delivered. Nice support from Ralph Bellamy, Robert Barrat, Alice White, and Patricia Ellis. Some punchy dialogue and humor helps keep this crime drama moving. Cagney fans will love it.

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LeonLouisRicci

Snappy Tabloid Journalism Story with James Cagney Developing into a Photographer out to get the Goods on those who are Down and can't Fight Back. But in this Yellow Journal Yarn He is so Energetic, Lighthearted, and Light on His Feet it All seems in Good Fun. The way the Picture is Handled it is, although the Subject Matter is Very Lurid at Times.Not the Pre-Code Sexual Stuff that has Pretty Dames Baring Some Skin and Making with the Bedroom Eyes, or Cagney Slapping them around when Their Sexual Advances are Unwelcome. But the Actual Assignments. Photographing a Woman at the Moment of Her Execution for Murder (with a camera smuggled into Sing Sing), a Firemans Breakdown after He finds His Wife in Bed with Another, or the Finale that is a Rousing Shoot em' Up with Machine Guns Blasting Away with Children in the Crossfire.This is some Pretty Gruesome Goings On Amidst the Comedic Banter and the Overall Tone of the Delivery that the Film Takes On. But Overall, it Works to the Benefit of Entertainment and the Film has a Distinctive Edge and Feel that After the Code would be Gone for Decades.

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Michael_Elliott

Picture Snatcher (1933) *** (out of 4) Fast paced, hard hitting drama from Warner Bros. has a gangster (James Cagney) being released from prison when he decides to go straight and gets a job for a tabloid newspaper as a cameraman. Everything is going fine until he breaks all the rules to take a picture of a woman in the electric chair. This is a pretty interesting film especially today when there's so much controversy surrounding tabloid photographers so I guess this new trend was around back in the day as well. Cagney is energetic as ever and Ralph Bellamy delivers a strong performance as the alcoholic editor. A good little pre-code that, according to the Robert Osbourne intro, was made because Warner wanted a gangster picture but due to all the controversy surrounding them, put Cagney in as the photographer.

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