I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Strong and Moving!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Dreadfully Boring

Freshly paroled from New York's "Sing Sing Prison", tough-guy James Cagney (as Daniel "Danny" Kean) takes a perfume bath and gets himself a new suit. After telling old gangster pals he's going straight, Mr. Cagney decides he wants a career in journalism. He approaches the tabloid "Graphic-News" for a job. Hard-drinking city editor Ralph Bellamy (as McLean) won't hire Cagney, but changes his mind when the ex-con delivers an exclusive picture for the newspaper. Cagney saves Mr. Bellamy's job and is hired as a staff photographer. Cagney arouses sexy staff reporter Alice White (as Allison), but later prefers pretty Patricia Ellis (as Patricia "Pat" Nolan)...Cagney struts around this second-tier feature like a first-rate star. He, director Lloyd Bacon, photographer Sol Polito, editor William Holmes and the Warner Bros. crew make punk look classy. The centerpiece is Cagney's assignment to photograph an electric chair execution. Also notable is the easy sex offered by a lone female co-worker. She puts the lonely staff ladies room to good use, but Cagney is a gentleman after discovering Ms. White is considered Bellamy's girl. Also watch for bookish bit-player Sterling Holloway and three beautiful young students. Based on a story by Danny Ahern, "Picture Snatcher" was re-made as "Escape from Crime" (1942).******* Picture Snatcher (5/6/33) Lloyd Bacon ~ James Cagney, Ralph Bellamy, Alice White, Patricia Ellis

Taking the main theme from "Five Star Final" one step further, this expose on sleaze journalism covers the job of the photographer. Newly released from prison, James Cagney gets into working as a scandal sheet photographer and quickly gains a reputation as a ruthless intruder. He makes many enemies in the press when he takes a photo of a death row inmate just as the lights go out, creating friction with the cop father of his lady love (Patricia Ellis). Slutty Alice White keeps Cagney distracted, and it is very obvious that something is going on there. In fact, she makes it clear that she enjoys him knocking her around, and the more he does it, the more she wants it. Ralph Bellamy plays Cagney's journalist pal who gets him the job. Robert Emmett O'Connor is also very good as Ellis's temperamental Irish father who has a love/hate relationship with his potential son-in-law.Among the pre-code elements are Cagney's face as he listens to a very flamboyant male radio announcer hiss out an advertisement for a ladies cigarette then later pours a cocktail down a floozie's dress after she tries to swipe it. White takes a beating from him and begs for more. But nothing beats him sneaking a camera into prison for a ladies execution. In spite of the theme, the script plays for frequent laughs, giving me the impression that this was pretty shocking to the people fighting for the code.

This is the iconic Jimmy Cagney of 1933, the one the impressionists used to imitate. He whirls around, dances from place to place, shrugs, gestures flamboyantly, tilts his fedora at a rakish angle, clips guys on the jaw, throws women around, speaks like a machine gun and spouts wisecracks like a gusher of oil. "Yeah, yeah. Sure, you're my pal. I'm gonna letchu have it foist." He rarely got credit for his range as an actor, either in dramatic roles, as in "The Gallant Hours", or comic, as in "What Price Glory?" Recently sprung from Sing Sing, Cagney worms his way into the job as a photographer for a tabloid newspaper in New York. He accomplishes this by visiting a grief-stricken fireman who has holed up with a shotgun, then stealing the man's wedding picture from the wall. That's the wall over the bed in which the fireman's wife was found with her lover, both dead.The photo is published and Cagney gets a raise, although in fact his taking the photo from the man's home was an illegal act. The picture doesn't need to be copyrighted or anything. It's the personal property of the bereaved fireman, just like his chair or his five-dollar bill. I'd like to get into this issue further but I'm forbidden to do so by legal discretion, common sense, and total ignorance.Cagney's pal on the paper is the alcoholic newsman Ralph Bellamy, ashamed of himself for working on such a rag, chasing scandals.There is a romance thrown in between Cagney and the daughter of a police lieutenant. The cop hates Cagney, an ex jailbird, figuring he's not good enough for a daughter who is going to college. (Going to college was hardly taken for granted in the depths of the Great Depression.) Cagney wiggles and fast-talks his way out of one tight spot after another and winds up with the high-class dame. Bellamy quits boozing it up. After witnessing a spectacular shoot out, the two of them get respectable jobs at a respectable newspaper.There is more than one improbability in the plot but before you can say, "Wait a minute!", the story has zipped along and you've forgotten what your objection was. What a tempo! Not a moment of screen time is wasted. Something that propels the story is always going on.It's undemanding fluff. An experienced hack at Warner Brothers could have rattled off this script in the time it took to type it. But it's diverting fluff. The plot may not be exactly compelling but Cagney is. You can't take your eyes off the guy. Neither can the women. Alice White keeps throwing herself at him, kissing and mauling his face. It happens to me all the time but it's a little demanding on our suspension of disbelief because, after all, Cagney was no matinée idol and was shorter than I am. I wouldn't buy the DVD but I enjoyed watching the flick.

Frantic, fast-paced film of ex-con Cagney getting a job at a local scandal sheet working for Bellamy and producing exclusive photographs for the paper. First he poses as an insurance adjuster to steal a photo, then through chicanery he manages to obtain a forbidden photo of a woman in the electric chair. Satisfying story conclusion has Cagney getting the girl and Bellamy playing the chump--again.This film moves like lightning, guided along by Cagney's seemingly inexhaustible energy. Lots of snappy dialog, great acting, and fine direction make this quite a little gem. Great 1930s feel, and watch quickly for Sterling Holloway (wearing outrageous glasses!) as a journalism student. Highly recommended.