Word: cagney
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Mister Roberts, World War II with Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon and James Cagney, 8, Feb. 24. Chan...
...overcome its environment--and, to some extent, its genre. The parables and paradoxes which Christ produces--like a magician running through his patter--are really just excuses for songs and jokes and snappy impersonations. And so, the father of the prodigal son is made to speak like Jimmy Cagney and when he announces the homecoming celebration somebody shouts, "Let's Conga!" After all, no one's going to listen to that old story again if you don't spruce it up just a little...
...great danger with most actors," he says, "is that the more successful they become, the less risk they will take with their careers. They forget why they became actors in the first place. They become successful personalities instead. Spencer Tracy ultimately became a symbol actor. So did Grant, Cagney, Robinson...
...manner that is not recognizable. The moment you can see how it's being done, it's no good. The illusion is when you've been had and don't realize it. That's technique. ON INFLUENCES: I think I learned to act from people like James Cagney and Paul Muni. And I'm sure I learned more from Bette Davis than anyone. She has enormous presence, a sense of surprise. She sets you up like a great boxer and BAM! she gives you something else. She does have a certain consistent style, but when you examine her work...
...away with anything, so long as everything turns out all right in the end. We resist these endings now, just as one feels the people involved in the movie must have resisted their necessity. In a sense, we know better-Dietrich wouldn't have followed Cooper, just as gangsters (Cagney in Public Enemy or Muni in Scarface) don't have to die-and we ignore the insistence of the censors on "just retribution...