Word: cagney
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...Cagney is coming back. He's going to be on TV soon, after a long period of seclusion. The Public Enemy was one of two films that burst out in 1931 to start a tradition of gangster films. Cagney (with his grapefruit) tries to be tough. But the film shows his family, too, and the final scene when he returns home is always moving, no matter how many times you've seen the movie...
...Oklahoma Kid is another oddity: Bogart and Cagney as cowboys, so to speak. Bogart runs the House of Entertainment and wears the black hat; Cagney, though an outlaw, wears a white one. The first time I saw The Oklahoma Kid, I predicted I would finally see Cagney speak his memorable line ("You dirty rat. You killed my brother.") at the end of the last reel. But he doesn't, and my Cagney Fan Club sources tell me he never said it in any movie...
...film, Little Caesar, was made in 1930, depicting the gang wars of the '20s. It made an over-night star of Edward G. Robinson ("Mother of Mercy, is this the end of Rico?") and did smashingly well at the box-office. In 1931, Public Enemy followed suit with James Cagney as Tom Powers, a punk kid who becomes a tough-guy criminal. These movies were stories about gangsters' lives. They professed to deter crime by warning the public about violence in the streets, but managed instead to glamourize the gangster as a rebel hero. It was because of the brilliant...
...James Cagney was spellbinding in White Heat (1949) as Cody Jarret, a maniacal hoodlum slowly losing his mind. When Cagney goes totally mad, blowing himself up with his famous line "Here I am, Ma, top of the world!", we have seen what pushed Cagney to his end. We are totally immersed in the tension Cagney builds up. All of the action has brought us closer to an understanding of his life, inspiring a fascination with the terror of his homicidal insanity...
...schedule because the Welles holds week long festivals at least one of which will be worth planning ahead for. Cambridge's other three theaters--the Brattle, the Harvard Square, and the Central are all under the same ownership. The Brattle specializes in classic, popular and auteur revivals--Cagney and Bogart will be big there this summer. Harvard Square usually features first run films about six months after their original distribution--so if you can't afford Tango now, or if you refuse on principle to pay the $4.50 asking price, wait a while; it won't be too long...