Word: cagney
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Fortunately, "Torrid Zone" doesn't have to depend upon her. Jimmie Cagney is in there demonstrating that he is probably the best all around swash-buckler in the flickers--that in spite of his five foot four or so. And there is also an amazingly good script. The dialogue moves swiftly, with every now and then a remark which actually bears repeating the next time you wish to appear as a hot fox. Most of the cracks attest to the increasing senility of the Hays Office: some of them are downright shocking...
...Zone (Warner). As the tough top boss of a U. S. fruit company somewhere in Latin America, Pat O'Brien is plagued by all the annoyances incidental to the culture and timely transport of bananas. He also wrestles grimly with the problems of keeping his tougher assistant (James Cagney) down on the fruit farm, and the disturbing presence in the tropics of Oomph Girl Ann Sheridan (singer and cardsharp). Utilizing Mr. Cagney's irresistible attraction for women, Overseer...
This takes some time and Helen Vinson, whose oomph is less curvilinear and more serpentine than Ann Sheridan's, nearly spoils the happy synthesis. She also is so irresistibly attracted to Cinemactor Cagney that when her overseer husband (Jerome Cowan) remarks that Cagney looks half dead after being shot up in the jungle, Miss Vinson snaps unkindly: "That still leaves him 50% up on you." But Miss Vinson is too much the intellectual type. Ann Sheridan soon demonstrates that the way to Mr. Cagney's heart is to heave a plate of sandwiches at him so that...
Torrid Zone abounds in such robust action, in rowdy wisecracks by the men, catty wisecracks by the girls, skirmishes with a broad-minded bandit (George Tobias), falsetto funny business by Andy Devine, much sweltering and sweating by Messrs. Cagney and O'Brien. Oomph Girl Sheridan is never affected by the heat. She hops on & off moving banana trains, gets thrown in & out of jail, never even needs to change her one immaculate dress...
...Cagney: As the capstone to Warners' build-up of Ann Sheridan, the fade-out required Cagney to observe: "You and your 14-carat oomph!" When Cinemactor Cagney protested the line, Producer Mark Hellinger bet him $100 that audiences would give the gag the loudest laugh of the film. A few days after the preview, Producer Hellinger found Cagney's check for $100 in the mail...