Blonde Crazy

There's something about actors that hail from New York City that have that extra oomph for their performances. Barbara Stanwyck, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Tony Curtis...something about their street smarts adds to their acting. And boy, that was all the more prevalent during the pre-Code era.

Roy Del Ruth's Blonder Crazy stars two such names: James Cagney and Joan Blondell. Throughout both their careers they played characters who follow their own rules and don't take guff from anyone. And since they play con artists here, it takes another step further.

As proven by later films Taxi! and Lady Killer, Del Ruth got an energetic turn out of Cagney. (Then again, most if not all of the pre-Code films he starred in can be applied to this scenario.) He delivers his lines at a mile a minute, a frequent expectation of stars during this era. And like countless later titles of his, Cagney commands the screen.

Not that Blondell isn't able to hold her own. (In fairness, holding one's own alongside a legend like Cagney is far from easy.) Like Barbara Stanwyck, she wouldn't shy away from telling someone off. If she doesn't like someone, she'll say so right to their face. (Honestly, we need more female characters like this nowadays.)

Blonde Crazy may not be the best of Cagney's pre-Codes but it's certainly one of the more entertaining. It's because of his rapport with Blondell that makes it so. It also serves as a nice temporary escape.

My Rating: ****

Taxi!

I always admire any actor who can deliver every time. The film could fall flat on its face within the first half hour and the actor could still deliver a solid performance. Those are the actors I'll like regardless of what they do.

This is mostly pertaining to actors of Hollywood's Golden Age. One such actor is James Cagney. Whether he's busting jaws in his gangster pictures or doing lighter fare for his contracted studio Warner Bros., he could always be at the top of his game. (Come to think of it, most actors of his era were like that.)

Such an example is shown in Roy Del Ruth's Taxi! Much like what he would do in Lady Killer the following year, Cagney shows a softer sometime comedic performance. (Just don't get on his bad side.)

Cagney's leading lady is Loretta Young and boy, is she an ideal actress. She's practically the kind of actress who can balance off his character's temperament. It also got me curious as to what else she's done. She's good.

Anyway, Taxi! isn't too particularly memorable but it's quite entertaining. Cagney and Young definitely have their moments, especially together. Granted, it's not the best film Hollywood churned out but it's certainly a charming one.

My Rating: ****

Lady Killer

Like I said a few days back, pre-codes were the most entertaining type of movie. Perhaps they were so carefree solely because they were released during a time when people were straining to forget their worries.

In 1933, Roy Del Ruth made Lady Killer, an amusing tale of crime and Hollywood. The combination of the two kept me entertained from beginning to end. Not many movies can boast a feat like that.

The star of Lady Killer is James Cagney, whom I realized from this that he had a real firecracker of a personality. I have a feeling he had fun with his role of a theater usher turned small-time hood turned movie star. After all, this was made a whole two years after his star-making turn in The Public Enemy.

I'm not sure, but I believe Lady Killer was one of the first movies to show the behind the scenes/on the set action in Hollywood. Bear in mind this was years before Sunset Boulevard, Singin' in the Rain and The Bad and the Beautiful. Hey, there's a first for everything.

More than once while watching Lady Killer I found myself chuckling at the many antics. Hey, why not? It's a really good movie. It also contains my favorite performance of Cagney's. In all honesty, I might be watching this again, perhaps in the very near future.

My Rating: *****