Allow Me to Introduce, James Francis Cagney

Born July 17, 1899, in New York City
Died March 30, 1986

He was the second recipient of the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the first actor to receive it. I remember watching the event on TV. It was 1974, and he hadn't made a movie since 1961. As he walked down the steps, he did the same little tap and shuffle he did on the White House steps in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" over 30 years before. I was 17 years old, and I absolutely adored Jimmy Cagney, but I didn't know why, exactly.

Looking back, and watching one of his movies today ("The Mayor of Hell"), I think it was because he always played characters who had no fear. He was 5'6" tall, but bigger than life. I saw an interview with Joan Leslie, his costar in "Yankee Doodle Dandy", and she stated that Jimmy asked that any characters he had to fight with in his films be played by actors who were taller than he was. It doesn't seem like that would be hard to do, since he was so short, but, when you watch him knocking people down in film after film, it's believable. There's an actor currently in the business who reminds me of Cagney -- Jackie Earle Haley, who actually measures an inch shorter than Jimmy. Jackie also believably portrays guys you wouldn't want to cross.

Cagney appeared in his first film in 1930, but it was a starring role in "The Public Enemy" in 1931 that shot him to stardom. In this film, he is cruel to men and women alike. His character, Tom Powers, is the scum of the earth, but you might find yourself rooting for him to win. After "The Public Enemy", he was consistently cast as a gangster, maybe because he played the part so well.

I haven't seen every James Cagney film, but I have enjoyed every one I have seen. If I've peaked your interest in James Cagney, here's a list of films to get you started. (Unless otherwise noted, he plays a gangster or hoodlum of some sort):

"The Public Enemy" (1931)
"The Mayor of Hell" (1933)
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1935) (yes, the Shakespeare play--no gangsters)
"The Roaring Twenties" (1939)
"The Bride Came C.O.D." (1941) (romantic comedy, with Bette Davis)
"Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942) (introduced to me by my Daddy; a musical biography of George M Cohan)
"White Heat" (1949)
"The West Point Story" (1950) (musical)
"Love Me or Leave Me" (1955) (a musical where he plays a gangster in love with a singer, played by Doris Day)
"Mister Roberts" (1955) (a comedy)
"Man of a Thousand Faces" (1957) (biography of Lon Chaney)
"One, Two, Three" (1961) (comedy)
"Ragtime" (1981) (drama where he plays a police chief)

So, pick up whatever movie you can find and join me in celebrating the acting genius of Jimmy Cagney -- a short guy I shouldn't like, but who had my heart from the moment I first saw him.

Fail-Safe vs. Dr. Strangelove

 

I watched "Fail-Safe" today, a movie which I had not seen before. It was released by Columbia Pictures, in the fall of 1964, when Americans thought a lot about whether or not Russia would launch nuclear bombs to completely destroy us. This was known as the "Cold War". Earlier the same year, Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" was released by Columbia Pictures, on Kubrick's insistence that his movie be released first.

These two movies eerily follow the same plot line. Unfortunately for "Fail-Safe", "Dr. Strangelove" is a satire. "Fail-Safe" is dead serious. It is said that moviegoers laughed at "Fail-Safe" because it was so much like "Dr. Strangelove". I have seen "Strangelove" a few times, and it has never impressed me to the extent that "Fail-Safe" did today. I have never been a great fan of Stanley Kubrick, who also directed "Spartacus", "Lolita", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "A Clockwork Orange", "Barry Lyndon", "The Shining", "Full Metal Jacket", and "Eyes Wide Shut". Of these films, I was riveted by "A Clockwork Orange", and thoroughly enjoyed "Barry Lyndon". The others I could take or leave, particularly "The Shining", because it is so far removed from the book that I think anyone watching it who had not read the book would not get the movie. A TV miniseries of "The Shining", which aired in 1997, and for which Steven King wrote the teleplay, is a much better adaptation of the book.

"Fail-Safe" was directed by Sidney Lumet, a brilliant director, many of whose films I love, and a man who died earlier this year. Sidney Lumet got his start directing television. His feature film directorial debut was "12 Angry Men". He also directed "Serpico" (my first R-rated movie), "Murder on the Orient Express", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Network", "Equus", "The Wiz", "The Verdict" (hands down, my favorite Paul Newman movie), and "The Morning After" (one of the few Jane Fonda films I have enjoyed, probably because it stars Jeff Bridges, whom I adore).

If you have a hankering to watch both of these cold war movies, I would suggest watching "Fail-Safe" first. That way, it won't be funny, and you can appreciate the humor and satire of "Dr. Strangelove". I recommend "Fail-Safe", if you're in the mood for a serious thriller. Be prepared to avoid distractions, as missing any part of the plot can be confusing.

I had a similar experience with two other movies that had nearly identical plots, one meaning to be serious, and the other satirical. In this instance, I laughed at the serious movie, because it seemed so ridiculous. The serious movie was "Zero Hour". The satire was "Airplane". I later learned that the Zucker brothers, who wrote and directed "Airplane" with Jim Abrahams, bought the rights to "Zero Hour" so that they could remake it as a comedy. There are scenes in these two films that are identical, including the dialogue, which is delivered by the actors seriously in "Zero Hour", and comically in "Airplane". The characters all even have the same names.

Until next time, keep your ear to the ground and keep watching the skies!

Welcome!

While this blog is mainly devoted to classic movies, I will also talk about more recent films. My approach to writing about movies may be different than what you are accustomed to reading. It has been my experience that professional movie reviewers will recite the plot of a movie, then share their opinions about it.

In 1978, I went to the movie theater with my steady guy, not sure which movie we were going to see. We bought tickets for a movie called "The Deer Hunter", which neither of us had heard anything about. It turned out to be a great experience, not having any preconceived notions about the film, not knowing who was in it. From then on, I avoided reading reviews and tried to look for movies to watch that hadn't been heavily promoted. As the years have gone by, this has become much harder to do.

With this blog, I am attempting to introduce today's twenty-somethings, thirty-somethings, and even 40-somethings, to older movies, actors, and directors, that they may have never heard of or seen. So, "come on along, come on along, let me take you by the hand"* and show you some of my favorite films and the people who made them great.

*Quote from the song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", written by Irving Berlin, and used in the movie by the same name, released in 1938.