Picture Snatcher (1933)

" . . . chair?" the White House Pool Reporters' representatives playing their parts about 45 minutes into Warner Bros.' prophetic PICTURE SNATCHER idly speculate as they wait for the biggest stinkers of the odoriferous Rump\Scents Administration to be Drowned in Cages during a Live Two-Hour Reality Show Special Event HIGH TREASON APPRENTICE: TRAITORS AWAY! Warner Bros.' prognosticators of America's (Then) Far Future remind us that when Kellyanne & Co. go down for the Final Count, it's imperative to stream their watery demises to a Worldwide Live Audience, so that the Deplorable Rump\Scents Enablers won't argue that this Mass Liquidation is "Fake News" like Evolution, the Moon Landings, Global Warming, Dinosaurs, 9-11, The Ten Commandments, and The Gospels. PICTURE SNATCHER predicts that SOME of Red Commie KGB Chief Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin's Rich People Party Fifth Columnists will meet their doom fighting in hails of gunfire, such as the Traitor-in-Chief's son-in-law, "Jerry-the-Mug" Kushner. Hopefully, the Real Life S.W.A.T. team will be as successful as the cops here in PICTURE SNATCHER in thwarting Jerry's use of his wife and kiddies as Human Shields, because where will we be without First Daughter Iwanna's Fashion Line?

Freshly paroled from New York's "Sing Sing Prison", tough-guy James Cagney (as Daniel "Danny" Kean) takes a perfume bath and gets himself a new suit. After telling old gangster pals he's going straight, Mr. Cagney decides he wants a career in journalism. He approaches the tabloid "Graphic-News" for a job. Hard-drinking city editor Ralph Bellamy (as McLean) won't hire Cagney, but changes his mind when the ex-con delivers an exclusive picture for the newspaper. Cagney saves Mr. Bellamy's job and is hired as a staff photographer. Cagney arouses sexy staff reporter Alice White (as Allison), but later prefers pretty Patricia Ellis (as Patricia "Pat" Nolan)...Cagney struts around this second-tier feature like a first-rate star. He, director Lloyd Bacon, photographer Sol Polito, editor William Holmes and the Warner Bros. crew make punk look classy. The centerpiece is Cagney's assignment to photograph an electric chair execution. Also notable is the easy sex offered by a lone female co-worker. She puts the lonely staff ladies room to good use, but Cagney is a gentleman after discovering Ms. White is considered Bellamy's girl. Also watch for bookish bit-player Sterling Holloway and three beautiful young students. Based on a story by Danny Ahern, "Picture Snatcher" was re-made as "Escape from Crime" (1942).******* Picture Snatcher (5/6/33) Lloyd Bacon ~ James Cagney, Ralph Bellamy, Alice White, Patricia Ellis

This is a rather strange early Code film that features Jimmy Cagney as a sleazy ex-con who now devotes his energies to taking pictures for newspapers. But, given his larcenous nature, he specializes in getting the pictures no one else would dare take due to good taste! For example, at an execution, he insinuates himself into the prison as a witness to the execution and snaps a photo surreptitiously--getting his paper a big scoop on the competition. While Cagney's character is sleazy, he is also rather likable in the usual plucky and swaggering way the public learned to expect during the 1930s. However, in the film, all this bravado and lack of good taste eventually came to haunt him--after all, who would want a boyfriend or husband like that?! An interesting curio that is both entertaining and original.

Paroled convict James Cagney is determined not to return to a life of crime and decides to go to straight. He wants to get into journalism, but the only place that will hire him is the Graphic Record, the National Enquirer of its day. And not as a reporter, but as a picture snatcher. Now we would call Cagney a papparazzi.Still and all it's a job and Cagney is pretty resourceful at getting sensational pictures. He photographs an electric chair execution and his ruthlessness gets his girlfriend's father in some heat. But later on he redeems himself with his knowledge of the criminal underworld.Considering at where papparazzi are in the social pecking order these days, the viewer of Picture Snatcher is left to wonder just how legitimate Cagney has gone. Joe Pesci almost sixty years after Picture Snatcher was done did a period piece called The Public Eye which explored the same concerns. I think the viewer would like both films and Picture Snatcher if they are Cagney fans.