Great Guy (1936)

ONCE KNOWN AS "the Professional Againster", a handle hung on him by Studio head honcho, Jack Warner, James Cagney had two periods in his career when he booked from his home studio. Seeking some sort of sweeter deal or possibly recognition as a producer, he took legal action in order to assure his exit.POVERTY ROW STUDIO, Grand National Pictures (they with the huge building clock as trademark)came calling and Jimmy answered. A two picture followed, SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT (1937) and today's honoree, GREAT GUY (1936).THIS PARTICULAR STORY had Cagney as the Good Guy, rather than being the Anti-Hero* criminal. Mr. Cagney was an investigator for the Department of Weights and Measures in NYC. His job was to protect the public from unscrupulous merchants and their cheating scams. From gas stations to meat markets, he and assistant James Burke, exposed and brought wrong doers to justice.INASMUCH AS THIS may have been just a tad too tame, not to mention dull and uninteresting, a subplot was in order.ROUNDING OUT THE story was a personal look at the man away from the job. We are shown how an honest public official may struggle in trying to live the American Dream.IN THIS CASE, Johnny 'Red' Cave and Fiancé, Janet Henry (Mae Clarke*) are shown making plans for a life of matrimonial bliss; but running into the proverbial brick wall of too little money with so much of the month to go. One scene cleverly opens with the couple discussing these problems; while they were sitting on a couch and easy chair in their living room. A long camera shot revealed them to be in a furniture store.FILLING OUT THE cast were such staunch and enjoyable supporting actors; such as James Burke, Ed Brophy, Mary Gordon, Joe Sawyer and Dwight Frye; the guy who had gained such recognition at Universal with such creepy characterizations as Fritz (FRANKENSTEOIN, 1931) and Renfield (DRACULA, also 1931) and Carl (BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, 1935).** SOME OF THE scams portrayed in GREAT GUY were reprised in the 1950's TV Series, RACKET SQUAD with Reed Hadley as Captain Braddock.AS FAR AS the financial rewards of the Cagney-Grand National Pact, we guess that Mr. Cagney did okay; but these two movies spelled disaster for Grand National, who went belly up, drowning in a deluge of red ink.CAN YOU SAY law of diminishing returns?NOTE * Yes, this is the one and same Mae Clarke who portrayed fiancé, Elizabeth, in FRANKENSTEIN and Cagney girlfriend, Kitty in THE PUBLIC ENEMY. Good thing there were no grapefruits on the set! NOTE ** Mr. Dwight Frye, who met fame through his uncanny ability in creating the most horrifying characters, oddly enough was known for his work in romantic and musical production on stage. He appeared in both Cagney-Grand National collaborations.

With having been in the mood for the last week or so for an easy-going Film Noir,I decided,that due to having had a fun time seeing James Cagney combine espionage and Kung-Fu in the fun Blood on the Sun a while ago,that I would take a look at a Film Noir,that was Cagney's first indie production.The plot:Rushing to the hospital after hearing that Department of Weights & Measures head Joel Green has been hurt in a car crash,Weights & Measures officer Johnny 'Red' Cave is happy to find his boss alive,but is horrified to hear from Joel that he strongly suspects the 'accident' was an attempted mob hit. Realizing that he is going to be stuck to hospital for weeks on end,Green tells Johnny that he is officially making him head of the department.Deciding to show the gangsters which gang is really in charge,Cave begins going around the mob-run businesses and closing down all of the shady operations taking place on the premises. (which include chickens being filled with lead,so that the customer has to pay more when they are weighed on the scales.) Originally hoping that those in power would support his shakedown,Johnny soon discovers that the mob have their Weights & Measures going on in areas that he could never have guessed.View on the film:Leaving Warner Brothers behind due to feeling that he was getting nothing but the same scripts,James Cagney gives a good lively performance,but one which appears to be not stretching Cagney's (very good) acting ability to any great measure. Reuniting with Cagney after having a grape fruit whacked in her face,the very pretty Mae Clarke gives a delightful performance as Janet Henry,with Clarke showing Henry to be the only person who is attempting to keep Cave safely away from the mob.For the screenplay of the movie,writers James Edward Grant,Henry Johnson,Henry McCarthy and Harry Ruskin take their Film Noir in a terrifically off-beat direction,with the writers showing the Department for Weights & Measures to act more like the cops than the cops themselves ever do. Complimenting the off-beat Film Noir nature,the writers also give the title an extremely playful comedic streak which wraps round the movie on its sharp final note,as the mob discover what a great guy Johnny 'Red' Cave really is.

I found this an extremely satisfying movie. Well-plotted, Cagney has integrity and won't buckle to corrupt businesspeople or civic officials and can't be bought off. It's not a big movie, but it's a notable movie for upholding the importance of retaining one's integrity. Too often audiences become jaded and criticize the pacing or some minor plot weakness but in this film Cagney doesn't sell out and it seems to me that that is more important than any minor oversight in the creation of the film. I found this movie very very enjoyable and satisfying. Just a great little movie and folks might say it's simplistic or Cagney is just being a tough, but the point is, the man cannot be bought and that's a value that, if you hold on to, cannot be taken from you.

GREAT GUY (Grand National, 1936), directed by John G. Blystone, is an interesting yet plausible low budget production starring none-other than James Cagney, the same James Cagney of the higher quality studio of Warner Brothers. What's a top actor like James Cagney doing over at Grand National instead of at the majors as MGM, Columbia, United Artists or even Paramount? Well, it had something to do with a contract dispute, which kept him away from his home lot for nearly two years. Since Grand National, not First National, initially began in early 1936, how fortunate for the studio to have acquired a top name like Cagney working for them? How unfortunate for the studio to have lost his services following his second with the studio, a musical titled SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT (1937). How fortunate to have Cagney return to his home studio where he truly belonged, and continue to work on films that were to become classics. As for those done at Grand National .... well, let's take a look at his initial offering of THE GREAT GUY. It's not a gangster film idolizing a popular crime boss but actually a crime story placing Cagney on the right side of the law attempting to rid corruption. Having done something similar the year before in G-MEN, the misfortune for GREAT GUY is not having much gun play nor fast-pace action to make this equivalent to a Warner Brothers production.The story opens with Joel Green (Wallis Clark), chief deputy of the Bureau of Weights and Measures, injured in a car crash, now in a hospital. Knowing the accident was a set up, Green calls for his friend, Johnny Cave (James Cagney), a former prizefighter working with the department of Weights and Measures, and assigns him in his place to acquire enough evidence on the corrupt district leader Marty Cavanaugh (Robert Gleckler). With the assistance of fellow Irishman Pat Haley, whom he calls Aloyisus (James Burke), Johnny teaches him the tricks of the trade of chiselers at the Paradise Market defrauding shoppers by exposing eights on chickens, putting false bottoms in baskets of strawberries, and cheating drivers of their gallons of gas. As for his love life, Johnny is engaged to Janet Henry (Mae Clarke), secretary to city official Abel Canning (Henry Kolker). Janet loves Johnny but finds him too conceited and quick tempered, but overall honest. Refusing to accept bribes even from the city Mayor (Douglas Wood), Johnny later has his work cut out for him by being abducted by hired thugs who frame him on a drunk and driving charge unless he gives up his investigation to expose the gang leader responsible for corruption.The supporting cast includes Edward Brophy (Pete Reilly); Bernadene Hayes (Hazel Scott); and Edward McNamara as Captain Pat Hanlon, whose great scene has him standing outside the door smoking his cigar while his pal Johnny takes care of the ring leader. The big surprise in GREAT GUY is the casting of James Burke, better known for playing cops, playing the dopey sidekick in the El Brendel tradition, sporting an Irish derelict compared to Brendel's Swedish one. This was one of the few opportunities seeing Burke in a sizable part typically suited for the likes of an Allen Jenkins or Frank McHugh.With all the ingredients of a Warner Brothers programmer, down to Joseph Sawyer (a Warners stock player) as one of the mobsters, what GREAT GUY lacks is polish and production values. Overall, GREAT GUY turns out to be a reunion of sorts between Cagney and Mae Clarke, his grapefruit victim from THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931), and co-star of LADY KILLER (1933) the one where he dragged her across the room by the hair. This time they are on friendly terms, as an engaged couple who gather together for lunch in a cafeteria and, with a touch of humor, talking things over at a furniture store with a salesman (Arthur Hoyt) trying to interest them with the display.Virtually unknown even by film buffs, GREAT GUY is one film in Cagney's filmography list that doesn't get a mention in his 1977 autobiography, "Cagney by Cagney," though his second Grand National starer did. Not until the age of video recording of the 1980s or late in the 1970s on commercial television has GREAT GUY been given some exposure. Circulating prints from 1980 and over suffer from being ten minutes shorter than its actual 75 minute release. Abrupt cuts are noticeable, especially one scene involving Mary Gordon as Mrs. Ogilvie and the corruption involving milk deliveries at the orphanage, found in current video, DVD and public TV late show broadcasts. While a complete version with clearer picture quality won't change GREAT GUY from its low-budget status in the Monogram Studios tradition to a Class "A" Warners production, but restoration will make a big difference on how to view this one, especially with the great guy himself, James Cagney. (***)