Jimmy Cagney stars in "Picture Snatcher," a 1933 film also starring Ralph Bellamy. Cagney is a prisoner who is finally released and impresses the editor of a tabloid-type newspaper with the photo he's able to get of a murder victim. He is hired.
This precode has lots of sexual innuendo, loose women, physical abuse against women - you know, all the stuff of precode.
Cagney is terrific in this fast-moving film that really shows his talents. In one scene, he manages to get back into prison to witness an execution. He's sitting down, one leg crossed at a 90 degree angle over the other, and when the execution begins, he quietly pulls up his pant leg and there's a camera attached to his ankle. Very funny scene.
What makes the character great is that yes, he was in prison, yes, he lies his way in to get these tabloid photos, but he has a heart, which he finally realizes and acts on.
I saw someone interviewed who said he was working in a restaurant and a hobo-like man came in wearing an old trenchcoat. It was Jimmy Cagney, probably trying not to be recognized. Whoever was being interviewed said he was the sweetest man he'd ever met in his life. Look at all the low- down guys he played.
He was definitely worthy of the devotion of my father when he was a boy - he went to see Midsummer Night's Dream because Cagney was in it.
Entertaining.
This precode has lots of sexual innuendo, loose women, physical abuse against women - you know, all the stuff of precode.
Cagney is terrific in this fast-moving film that really shows his talents. In one scene, he manages to get back into prison to witness an execution. He's sitting down, one leg crossed at a 90 degree angle over the other, and when the execution begins, he quietly pulls up his pant leg and there's a camera attached to his ankle. Very funny scene.
What makes the character great is that yes, he was in prison, yes, he lies his way in to get these tabloid photos, but he has a heart, which he finally realizes and acts on.
I saw someone interviewed who said he was working in a restaurant and a hobo-like man came in wearing an old trenchcoat. It was Jimmy Cagney, probably trying not to be recognized. Whoever was being interviewed said he was the sweetest man he'd ever met in his life. Look at all the low- down guys he played.
He was definitely worthy of the devotion of my father when he was a boy - he went to see Midsummer Night's Dream because Cagney was in it.
Entertaining.