Stellead
Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful
Matrixiole
Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
Bergorks
If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
utgard14
Con man Jimmy Corrigan (James Cagney) runs an agency that finds heirs of those who died without a will and he's not above providing phony heirs in order to collect his fee. His girlfriend (Bette Davis) didn't approve of his underhanded techniques so she left him to go work for his supposedly honest and respectable competitor. In order to win her back, Jimmy tries to prove he can go straight and become a respectable gentleman.Cagney and Davis are both enjoyable in this snappy comedy, each getting plenty of good lines. Cagney, with his bow-tie, crew cut, and nasal accent, is different than most other pictures I've seen him in from this period. Another fine example of what an underrated actor he was, even doing these WB programmers. They're backed up by a fine supporting cast including Allen Jenkins, Arthur Hohl, and Alan Dinehart. A fun one for fans of Jimmy and Bette.
duke1029
Jimmy Corrigan is an unpolished, unmannered, unscrupulous con man specializing in finding bogus claimants for the unclaimed fortunes of wealthy people who die without an heir. Charles Wallingham, his chief rival, has stolen away his "Girl Friday," Joan Marsh, with whom Corrigan is still smitten. When he goes to Wallington's office to try to win her back, he is struck by its contrast to his own organizational style. Instead of the herd of crude and ugly "mugs" he has working for him, Wallingham's operation boasts a gaggle of beautiful, well-mannered, cultured secretarial hostesses who serve clients tea and crumpets with friendly smiles. Unlike Corrigan, Wallingham is well-dressed, cultured, and erudite. In order to try to win back Joan, as well as improve his operation, Jimmy decides to transform himself into a "gent." Cagney and Davis are in top form in this early example of the new screen genre that would be soon known as 'Screwball Comedy." Cagney draws upon all the vocabulary in his unique body language: his arching back and idiosyncratic walk, to great comedic advantage, and there are smaller examples of the Davis mannerisms that would later inspire impressionists for decades. Both Cagney and Davis had a great affinity for fast-paced dialog, and this 1934 effort contains a similar premise to "His Girl Friday," the high water mark of the genre, as an unprincipled con-man tries to woo back his business partner/girl friend.It's interesting that the two stars' only other collaboration would be eight years later in "The Bride Came C.O.D.," another fast-paced Screwball Comedy. Too bad they didn't make more together. They could have been Warners' answer to MGM's William Powell and Myrna Loy.
nycritic
One of the more lightweight comedies Bette Davis made early in her career, working for Warner Bros. JIMMY THE GENT pairs Davis up for the first time with James Cagney. Cagney was another powerhouse actor who would engage in his own form of battle against the studio for handing down unremarkable stories with rather repetitive characters in which he was almost invariably the gangster. Here, his flashing an extreme military buzz cut was his way of protesting, and in Bette Davis he found a kindred spirit. They were well matched here and would be so in THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. made in 1941, right before his own Oscar win for the musical YANKEE DOODLE DANDY.A convoluted plot centering on Jimmy Corrigan, an investigator in charge of tracking down missing people -- in this case, heirs -- and his rivalry with onetime girlfriend Joan Martin, now working for a competitor, James Wallingham (Alan Dinehart). At a little over an hour, the movie has a near breakneck pace and its dialog is as rhythmic as a jazz piano. It's not a matter of what happens or who does what to whom as much as seeing Corrigan try and win his girl back. Directed by Michael Curtiz, he of MILDRED PIERCE fame, this is a pretty entertaining short movie, less gritty and hard bitten, a little farcical here and there, but still little more than a product churned out for the masses, devoid of any real style.
MStillrage
Cagney was tired of playing mugs by this point in his career, but he played this one comically.(Humor is a Cagney trait in any of his roles.) He intentionally had the studio barber put bottle scars on his head just to annoy Hal B. Wallis!!! Ya gotta love that. His attitude towards Warner's was getting worse,understand? He could play a thug like DaVinci could draw a dame named Mona. But in spite of his frustrations with the studio,I personally view this as one of his most memorable performances of the 30s!!
