zardoz-13
The early James Cagney comedy "Lady Killer" chronicles the life of fast-talking grafter Dan Quigley from nobody to somebody. Dan (Cagney) starts out as an obnoxious dice slinging, usher at a Warner Brothers' studio. After he is fired him for insubordination, Dan stumbles into the illegal gambling racket. He retrieves a purse that a beautiful young lady has left in the Randolph Hotel. Dan takes the purse to the lady and finds himself participating in a penny ante poker. Predictably, Spade Maddock (Douglass Dumbrille of "Female") and his henchmen Smiley (Russell Hopton of "Car 99"), Pete (Raymond Hatton of "Motorcycle Gang"), and Duke (Leslie Fenton of "The Public Enemy"), fleece Dan, but he gets wise to them when he encounters another man looking for Myra's hotel room. Dan uncovers the fleece and blackmails them into letting him join them. Later, he crashes his car deliberately into a wealthy woman's limo so he can access to her mansion and then relays information about her valuable possessions to his larcenous cronies. Things take a turn for the worse when a goon in Dan's outfit, Duke, clobbers an innocent maid harder than necessary. News about the maid's condition prompts Dan's gang to split and he runs for it. Eventually, our protagonist lands a job as an extra at a Hollywood studio. As it happens, the studio is searching for a new matinée idol, and Dan finds himself living high, wide, and handsome. Nevertheless, he hasn't forgotten that his former accomplices, Myra Gale (Mae Clarke), Spade, Smiley, Pete, and Duke left him in the lurch and stole the $5-thousand for his bail bond. Dan manages to get out of jail, but the local authorities aren't happy with him. They promise him 30 days in the slammer if he doesn't find a job. One day a film talent scout (William Davidson of "Seven Sinners") runs Dan down. Dan suspects the talent scout as detectives sent to arrest him so he runs from them. Bumping into a beat cop, Dan finds himself cornered by the talent scouts and he receives an invitation to an open casting call. Dan embarks on the new career and we watch him as he goes from a hard-knuckled escaped convict with a deadly right cross to a romantic leading man." "Golddiggers of Broadway" director Roy Del Ruth has fashioned a snappy, lighthearted, urbane saga that provides some hilarious behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood and gives Cagney a legitimate reason to brandish a revolver. The turning point of the film occurs after Cagney's old girlfriend Myra catches up with him. She makes an unexpected appearance at his Hollywood apartment. It doesn't help their enmity that Dan is showing off to leading lady Lois Underwood (Margaret Lindsay of "British Intelligence") how he has redecorated his pad. Presumably, the villains didn't waste their money on movies. Anyway, the gang follows Myra back after Dan banishes her from his presence. Dan gives them his entire fortune to leave him alone. Trouble is they take his money and stick around after they'd agreed to leave town. Dan is furious because they have stolen some of Lois' jewelry. He takes a gun and confronts Spade and the others about the robbery. He takes Lois' jewelry at gunpoint but as he is backing out the door, the police arrest him! This is one of the few Pre-Codes where you see the gangsters wielding Tommy guns, and the final quarter of the action is as hot as anything in Cagney's later blockbuster "G-Men." Clocking in at 76 minutes, Cagney's fifteenth movie is terrific, especially the scene were the monkeys run wild at a Hollywood starlet's party.
MartynGryphon
Lady Killer, despite it's tough and sinister sounding name, is actually a thoroughly entertaining Romantic Comedy released at the tail end of 1933, a time when prohibition had just been rescinded, the new FDR administration vowed to lift America from the depression and movie audiences couldn't get enough of James Cagney. Throughout the early '30's, Warner Brother's, keen to give the public what they wanted, kept Cagney busy churning out new Cagney vehicles at an almost exponential rate. These were the formative years for Cagney, long before Pat O'Brien had given him the affectionate nickname 'The Professional Againster' (due to his many fall outs with Warner's), Cagney did as he was told and in this, his fifth and final movie of 1933 he did not disappoint neither his fans nor Jack Warner himself.Cagney plays Dan Quigley, a theatre usher who is as just as unsuited to his job as he is the white tailcoat and cap he is forced to wear. After receiving several warnings about his rudeness to customers and illegal dice games in the men's room, he is fired, but Quigley's street smarts mean that he won't be out of work for long.After seeing a beautiful young lady drop her purse he plays the Samaritan by returning it to her apartment, obviously looking for a 'reward' though perhaps not one of the financial kind. the woman Myra (Mae Clarke), at first flirts with him until interrupted by her 'brother in law' Spade Maddock (Douglass Dumbrille). Spade invites Quigley to join the poker game that he and a few friends are having and Quigley, a keen gambler, readily agrees. However, he's soon cleaned out, and after bidding everyone a fond farewell, makes his exit. Upon leaving the apartment, he meets another man on the stairs returning another 'dropped' purse to Myra's home. Realising he's been 'played', he forces his way back into the apartment threatening to tell the cops everything if his money is not returned. The gang, both blackmailed and impressed by him then allow him to join the gang for a share of the take. It's not long however before Quigley is running the show, and Quigley's transformation from Usher to Gangster is complete.Months later, the gang under Quigley's leadership, own a successful nightclub and carefully choose their next con victims from the wealthy hoy palloy that regularly frequent their joint. After one of his gang critically injures a maid on one robbery and murders a butler on another, Quigley draws the line. By his own admission, he is a thief and a grifter, but not a murderer. With the gang now wanted, Myra and Quigley lam out to California but the police arrest him on arrival. Instead of bailing him out, Myra, thinking she too will be arrested and being prompted by the two faced Maddock, skips town.After being released due to lack of evidence, a penniless Quigley is left to roam the streets of Los Angeles until a movie talent scout, looking for 'tough guy types' signs him up. After making a suitable impression in a prison movie, his parts start to increase. He meets Lois Underwood, (Margaret Lindsay), a young studio starlet. The chemistry between the two is there from the start, and they are both so down to earth, that neither cannot see a problem with a romance between extra and star.However, Quigley has no intention of remaining an extra for very long realising that there's big money to be made in this 'picture racket'. After hilariously writing hundreds of his own fan letters and employing a stooge to post them to the studio from various corners of the country, the star roles are not too long in coming and Dan Quigley becomes the new star of Hollywood. Sadly, Quigley's transformation from Gangster to Movie Star was always going to be overshadowed. With his new found fame, comes new found recognition, and Quigley's old gang arrive in town looking to use his shady past as a means to blackmail him into helping them commit robberies of the Hollywood elite. Quigley, determined to go straight, bribes them to leave town but when the homes of several movie stars are robbed, Quigley puts two and two together. The LAPD who, who still aware of Quigley's past, suspect him of guiding the robbers to their targets convinced that 'once a thief, always a thief'. It is only when Lois's house is targeted that Quigley decides enough is enough and with his career, his romance and his very life in danger decides to sort things out once and for all.Cagney, as always, is a dynamo of energy throughout this movie and he is a joy to watch, as is Mae Clarke as Myra. However, Margaret Lindsay's performance as Lois didn't grab me as it should have. I loved Lindsay as an actress, but found her character here quite two dimensional and slightly annoying. Douglass Dumbrille makes a great villain as no other actor of the time could play the dis likable 'slimy' characters as well as he could. The best scene for me was the unforgettable scene where Cagney drags poor Mae Clarke by the hair through TWO hotel rooms before booting her butt out into the hallway. Mae Clarke was a real trouper and she sure put up with a lot from Cagney in those early years (remember the grapefruit?). My other favourite scenes are when the critic is made to 'eat his words', and the adorably cute little monkey's. The latter perhaps was a scene that needlessly prolonged the movie but funny all the same.Of all the movies Cagney made in 1933, this is not the best (I'll reserve that honour for Footlight Parade). But at the end of the day, It's still a Jimmy Cagney movie and his very presence in ALL but two or three scenes means that you're never allowed to forget it either.Enjoy.
kburditt
This was a real pre code surprise. The writers really had some fun at the expense of the gangster genre and the Hollywood studio machine. Cagney looks as if he enjoyed every minute in this film, having as much fun as he did in Footlight Parade. Highlights of this film are the scam that Mae Clark runs - dropping purses to lure men to her apartment. Cagneys bit as an Indian Chief with his Yiddish name. Cagney in bar - looking like he's about to become a lost man. My personal favorite - Cagney writing his own fan mail to get better film parts. You know this bit came from a real story in early Hollywood. Cagney tossing Mae Clark out of his apartment. That was a nice bit of stunt work on her part. The dialogue is fast, the morals loose, and the story improbable. The end is a joke, more like a Keystone Kops crossed with a gangster film. I think that might have been the point too. If it looks and smells like a send up - then it probably is. Why bother with 'reality' TV trash when there are fun films like this to discover.
