I didn't know what to expect from this movie at all; I never really heard of it or saw it anywhere and I bought it on a $1 DVD. I think it's a very enjoyable late 30s film, really hampered only by the sometimes painful singing of Evelyn Daw. I didn't know Cagney had made a musical this early in his career, five years before "Yankee Doodle Dandy." In fact this one came out before "Angels with Dirty Faces" so I think it's fair to say he wasn't a very big star yet and his tough guy persona hadn't been cemented yet. He looks great doing his tap dance numbers early in the film. It's a shame they didn't have him do more dancing as the film progressed instead of concentrating quite so much on the situational comedy.
Cagney plays a "hoofer" who goes by the stage name of Terry Rooney. He goes to Hollywood to make a film and the producers very foolishly try to convince him that he's bad so that he won't demand a lot of money. The foolish part is that they don't sign him until after the movie is released, so then they have to track him down and try to sign him without his knowing about it. By then he's married his sweetheart Rita (Daw) and the studio wants to keep the marriage a secret.
I've never really heard of songwriter/director Victor Shertzinger; looking at his credits I see he wrote the famous song "I Remember You" from the great Alan Ladd/Veronica Lake film "The Glass Key" and was kind of a big shot at Paramount in the 30s. None of the music in this particular film is very memorable unfortunately. It's not bad music, the main problem is that they let Daw go into a very high range that the music just doesn't justify. More Cagney dancing and less Daw singing would have made this a more satisfying musical film. But the comedy is very good, I was laughing out loud at a couple of the scenes. Cagney is a very funny guy and he seems more free in this movie without the burden of the "tough guy" that he later needed to either live up to or run away from. There's a wonderful scene with Cagney showing his wife how he made all these different faces when he was acting. There's also a funny scene where Cagney beats up a couple stuntmen and then trashes the entire set of the movie. Every James Cagney fan should see this movie because it's a bit like seeing what his career might have been like if he had stayed more in the musical comedy realm. No, it's not a masterpiece like "Yankee Doodle Dandy", but it never tries to be. It's just a very light piece of classic entertainment that goes down very smoothly.
Cagney plays a "hoofer" who goes by the stage name of Terry Rooney. He goes to Hollywood to make a film and the producers very foolishly try to convince him that he's bad so that he won't demand a lot of money. The foolish part is that they don't sign him until after the movie is released, so then they have to track him down and try to sign him without his knowing about it. By then he's married his sweetheart Rita (Daw) and the studio wants to keep the marriage a secret.
I've never really heard of songwriter/director Victor Shertzinger; looking at his credits I see he wrote the famous song "I Remember You" from the great Alan Ladd/Veronica Lake film "The Glass Key" and was kind of a big shot at Paramount in the 30s. None of the music in this particular film is very memorable unfortunately. It's not bad music, the main problem is that they let Daw go into a very high range that the music just doesn't justify. More Cagney dancing and less Daw singing would have made this a more satisfying musical film. But the comedy is very good, I was laughing out loud at a couple of the scenes. Cagney is a very funny guy and he seems more free in this movie without the burden of the "tough guy" that he later needed to either live up to or run away from. There's a wonderful scene with Cagney showing his wife how he made all these different faces when he was acting. There's also a funny scene where Cagney beats up a couple stuntmen and then trashes the entire set of the movie. Every James Cagney fan should see this movie because it's a bit like seeing what his career might have been like if he had stayed more in the musical comedy realm. No, it's not a masterpiece like "Yankee Doodle Dandy", but it never tries to be. It's just a very light piece of classic entertainment that goes down very smoothly.