The film opens on Danny Kean(James Cagney) being released from prison just as the cop who arrested him (Robert Emmett O'Conner as Emmett Nolan) is bringing another convict into the prison. Kean's gang is ready for him to take the lead again, but after taking a bath and his cut of the loot, Danny says what he really wants is to be a reporter and he is going straight.
He gets a job at the tabloid Graphic News by "snatching" a picture under dangerous circumstances. He then takes a shine to a girl who turns out to be the daughter of the cop who arrested him. Dad is not pleased with his daughter's new beau. Complications ensue.
Cagney's character is an ex-con you feel sorry for despite his devious ways of getting the job done once he turns legit. He adds a ton of "goodies" as he called them (improvs, adlibs, and etc.) that surprise and delight at every turn. He is like catnip to Alice White's character, who can't leave him alone, and is actually somebody else's girl.
This is actually a very good Cagney precode, maybe his best although there is stiff competition. You have the big city newsroom, Ralph Bellamy losing the girl AGAIN, a precode situation involving...the fire department?, and that criminal gang Cagney left behind at the beginning of the film? -They enter back into the plot later on. The storyline exploits the actual photo that the Daily News ran of a woman taken secretly at the moment of her execution making it more timely still.
But it is basically the rambunctious charm of James Cagney at his youthful best rescuing a Warner Brothers quickie from itself through his trademark energy, grace, and humor.
He gets a job at the tabloid Graphic News by "snatching" a picture under dangerous circumstances. He then takes a shine to a girl who turns out to be the daughter of the cop who arrested him. Dad is not pleased with his daughter's new beau. Complications ensue.
Cagney's character is an ex-con you feel sorry for despite his devious ways of getting the job done once he turns legit. He adds a ton of "goodies" as he called them (improvs, adlibs, and etc.) that surprise and delight at every turn. He is like catnip to Alice White's character, who can't leave him alone, and is actually somebody else's girl.
This is actually a very good Cagney precode, maybe his best although there is stiff competition. You have the big city newsroom, Ralph Bellamy losing the girl AGAIN, a precode situation involving...the fire department?, and that criminal gang Cagney left behind at the beginning of the film? -They enter back into the plot later on. The storyline exploits the actual photo that the Daily News ran of a woman taken secretly at the moment of her execution making it more timely still.
But it is basically the rambunctious charm of James Cagney at his youthful best rescuing a Warner Brothers quickie from itself through his trademark energy, grace, and humor.