User Reviews

While I like watching James Cagney movies, I must admit that he was not exactly a subtle actor. While his bigger than life acting and dancing style often worked (such as in "White Heat" and many of his other tough-guy roles), sometimes it really came off as forced and a bit silly. Here in "A Lion Is In The Streets", it comes off as VERY forced and even more silly.

The film is a big of a reworking of the exploits of Huey Long. A similar concept was used in "All The King's Men" (a film that won its lead, Broderick Crawford, an Oscar)--but much more effectively. Part of it was Crawford's performance and part of was the script--but "A Lion" is not a particularly distinguished film.

The film begins with traveling salesman Cagney marrying a nice lady (Barbara Hale of "Perry Mason" fame). At first, Cagney seems like a likable and decent guy--a real man of the people. And he soon finds that through bluster that he's able to establish a name for himself--and eventually parlays it into political capital. However, he also soon shows that he's really in it for himself--as he begins an affair and uses people right and left. At times, still, you wonder is despite all this, he is still at heart a populist who cares--but you never really know. He talks a good talk but his morals are practically non-existent.

So why didn't I love the film? After all, the script idea isn't bad. But there were just too many crazy over the top scenes and it never even approaches subtlety or finesse. In particular, the courtroom scene is almost laughably bad--so over the top that it could only happen in a film! You just have to see it to believe it. Also, the final epilogue with the words of Lincoln were a great example of 'sledgehammer symbolism'--driving a point home so hard that it becomes painfully obvious and ridiculous. Toned down, this could have been very good. As is, I say just see the Crawford film--which, by the way, debuted four years earlier.

By the way, though it will probably not interest most, I was thrilled to see Burt Mustin in the film. He was a very prolific supporting actor on TV and occasionally acted in films--and always looked a bit like a turtle!

View this film critically and you'll find it's lack of continuity and exasperating story line to defy credibility. It begins right away with the non courtship of Verity Wade (Barbara Hale) leading to marriage with virtually no attempt to define what she ever saw in the smooth talking Hank Martin (James Cagney). When the swamp siren Flamingo (Anne Francis) apologizes to Verity for trying to feed her to the alligators, it was about that point I knew the rest of the film was meant only to take in Cagney's performance.

Here's something I really don't understand. In the scene attempting to prove that Castleberry's scales were rigged to underpay the cotton farmers, Jeb Brown's (John McInture) load weighed in at twenty two hundred pounds, and he was going to be paid on that. However when Martin's men raid the Castleberry office and come up with the 'right' scale weights, the re-weighing comes out at sixteen hundred pounds. It seems to me that Brown would have benefited from the original weigh-in, and the 'proof' showed that Castleberry wasn't a crook.

The most bizarre scene though had to be the trial of the dying Jeb Brown, with the jury declaring the man innocent right after he does kick the bucket! Even the newspapers reported it that way. The look on Verity's face right after the trial says it all - this is such a mess I can't believe it!

Had the power brokering and behind the scenes intrigue been more fully developed, the movie might have been a lot more compelling. Even the election outcome was made to seem like it depended a whole lot more on nice weather than a carefully executed victory plan. I mean, this was for governor of a state after all, and it seemed like the election would be in doubt if Martin's bayou friends from little old Cypress Bend couldn't make it to the polls. By the way, anyone know who won?

At least Cagney takes his role and runs with it. There's some of the 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' in his lively step and lots of energy in his portrayal. But even though he's one of my favorite actors, this movie's lion seemed to be operating in a circus.

A few years ago, a foreign friend of mine who knew I enjoyed old movies happened to watch a Jimmy Cagney movie. I don't remember which film it was now, but it was one of Cagney's better known titles. My friend came to me and said, "I don't get it. I thought Jimmy Cagney was a great actor. But the man I saw in this film was overacting to the point of being ridiculous. No one behaves like that. Jimmy Cagney is a terrible actor." I just looked over his filmography, and Cagney had a number of wonderful performances, not the least of which was "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (one of the great screen performances of all time). But this performance -- "A Lion Is In The Streets" -- is almost laughable. There's not an ounce of subtlety on Cagney's performance throughout the entire film. It's downright embarrassing! There is, however, one performance in the film that is even worse -- Anne Francis. El stinko! Such a clichéd performance of what a backwoods southern woman might be like.

There are some interesting roles here. Barbara Hale (of Perry Mason) is Cagney's co-star here, and she turns in a credible performance. And a number of familiar faces among the character/supporting actors are fun to watch. I might single out Lon Chaney, Jr. ("The Wolfman").

The script...well, it's okay, although I'm not really clear what the Anne Francis part was all about. It didn't really seem to have too much of a connection with the main plot, other perhaps that to show that the lead character (Cagney) was a flawed human being...but that was obvious anyway. Overall, the plot is believable.

In the old days, I watched championship golf to enjoy Tiger Woods winning. Nowadays I enjoy watching golf, too -- to watch Woods lose. Approach this film the same way -- watch to see a noted actor overact to a degree not often seen. This is one of the lowest ratings I have ever given a film...and it's all because of the lead actor's outrageous acting...although perhaps we should deal Raoul Walsh in for a great deal of criticism, as well.

Sometimes films are so much fun being bad that one is inclined to raise the overall rating. Such is the case with A Lion is in The Streets. Like the earlier and more critically praised "All the King's Men," both films are loosely based on the life and times of Louisiana politician, Huey Long.

Here James Cagney (playing against type as he effects a southern drawl) is cast as roving peddler Hank Martin, a stand-in for the demagogical Long.

Hank is such an affable guy that he's friendly with just about everyone in town including upper class lawyer Jules Bolduc (Warner Anderson) whom he pays a visit to at his palatial home early on. I had trouble believing that Bolduc would be so inclined to consort with such a social inferior as Hank.

While visiting Bolduc, Hank insults the wealthy Robert Castleberry (Larry Keating), accusing him of shortchanging workers who are employed in Castleberry's cotton distribution business. Castleberry threatens to have Hank arrested for criminal libel.

Almost immediately, Hank meets and marries a young schoolteacher Verity (Barbara Hale). She has no clue that Hank really isn't the man of decency he wants everyone to think he is. So, when he blurts out to Verity that his goal in life is to get ahead by manipulating others, his newly minted wife hardly bats an eye.

Things grow more bizarre when we're introduced to Hank's former flame Flamingo (Anne Francis). She immediately reveals that she's insanely jealous of Verity and almost attacks her after maintaining that Hank has always been her "man." Verily graciously agrees to accept Flamingo's grudging apology and after agreeing to go with her in a canoe together, she starts up another fight in which both fall into a creek riddled with alligators.

This is crazy but Flamingo attempts to kill Verily by preventing her from reaching shore as an alligator closes in. Fortunately, Flamingo's father shoots the alligator dead after returning to the scene after hearing Verity's cries. It's even more laughable when Verity refuses to reveal that Flamingo had attacked her.

The plot takes an even more bizarre turn when one of Castleberry's workers Jeb Brown (John McIntire) is arrested for shooting a sheriff who was about to kill one of his fellow workers.

Later (and this must be one of the most absurd scenes in cinematic history), Jeb is shot while incarcerated and is brought to trial despite being given no more than an hour to live. The judge nonetheless allows the trial to proceed but Jeb indeed does expire.

This gives Hank the opportunity to argue that Jeb was innocent and the workers' claim that Castleberry had been cheating them was true (and what was that whole bit about the workers elegy in song as they carry the fallen Jeb out of the courthouse? Instead of John Brown's body smoldering in his grave, it's Jeb Brown's body-bizarre, bizarre, bizarre!).

The resulting publicity leads Castleberry to sell his company to power broker Guy Polli (Onslow Stevens). Now Hank runs for governor but on election night, the ensuing rain ruins his chances at the polls as there is a much smaller turnout in the rural areas. Hank's only chance is to make a deal with Polli.

In exchange for city votes, Hank agrees to sign an affidavit that he was with Castleberry's manager Samuel Beach (James Millican) who it turns out murdered Jeb. So, Hank's instincts about Castleberry being a corrupt figure were completely wrong.

The climax has Verity revealing to all of Hank's followers that he was with her at the time Beach killed Jeb. Enraged by the news that Hank betrayed the "people," Jeb' widow kills Hank by shooting him with a rifle.

Cagney just isn't believable as a corrupt politician as he remains an affable character throughout. Yes, a few hints are dropped here and there that he has ulterior motives and yes, he is shown having an affair with Flamingo (a significantly underdeveloped sub-plot) but it's not enough to make us feel this is really a shady, manipulative character. You could say that not enough of Cagney's gangster persona from his 1949 classic White Heat rubbed off on him here.

Why doe Verity put up with Hank for so long until she rats him out at film's end? Again, it comes down to the film's scenarists unwilling to show how Hank became the unsavory character he ends up as. So, Hale hardly comes off as credible either.

In so many respects, A Lion is in The Streets is decidedly a laughable and silly film. But as solid camp, it hits the mark.

It's impossible not to compare this to "All the King's Men" since they were both inspired by the same figure, Huey P. Long, cheerfully corrupt governor of Louisiana who was assassinated.

"A Lion in the Streets" emerges much the worse. It's immediately recognizable as a "movie". There is no location shooting. Work clothes aren't dirty. The performers, many of them well known, speak and emote as if reciting their lines. As the central figure, an affable peddler who gains the cooperation of a shady but powerful wheeler/dealer, Cagney pulls out all the stops. He's been manic before but never quite this manic. And if he's a Southern peckerwood, so am I.

"All the King's Men" was a wretched novel but a fine movie with only one weakness: the transition of the Huey Long character from bumpkin to manipulator took place almost overnight. Here, there doesn't seem to be any change -- any "character arc" -- at all. Cagney is his same loud and bouncy star throughout.

It's just about impossible to believe that Cagney passionately feels that the sharecroppers he organizes and leads actually mean anything much to him. He does two nasty things -- he lies on an affidavit about the death of a friend, and he has an affair with the tempting and devoted young Anne Francis. Nothing is made of it. He never shows remorse, just shouts a little louder.

You want to see a good film about Huey P. Long? Watch "All The King's Men."

I like James Cagney especially when he plays against type. 'A Lion is in the Streets' seems to offer a promising character for Cagney to develop. Hank Martin is a Huey Long roman a clef whose rise and fall is meant to serve as a cautionary tale against left wing demagogues. I can't help but look at the year in which it was produced and notice the subject matter very much overlaps with the Red Scare. 'A Lion is in the Streets' is very much a film in that mold.

The problem with the film is that it does not work because it has no moments of genuine character growth or subtlety. Cagney is firing on all cylinders with his loud bombastic and sometimes silly southern accent. He's a cartoon character. Huey Long may have been eccentric but if you want to approach this material and actually get drama and conflict out of it you need to look at why a figure like Hank Martin might appeal to people. Martin doesn't go on any journey. He doesn't earn the hubris because there is no real starting point. I feel that the picture starts at the wrong moment. I would have liked to have seen more of the courtship between Hank and his fiancé Verity played by Barbara Hale.

The film is also very cynical. There is more than one line of dialogue about poverty being complex and that too many poor people blame their problems on others. Martin's appeal seems to be that he can smooth talk the dumb bumpkins into doing his bidding. I just can't get on board with this. It's lazy storytelling for a film like this and it just feels awful.

It's a well cast film and Cagney completists will probably enjoy it but I think it's a tired piece of rightwing McCarthy era entertainment that you can take or leave now.

I guess the one thing saving it from being a total bomb is the presence of Lon Chaney Jr...

. . . of the American One Per Cent Fat Cats (or "Black Skimmers," here) with this predictive warning to them, A LION IS IN THE STREETS. One hundred years ago, the Russian Tsars thought nothing of putting the lifetime working value of 10,000 serfs into one Faberge Egg Doodad. They and their wealthy Henchpeople got gunned down in cellars. About a century earlier, French Queen Marie Antoinette would squander the lifetime slave wages of 10,000 peasants for one grand cake. (They removed her head--as well as those of all her party guests--giving rise to the truism, "You can't have your cake, and eat it too.") James Cagney is the "Lion" in America's streets, as Warner argues that what happened in France and Russia MUST and WILL take place here, as well. Since it has not happened yet, this story uses Cagney's disloyal spouse to quash his March of the 99 Per Centers on the Capital of the Rich People. But just as Katniss Everdeen takes The People of Panem to President Snow's threshold, Today's record U.S. income disparity between the "Black Skimmer" One Per Center Thieves and the rest of us means that our Fat Cat's Day of Reckoning is Right around the Corner. They will not be able to complain that no one warned them, since Warner Bros. tried to do just that many times, and never more so than with A LION IS IN THE STREETS.