The Irish in Us

Quintessential Irish-American movie mother Mary Gordon lives in a hectic apartment with her three "boys":

Pat O'Brien is a cop, Frank McHugh is a fireman, and James Cagney— well, Cagney has no real job apparently but he fancies himself a fight manager and is his mother's favorite.

It's a sentimental and predictable setup and while the dialog early on is certainly not great, the actors hang in there and make it work —particularly O'Brien and Cagney, who show a knack for taking exchanges that look absolutely awful on the page and giving them real bite:

O'Brien: "Say, let me tell you something, there's lots worse things than being a cop." Cagney: "But I don't wanna be a cop!"

The plot eventually adds Allen Jenkins as a streetcar conductor Cagney tries to turn into a boxer. Olivia de Havilland is fine as a police commissioner's daughter—she catches O'Brien's eye but Cagney catches hers, causing family complications.

It's all pretty dated, I guess, but the picture does pick up steam as Cagney spends more time on the screen, and you'd have to be a hardboiled viewer indeed not to enjoy seeing Cagney suit up and step into the ring himself as an emergency sub when Jenkins gets drunk just before the big fight....

Not a classic but the cast certainly makes this one worthwhile. Also, Allen Jenkins' character has a truly great name: Carbarn Hammerschlog.