Two years before he made ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES, he made this. Starting in New York, a cocky but loveable small-time hoodlum is suspected of killing a man. He goes on the run from the cops pretending to be someone he isn't.
But hold on, that's not Cagney - it looks like him, he talks like him but it's American B-movie star Wallace Ford. He actually does a really impressive Cagney impersonation. This has to be one of the most Cagney films ever even though it doesn't have Cagney in it! It's also very much a typical Raoul Walsh picture - but surprisingly it's made by Gaumont-British in London.
Wallace Cagney finds that his disguise means has to join up into the British army. James Ford's cocky insubordinate nature isn't exactly suited to the discipline of army life but eventually he starts to fit in - primarily to get the girl. And there we get the love triangle. Although he had a devoted super-sexy girlfriend back in NYC, played by super-sexy Grace Bradley, for some bizarre reason he sets his sights on the girlfriend of his new pal John Mills played by Anna Lee. Mills and Lee are both deadly dull characters, perfectly suited for each other so why our Cagney wannabe chases after her whilst he has a super-sexy dame pursuing him is anyone's guess but it all flows along well.
As you'd expect from a good director, it's engaging, professional and compelling.....well upto about two thirds of the way in. When the action moves to China and gets all Raoul Washy, although that's meant to be the high octane, action packed finale, all the fun and the character driven drama drains away. It feels like Walsh realised his boat was leaving for The States in the morning so had to complete the filming in an afternoon before packing his suitcase. The rushed ending doesn't even seem like the same film and the ending of course is the memory any picture leaves you with. What really seemed like it could have been a great little Cagneyesque picture stays in your memory as something mediocre.
Despite the bolt-on last twenty minutes, you can tell this is a quality product. It was made during the time when Gaumont-British, because of the nefarious commercial politics of the industry in 1937, had to break into America. This was during England's mini recession so revenues were down but they had no choice but to borrow lots and lots of money to spend lots more money than they could get a return on - unless MGM's American theatres chose not to show their own MGM films but this instead....you can guess what happened!
Perhaps the rushed ending was elicited by a call from their bank manager? Best advice would be to switch off when they sail off to China -upto that point, it's a good film - especially if you like Cagney.
