Rating: NR
Genre:
Comedy
Release Date: 03/25/2008
SubTitles: English/French
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 75 Minutes
Flags: Suitable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video
We first lay eyes on
Jimmy Cagney in
Lady Killer while he's working as a movie theater usher. This job lasts just long enough for Jimmy to be swindled in a "badger game" orchestrated by hard-boiled
Mae Clarke and a gang of crooks headed by
Douglass Dumbrille. Knowing a good thing when he sees it,
Cagney joins the mob, and soon is calling the shots. But though he's got larceny in his soul,
Cagney draws the line at murder, and when gang member
Raymond Hatton is bumped off,
Cagney and
Clarke board the Super Chief and head to California. With the cops laying for
Cagney in LA, he's suspicious of everyone. A shifty-looking mug (
William B. Davidson) takes after
Cagney on the street; catching up to the winded
Cagney, the mug explains that he's a movie director, and that
Cagney is a perfect "type" for an upcoming prison picture. After several months as a bit player,
Cagney befriends good-natured movie-star
Margaret Lindsay, who encourages
Cagney to seek out bigger parts. The enterprising
Cagney engineers a phony fan-mail campaign encouraging the studio to give him starring roles. Though now a slick, pomaded romantic lead in pictures,
Cagney is still
Cagney; when a snooty critic pans
Lindsay's most recent performance,
Cagney forces the reviewer to literally eat his words! It must needs be that
Cagney's old gang shows up in Hollywood, planning to use
Cagney's influence to gain entree into movie stars' mansions, then steal their valuables.
Cagney says ixnay to this, so the mob schemes to take him for a ride. Tipped off by
Clarke,
Cagney is able to rout the crooks, save the day, and claim
Lindsay for his bride.
Lady Killer is vintage
Cagney, throwing virtually every one of his star-making attributes (including one cute reference to his legendary "grapefruit scene" in 1931's
Public Enemy) into one entertaining 76-minute stew.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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