Madcap pre-Code curiosity that gives James Cagney the chance to be a tough guy, a funny guy, a parody of himself AND smack Mae Clarke around even more than he did in Public Enemy. Its comedy scenes are doses of pure silly and its crime story scenes are strangely dead serious. Cagney’s a sly charmer who’s fired from his movie theater usher job, but he bounces back by channeling his cleverness into a life of crime. He eventually lands in Hollywood, where he gets bit parts in movies and uses his con man skills to become a star (he generates buzz when he writes and sends in his own fan mail!).
By the Hays Code enforcement standards of the following year, this film would have needed a complete overhaul (for one thing, it’s got a likable bad guy, which the morality police back then hated). By today’s standards, it’s still one weird platypus of a movie. It’s the perfect example of a story that doesn’t seem to know what genre it wants to be… and it’s all the better and more unique for it.
They made a real star vehicle for Cagney here. He’s just about the whole show. In addition to Mae Clarke, this film also reunites Cagney with old Public Enemy co-star Leslie Fenton.