'G' Men (1935)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

"Warner Bros" played a clever switch by showing how law and order functions. The film has a documentary feel about it as it is based upon the F.B.I. James Cagney is a city lawyer, whose practice isn't faring too well. A friend who is a G man, suggests to Cagney that he sign up to have the same career. He does just that and learns a great deal, plus rubbing his boss Robert Armstrong up the wrong way. Margaret Lindsay plays the mandatory love interest but her and Cagney don't have very good on-screen chemistry in my opinion. Joan Blondell would have been FAR better. The action scenes are absolutely brilliant and are more polished than in previous "Warner Bros" films. The dialogue is good and the story is tight. Cagney is very good but his acting ability wouldn't be stretched for a few more years. Barton MacLane makes for a great villain. It was funny in the gymnasium scene when Cagney is put through his paces in self-defence! Robert Armstrong can't stop laughing at this. A great film overall.

Directed by William Keighley with a screenplay by Seton I. Miller from a story by future Academy Award winning producer Darryl F. Zanuck (who earned his first Academy recognition with a Best Writing, Original Story Oscar nomination), this above average crime drama features James Cagney as a client-less lawyer turned 'G' (for government) man, an employee of the Department of Justice's bureau of investigation (to become the F.B.I.), for the purposes of helping to capture those responsible for killing his friend.Regis Toomey appears briefly as agent Eddie Buchanan, 'Brick' Davis's (Cagney) college friend who had tried to convince Davis to join the bureau before he was gunned down by (as it turns out) Brad Collins (Barton MacLane). Brick is acquainted with the culprit because he'd grown up in a rough New York neighborhood with Collins, and some other hooligans, before crime boss 'Mac' McKay (William Harrigan) had taken Brick under his wing and paid for his college education to give him opportunities he'd never had, which allows Brick to go straight.Unwilling to become a mouthpiece for other gangsters, when Buchanan is murdered, Brick signs up with the Dept. of Justice and is assigned to work for Jeff McCord (Robert Armstrong), a tough taskmaster who refuses to admit that Brick has what it takes to succeed in the bureau, and is suspicious of the lawyer's earlier associations. Margaret Lindsay plays Jeff's sister Kay, who catches Brick's eye and interest. Lloyd Nolan plays agent Hugh Farrell, who helps Brick learn jujitsu and other self defense tactics. Mary Treen appears uncredited as a secretary.Because Brick grew up with Collins and the others, and knows (for instance) that Danny Leggett (Edward Pawley) has a penchant for fresh daily gardenias, he's soon involved in trying to capture Buchanan's killers. After Farrell is killed (Ward Bond appears uncredited as one of the culprits), Brick wins over McCord, and more slowly his sister, by helping to catch Leggett.Collins's wife Jean Morgan (Ann Dvorak), who Brick also used to know (they had a 'thing' for one another), inadvertently spills the beans that her husband and the rest of the wanted criminals are holed up in McKay's mid-Western lodge. This leads to a shootout during which the whole gang, save Collins, is shot dead or captured; McKay, who'd been their prisoner, is killed and Brick is injured.It takes a little longer to get Collins, who catches up with Jean while he hides out at Venke's (Harold Huber) garage, inexplicably long. But you know Cagney's character is going to get his man, finally earn McCord's respect, and win the girl in the end.The film was re-released in 1949 with a prologue and introduction (by an actor pretending to be an F.B.I. agent) that talks about the 25th anniversary of the bureau and the difficulties they had fighting crime during the gangster era because initially their agents couldn't carry guns, didn't have adequate firepower (e.g. machine guns) relative to the hoods, and couldn't even cross state lines to chase their quarry, having to work with local authorities in every state to apprehend them.

This is a Gangster Movie that was released just After Full Implementation of the Hays Code and there are some obvious Capitulations. This is as Violent as the Thirties Post Code Gets. The Movie has numerous Gun Battles, some Blood, and even an Up Close and Personal Murder of a Female.Most of the Pre-Code Edge is Gone but enough Visceral Violence remains and it is Not Neutered completely. Mostly because the 'G'ood Guys are Portrayed very 'G'ood and the Bad Guys are shown to be very Bad, in keeping with the Code's Pro-Law, Anti-Crime Insistence.James Cagney, at the Peak of His Popularity and riding the Gangster Film Wave, this time on the Side of the Law, is Fine and the Cast and Production are Prime. The Movie Drags a Bit in Spots and seems a Tad too Long, but it is nevertheless a Rousing Entertainment and a Good Propaganda Piece for 'G'overnment Law Enforcement.A Few Scenes are "Pulled from the Headlines" and it is a Warner Brothers Movie that Delivers the Goods that the Studio is Known For. It's a Winner by All Accounts and is Must See Viewing for Fans of the Genre and Pop Culture Historians. It's an Example of that Imaginary Line between Pre-Post Code Hollywood.Note...Most prints now have the F.B.I. intro inserted for the 1949 Re-Release. It's basically one of those Pro-Government-Anti-Crime speeches that were part of the then recent Post-War Hollywood.

Until this movie appeared in 1935, Jimmy Cagney had played roles in which he was a con man or a gangster of some sort. The formula having grown a little weary, Warners put him in "G Men," in which he joins the FBI and pursues murderers and other people guilty of moral terpitude. Saw this for the first time tonight after having waited a good number of years and was satisfied but a little disappointed.What a cast -- Stu Erwin, Loyd Nolan, Robert Armstrong, Ann Dvorak (pronounced roughly "Dvor-zhock", like the composer, although her real name was McKim). Then there was Barton MacLane as a bad guy, Margaret Lindsay as a good girl. And the performances are about what you'd expect -- that is to say, pretty good, with the exception of Robert Armstrong of "King Kong" fame who would be better put to use as a traffic signal, only instead of "go", "caution", and "stop," he could transmit "surprise", "remorse," and "anger." Whatever happened to Ann Dvorak? She's unconventionally stunning, was a gay, sexy, recklessly clumsy dancer, had the biggest, most expressive eyes in the business, and -- as we all know -- the eyes are the windows of the hootchy cootchy.Lamentably, the story is a crazy quilt of barely related plots stapled together out of old scripts and recent newspaper clippings. It might have made a good comic book. You can pretty much tell from the moment they're introduced who's going to be toast. There's the personal animosity between Cagney and the gang he knows back home, some stuff that tries to capture the headlines of the early 1930s about Midwestern gangs, and a faux history of the FBI's reactive development. Scenes alternate between rather dull and talky, and speedy, unimaginatively staged ambuscades. I think the same car crashes through the same store window twice.I felt more nearly complete after having watched it. Cagney's performance alone makes it worth watching. He lacks some of his usual mannerisms, the shrug of the shoulders, the hitch of the pants, but he's bouncy and smart-alecky. It's only the narrative and the direction that seems lacking or leaden. I mean, after all, I waited about twenty years to see it, and I think the Warner Brothers owed me more than they delivered.