Johnny Come Lately ** (1943, James Cagney, Grace George, Marjorie Main, Hattie McDaniel) – Classic Movie Review 11,447

Director William K Howard’s 1943 drama Johnny Come Lately [Johnny Vagabond] stars James Cagney as down-on-his-luck newsman Tom Richards, who is in court on trial for being a vagrant in the small American town of Plattsville at the beginning of the 20th-century in 1906.

But he is paroled to the care of feisty old lady newspaper proprietor Vinne McLeod (Grace George), who owns The Shield and Banner, and he finds redemption when they join up to battle the town’s corrupt politicians, using the paper to dig out the dirt and free the town.

Edward McNamara plays corrupt wealthy mayor W M Dougherty, who owns a rival newspaper. His son Pete Dougherty (William Henry) is in love with Mrs McLeod’s niece.

It was the first film produced by Cagney’s brother William Cagney. The Cagneys’ own production surprised and dismayed many back in 1943. Why did James Cagney want to play a washed-up one-time reporter in the kind of homespun movie James Stewart would have been comfortable. It was not a wise career move and screen-writer John Van Druten doesn’t make enough of Louis Bromfield’s novel McLeod’s Folly.

But the film does have its entertaining and perceptive moments and Cagney and George are very watchable, as are several other of America’s finer character actors (including Marjorie Main, Marjorie Lord, Hattie McDaniel, Ed McNamara, Bill Henry, Robert Barrat, George Cleveland and Margaret Hamilton).

In 2013 it was preserved by the US Academy Film Archive, in conjunction with the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

The cast are James Cagney as Tom Richards, Grace George as Vinnie McLeod, Marjorie Main as Gashouse Mary, Marjorie Lord as Jane, Hattie McDaniel as Aida, Mrs McLeod’s servant, Edward McNamara [Ed McNamara] as W M Dougherty, William Henry [Bill Henry] as Pete Dougherty, Robert Barrat as Bill Swain, George Cleveland as Willie Ferguson, Margaret Hamilton as Myrtle Ferguson, Norman Willis as Dudley Hirsh, Lucien Littlefield as Blaker, Edwin Stanley as Winterbottom, Irving Bacon as Chief of Police, Tom Dugan as First Cop, Charles Irwin as Second Cop, John Sheehan as Third Cop, Clarence Muse as Butler, John Skins Miller [John Miller] as First Tramp, Arthur Hunnicutt as Second Tramp, Victor Kilian as Tramp in Box Car, Wee Willie Davis as Bouncer, Henry Hall, Joseph Crehan, and Alec Craig.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,447

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