Lady Killer *** (1933, James Cagney, Mae Clarke, Margaret Lindsay) – Classic Movie Review 9621

Director Roy Del Ruth’s 1933 Warner Bros black and white crime comedy Lady Killer stars James Cagney as gangster Dan Quigley, who is on the run from the law but he washes up in the right place – Hollywood – where they turn him into a star. Then his mobster chums turn up to blackmail him.

Lady Killer is a splendid vintage comedy drama, with funny lines and in-jokes, plus winning performances by Cagney and his old sparring partner Mae Clarke as a wisecracking moll, Myra Gale, and the Warner Bros stock company.

Director Del Ruth keeps it all cracking along.

Ben Markson and Lillie Hayward’s screen play is based on the story The Finger Man by Rosaling Keating Shaffer.

Also in the cast are Leslie Fenton, Margaret Lindsay, Henry O’Neill, Willard Robertson, Russell Hopton, Douglass Dumbrille, Raymond Hatton, Robert Elliott, Marjorie Gateson, William B Davidson, Douglas Cosgrove, Luis Alberni, Sam Ash, Harry Beresford, Herman Bing, George Blackwood, Harry Bradley, James Burke, George Chandler, Spencer Charters, Ray Cooke, Al Hill, Harry Holman, Robert Homans, Olaf Hytten, Jack La Rue, John Marston, Edwin Maxwell, Sam McDaniel, Dennis O’Keefe, Dewey Robinson, Frank Sheridan, Harry Strang, Phil Tead, Harold Waldridge, Clarence Wilson and Jack Don Wong.

Mae Clarke memorably appeared in James Cagney’s 1931 classic The Public Enemy. In the film’s most famous scene, he shoves a grapefruit into her face, making movie history.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9621

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