Winner Take All *** (1932, James Cagney, Marian Nixon, Guy Kibbee, Virginia Bruce, Dickie Moore) – Classic Movie Review 2,494

Warner Bros’ punchy 1932 boxing drama film Winner Take All stars James Cagney as a talented upcoming boxer called Jimmy Kane, who falls for a sweet widow (Marian Nixon) with a kid (Dickie Moore).

Producer-director Roy Del Ruth’s punchy 1932 Warner Bros boxing drama film Winner Take All stars James Cagney, who plays a talented upcoming boxer called Jimmy Kane.

On the way up, staying at a New Mexico health ranch, he meets and falls for impoverished, well-meaning, sweet widow Peggy Harmon (Marian Nixon), an ex-nightclub singer who has an adorable but sickly six-year-old son Dickie (Dickie Moore). She needs $600 more to save the ranch so the son can stay on there and Jimmy risks all in a tough boxing match in Tijuana for the money to help them.

His manager Pop Slavin (Guy Kibbee) helps Jimmy to the top of the boxing circuit as a knockout boxing success but then the champ is lured away from his new sweetheart by the wealthy New York socialite Joan Gibson (Virginia Bruce) he meets in the city. Now Jimmy is forced to chose between poor Peggy (hurrah!) and rich Joan (boo!).

Cagney, who muscled up for the film, gets to display his physique as well as his full versatility as an actor in this big-hearted vintage comic melodrama. Even if the story and boxing backgrounds are very familiar, the stalwart director and fine cast put the movie across with a real punch. Certainly, there’s a whole lot going on in just a fast-moving 66 minutes.

Texas Guinan and George Raft appear in a film clip from Queen of the Nightclubs, with Raft conducting a band. In turn, clips from Winner Take All were used in Cagney’s final film, the 1984 TV movie Terrible Joe Moran. Cagney and Raft didn’t work together till Each Dawn I Die seven years later.

Wilson Mizner and Robert Lord’s screenplay is based on the 1921 story 133 at 3 in Redbook by Gerald Beaumont.

Also in the cast are Clarence Muse, Allan Lane, Ralfe Harolde, Clarence Wilson, Charles Coleman, Chris-Pin Martin, Alan Mowbray, John Roche, Selmer Jackson, Esther Howard, Ernie Alexander, Sheila Bromley, Jay Eaton, George Gabby Hayes, Arthur Housman, John Kelly, Larry McGrath, Charlotte Merriman, John T Murray, Harvey Parry, Bob Perry, Lee Phelps, Julian Rivero, Rolfe Sedan, Phil Tead, Billy West, and Renee Whitney.

It was released by Warner Bros Pictures Inc on July 16, 1932.

Winner Take All is produced by Roy Del Ruth, shot by Robert Kurrle and scored by Leo F.= Forbstein

The cast are James Cagney as Jimmy Kane, Marian Nixon as Peggy Harmon, Guy Kibbee as Pop Slavin, Dickie Moore as Dickie Harmon, Virginia Bruce as Joan Gibson, Alan Mowbray as Forbes, Esther Howard as Ann, Clarence Muse as Jimmy’s trainer Rosebud, Clarence Wilson as Ben Isaacs, Ralf Harolde as diamond ring seller Legs Davis, John Roche as Roger Elliot, George Gabby Hayes as Intern at Rosario Ranch, Texas Guinan as herself (clip from Queen of the Night Clubs), George Raft as a bandleader (clip from Queen of the Night Clubs), Charles Coleman, Chris-Pin Martin, Alan Mowbray, Selmer Jackson, Esther Howard, Ernie Alexander, Sheila Bromley, Jay Eaton, Arthur Housman, John Kelly, Larry McGrath, Charlotte Merriman, John T Murray, Harvey Parry, Bob Perry, Lee Phelps, Julian Rivero, Rolfe Sedan, Phil Tead, Billy West, and Renee Whitney.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,494

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