Lady Killer | |
---|---|
Directed by | Roy Del Ruth |
Screenplay by | Ben Markson Lillie Hayward |
Story by | Rosalind Keating Shaffer Darryl F. Zanuck (uncredited) |
Produced by | Henry Blanke |
Starring | James Cagney Mae Clarke Margaret Lindsay |
Cinematography | Tony Gaudio |
Edited by | George Amy |
Music by | Leo F. Forbstein [1] |
Production company | Warner Bros. |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 76 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Lady Killer is a 1933 American pre-Code crime drama film starring James Cagney, Mae Clarke, and Margaret Lindsay, based on the story "The Finger Man" by Rosalind Keating Shaffer. The picture was directed by Roy Del Ruth.
After being fired as a theater usher, Dan Quigley tracks down Myra Gale to her apartment and returns the purse she dropped. He then sits in on a poker game with her "brother-in-law", Spade Maddock, Duke, Smiley and Pete. After he loses all his money, he leaves, only to run into another person trying to return Myra's purse. Realizing he has been conned, he threatens to go to the police ... unless they let him join them, telling them he has some profitable ideas.
He is as good as his word. Eventually, they are running a nightclub and casino, a perfect cover to scout the rich as burglary targets. Dan stages a car accident so a passing "doctor" can persuade Mrs. Marley to let him rest for a while in her nearby mansion. This gives Dan an opportunity to check out the place, so that they can break in later. More burglaries follow, but Dan decides to quit when a butler is killed during the latest one. However, Pete cracks under police interrogation and betrays the others; when the police come for them, Duke kills Pete and everyone flees. Dan and Myra head to Los Angeles.
Dan is picked up for questioning at the train station, so he gives his money to Myra for safekeeping. She then runs into Spade. When Dan telephones her to have her post his bail, Spade persuades her to go with him to Mexico instead. Dan is released anyway.
Broke, he runs away from what he mistakes for a policeman, only to discover his pursuer is actually hiring extras for a film. Dan gladly accepts $3 a day and a box lunch. On his fourth day of work, he meets star Lois Underwood and is surprised to find her friendly, even to a lowly extra. Meanwhile, National Studio head Ramick is looking for fresh, "rough and ready" faces, as the public is tiring of handsome stars. One of his executives suggests Dan. Dan helps his career along by writing himself hundreds of fan letters a week, and is soon a rising star.
He and Lois start going out together. When he spots a critic who had written harsh things about Lois, he forces the man to literally eat his words, making him swallow the newspaper column, and warns him against panning Lois again. He then takes Lois home to see his new suite. However, when they unexpectedly find Myra in his bedroom, Lois leaves.
Dan throws Myra out, but she is not alone. Spade and their old gang want Dan to use his connections to get them inside stars' homes in preparation for robberies. Dan refuses, and offers them $10,000, all the money he has, to leave town and never come back. Spade has no intention of departing. When burglaries start occurring using the modus operandi of Dan's old gang, the police suspect he is the ringleader. Dan tracks the crooks down after they rob Lois. He retrieves her jewels at gunpoint, but just as he is leaving, the police arrive. He is arrested, while the others get away.
In spite of the protests of the studio bigwigs, Lois adamantly intends to pay Dan's bail and stand by him. However, Spade worries that Dan will tell all he knows and has Myra bail Dan out so they can kill him. Myra tells Dan, but he already suspected as much and had the police tail them both. After a car chase, the thieves are either dead or in custody, Dan is exonerated and he asks the authorities to guarantee leniency for Myra. Dan and Lois then fly to another state to get married without delay.
The film received mixed reviews at the time of its release, as reflected in a collection of excerpts published in The Hollywood Reporter: the World-Telegram called it "a sprightly, more or less daring, thoroughly entertaining film," while less favorable reviewers dismissed it as "premeditated hokum" and "more a collection of jokes than a sustained narrative." Cagney's performance, however, was unanimously praised. [2]
Edward Joel Pawley was an American actor of radio, films and Broadway. The full name on his birth certificate is Edward Joel Stone Pawley; he never used the Stone name, which derived from a Stone family in Illinois.
No Way Out is a 1950 American crime drama film noir directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Sidney Poitier in his film debut, alongside Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell and Stephen McNally. The film centers on an African American doctor who confronts the racism of a poor slum, after he treats a racist white criminal.
The Naked City is a 1948 American crime procedural produced by Mark Hellinger, directed by Jules Dassin, written by Albert Maltz and Malvin Wald. Starring Barry Fitzgerald, with Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart and Don Taylor in support, the film depicts the police investigation that follows the murder of a young model. It was shot almost entirely on location in New York City.
Lady on a Train is a 1945 American light-hearted comedy crime film noir directed by Charles David and starring Deanna Durbin, Ralph Bellamy, and David Bruce.
Mae Clarke was an American actress. She is widely remembered for playing Henry Frankenstein's bride Elizabeth, who is chased by Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, and for being on the receiving end of James Cagney's halved grapefruit in The Public Enemy. Both films were released in 1931.
Waterloo Bridge is a 1940 American drama film and the remake of the 1931 film also called Waterloo Bridge, adapted from the 1930 play Waterloo Bridge. In an extended flashback narration, it recounts the story of a dancer and an army captain who meet by chance on Waterloo Bridge in London. The film was made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sidney Franklin and Mervyn LeRoy. The screenplay is by S. N. Behrman, Hans Rameau and George Froeschel, based on the Broadway drama by Robert E. Sherwood. The music is by Herbert Stothart and cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg.
Heart and Souls is a 1993 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Ron Underwood. The film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Thomas Reilly, a businessman recruited by the souls of four deceased people, his guardian angels from childhood, to help them rectify their unfinished lives, as he is the only one who can communicate with them.
The Maltese Falcon is a 1931 American pre-Code crime film based on the 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett and directed by Roy Del Ruth. The film stars Ricardo Cortez as private detective Sam Spade and Bebe Daniels as femme fatale Ruth Wonderly. The supporting cast features Dudley Digges, Thelma Todd, Walter Long, Una Merkel, and Dwight Frye. Maude Fulton and Brown Holmes wrote the screenplay; one contemporaneous report said that Lucien Hubbard was assisting them.
Blonde Crazy is a 1931 American pre-Code romantic comedy-drama film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Noel Francis, Louis Calhern, Ray Milland, and Guy Kibbee. The film is notable for one of Cagney's lines, a phrase often repeated by celebrity impersonators: "That dirty, double-crossin' rat!"
Taxi! is a 1932 American pre-Code film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring James Cagney and Loretta Young.
McQ is a 1974 American Panavision neo-noir crime action film directed by John Sturges and starring John Wayne. It costars Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, and Al Lettieri, and features Colleen Dewhurst, Clu Gulager, David Huddleston, Julian Christopher, Roger E. Mosley, and William Bryant in supporting roles. The film was shot in the State of Washington, making extensive use of locations in Seattle and with a sequence near the end filmed on the Pacific Coast at Moclips.
What Price Glory is a 1952 American Technicolor war film based on a 1924 play by Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings, though it used virtually none of Anderson's dialogue. Originally intended as a musical, it was filmed as a straight comedy-drama, directed by John Ford and released by 20th Century Fox on August 22, 1952, in the U.S. The screenplay was written by Phoebe and Henry Ephron, and stars James Cagney and Dan Dailey as US Marines in World War I.
Edgar Warren Hymer was an American theatre and film actor.
The Mad Miss Manton is a 1938 American screwball comedy-mystery film directed by Leigh Jason and starring Barbara Stanwyck as fun-loving socialite Melsa Manton and Henry Fonda as newspaper editor Peter Ames. Melsa and her debutante friends hunt for a murderer while eating bonbons, flirting with Ames, and otherwise behaving like irresponsible socialites. Ames is also after the murderer, as well as Melsa's hand in marriage.
Lady of Burlesque is a 1943 American musical comedy-mystery film, produced by RKO Pictures and directed by William A. Wellman and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Michael O'Shea. It is a faithful, if sanitized, adaptation of the 1941 novel The G-String Murders written by strip tease queen Gypsy Rose Lee.
Harry Russell Hopton was an American film actor and director.
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye is a 1950 film noir starring James Cagney, directed by Gordon Douglas, produced by William Cagney and based on the novel by Horace McCoy. The film was banned in Ohio as "a sordid, sadistic presentation of brutality and an extreme presentation of crime with explicit steps in commission."
Johnny Come Lately is a 1943 drama film directed by William K. Howard starring James Cagney, Grace George, Marjorie Main and Hattie McDaniel. It was the first film produced by Cagney's brother, William Cagney.
Quiet Please, Murder is a 1942 drama film directed by John Larkin and starring George Sanders, Gail Patrick and Richard Denning. Based on the short story Death Walks in Marble Halls by Lawrence G. Blochman that appeared in the September 1942 issue of American Magazine. It is also known under the title Death from the Sanskrit.
He Was Her Man is a 1934 American pre-Code mob film starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, and Victor Jory. The film was directed by Lloyd Bacon.