Classic Crush Profile: James Cagney

02.13.12 | guest-blogs | FanFare GuestsPrint this Post

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Guest blogger Rory B. writes:

I love James Cagney because he played gangsters but also danced. He was flirty with a love for life but a tinge of pathos. In real life he was married to one woman for 64 years.  He was that perfect combo of artistic, sensitive, and bad boy.  He was reported to be faithful to his wife but almost cheated with actress Merle Oberon. If he had cheated with Merle, I’d forgive him for good taste. If you are going to cheat one time, the exquisite Merle Oberon is the way to go. Heck, I’d consider cheating on my spouse with Merle!

My first exposure to Cagney was Yankee Doodle Dandy around the 4th of July, of course. Then I started watching his lesser-known films like Boy Meets Girl, Blonde Crazy, and The Bride Came C.O.D. I basically knew him as a dancer and light comedian type, Footlight Parade being one of my favorite Cagney musicals as well as one of my favorite musicals, full stop. It wasn’t till High School that I realized he was more famous as a gangster type. I’m grateful, though, that I was exposed to his comedies and musicals first because it seems Cagney fans exposed to the gangster persona first have a harder time accepting him as a song and dance man than vice-versa.

White Heat is a great movie, but that film unfortunately tarnished his crush image….too psycho and chubby for me. I prefer his '30s gangsters like The Public Enemy, Angels with Dirty Faces, and The Roaring Twenties.

Who is your celebrity crush? Let us know in the comments!

Rory has been a classic movie fan since childhood. She is an aspiring actress with ambitions to teach classic film courses to younger generations (meaning under 80 years old). Visit her websites at Bunnybun's Classic Movie Blog and Classic Ethnic Hollywood.

 
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  • Tito Pannaggi

    A great actor and the greatest film gangster of all time!!!

  • Martin Stumacher

    James Cagney was a wonderful actor. He was so typical of the actors, male and female that the Golden Age of Film memorable.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1565922889 Joseph Glaeser

    I've seen many of Cagney's films and my all time favorite is "Yankee Doodle Dandy". As a kid I saw his gangster films. Then, looking through TV Guide I saw YDD, with James Cagney, on at midnight or so. I decided to watch and was totally shocked to see him as a song & dance man, and really good too! It became my favorite then and has remained so ever since.

  • bonnerace

    Whatever movie he's in, he's entertaining. BUT, he is great in several---WHITE HEAT, THE ROARING TWENTIES, PUBLIC ENEMY, YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES, MISTER ROBERTS, etc. The man was an entertainment cyclotron. (I have to mention, the ending to ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES always gets me.)

  • BRIAN

    I always loved Deanna Durbin.
    As for Cagney,a very underated film is Come Fill The Cup(1951)Not out on DVD or even VHS.

    • Michelle Malkin

      "Come Fill the Cup" has always been one of my favorite Cagney movies. But, I've never been able to find a copy. I've had to settle for some photos from it, and that isn't enough. I have a feeling that some people think it's a copy of "Lost Weekend", though it's an good movie in its own right. The only similarity in both movies is that they are about alcoholics. Aside from that, the stories are completely different. And, CFtC has excellent performances with James Cagney, James Gleason, Gig Young and Raymond
      Massey. I can't understand why it hasn't been
      released on dvd.

  • Sandy

    Cagney was just ... GREAT! Whether playing the rough and tough gangsta roles ... or in a light hearted musical / dancing part, he was it!

    My favorite of his is an old one ... from about 1931 titled "TAXI" and his co-star was Loretta Young (beautiful!). Here he plays a tough guy but is sweet and romantic with Loretta ... the interplay between the two is touching.

  • BoB

    How about a gem called "One - Two - Three" in Berlin, before the wall. Cagney is a Coca Cola executive tasked to re-establish Coke's place of primacy. Billy Wilder directed with his usual sly humor, creating a hilarious classic.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000233948054 Neil Blount

    I didn't see "The Fighting 69th" mentioned. In my view, that movie reallt shows off Cagney's versatility in being able to handle the roll of a real loser.

    • nicki

      I agree with you Neil. "Fighting 69th" is one of my all time favorite Cagney films. He has a fantastic way to taking a totally hate-able character and making the audience feel sorry for him.

  • john craig

    Surprised no one has mentioned "Love Me or Leave Me"
    Quintessential Cagney.. An unlikely pairing with Doris Day proved to be electric...they really struck sparks off each other, and he came out of retiremenr to make this film, which in my view is really underated

    • billyb34usa

      Love Me or Leave Me is one of my favorite Cagney roles. He personified the little tough guy image. The man could do it all and it didn't bother me that he was psycho and chubby in White Heat...he wasn't in a beauty contest. He was magnificent in that one.

      • Gord Jackson

        Am in total agreement with "Love Me or Leave Me', my only criticism being the snubbing of Doris Day at Oscar nom. time. That said, my personal favourite is "Man of a Thousand Faces", Cagney experiencing his own Oscar nom snub in 1957. Criminal!

  • Jerry Semro

    One of my favorite Cagney musicals with Doris Day,Virginia Mayo and Gordon MacRae Is The West Point Story...........

  • Kurt

    Alright. Who did it? Whooooo did it?

    • Magman

      Mr Roberts did it ! Great role for Cagney.

  • nicki

    Cagney not only handled Gangsters and Musicals, but he took on the Bard himself in "Mid-summer Nights Dream" maybe not to everyones taste but still a fun watch. With all his movies I have to say another favorite of mine is "The Strawberry Blond". So much fun to watch.

    Always watching for new Cagney DVD releases as the VHS tapes are wearing out. One whole shelf of my DVD stand is just James Cagney. The Best!

  • Lenny Cassioppi

    The greatest actor to ever grace any movie screen. 'Nuff said.

    • Julie Frausto

      Ditto.

  • Bill Dunphy

    I saw "A lion is in the streets" in 1954 when I was 11, and it affected me deeply, I understood what ruthless meant! Later I saw all of Cagneys films, but this one really stuck in my memory ! As an aside, I cannot possibly picture anyone portaying Cpt. Morgan from Mr. Roberts other than James Cagney !

  • Johnny Sherman

    "On top of the world, Ma. On top of the world!"

  • Luigi Of NYC

    Cagney was GREAT in --

    Love Me Or Leave Me --

    with Doris Day !

  • Linda Jenkins

    I've loved Cagney since I was a kid in the early 50's. I watch his movies over and over. My favorites are Yankee Doodle Dandy, Love Me or Leave Me, Public Enemy. I love to see him dance, so light on his feet. They just don't make them like that anymore.

  • suzanne from lakewood, co

    I can't comment on Yankee Doodle Dandy because I haven't seen the movie. James Cagney was great in Tribute To A Bad Man. He played both the the bad side of his character and the good side of his character. I will watch Yankee Doodle Dandy in the near future, for he is a great actor.

    '

  • Susan Johnston

    Cagney is a classic/classy and very multitalented guy. I am really attracted to the gangster films and he is superb in them. He was a crazy kind of sexy even as psychotic as he was in White Heat. If you want watery knees and bated breath, I would have to go with Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Al Pacino, Sidney Poitier (esp the Defiant Ones, Heat of the Night, Lillies of the Field and Guess Who...?)and definitely Jeremy Irons as major movie heart throbs over the years.

  • Ron

    Don't forget Cagney also did several westerns "The Oklahoma Kid", "Run For Cover" and "Tribute To A Badman".

  • Maxwell Starr

    CAGNEY! A bantam rooster who ruled the roost! Whether throwing down on the great Bogart (3 times!) or romancing the likes of Joan Blondell, Olivia DeHavilland, Rita Hayworth or Doris Day, Jimmy was the man! He was the quintessential 'Triple Threat' (actor, singer and dancer) He personally wanted to be considered and remembered as a song and dance man rather than a gangster tough guy. He always gave 100% to every role he essayed. His body of film work in the 1930s, alone, is a marvel to behold. He's among that pantheon of stars of whom we say 'there will never be another like him!'

    • Julie Frausto

      You said a mouthful, brother, and it's all true!

  • Edwin Johnson,Sr.

    James Cagney in 13 Rue Madelain was another great movie of his that I enjoyed very much. They don't make pictures like this anymore, what a shame.

  • Julie Frausto

    I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE James Cagney--he is my favorite actor of all time, and he always will be. There is an indefinable quality about him--his toughness, his grace, the way he walks, that smile. I find him absolutely irrestible. I can't even help liking him when he is playing someone reprehensible as in "Mister Roberts" or "White Heat". I still want to root for him because I love him that much. Watch him handle the Dead End Kids playing basketball in "Angels with Dirty Faces". Seriously, how can you not love that guy???

  • Irv Thomas

    I was beginning to wonder if anyone would mention "13 rue Madelaine". Its closing scene, where a beaten-up (but far from 'beaten') Cagney laughs in disdainful victory at his outwitted tormenters . . . as the air raid -- that just as surely signals his own immediate demise, as that of his captors, is signaled by off-scene sirens wailing in the night.

  • Joe Gregorio

    Count me in as another great Jimmy Cagney fan. Anything he appears in he makes more interesting. So many of his films are favorites of mine, but one nobody mentioned that I've always liked is "City for Conquest." He's a boxer who is blinded during the championship fight by the handlers of his crooked opponent (from resin dust they put on their fighter's gloves). It's all about the striving, up from the streets, quintessential New York types. The beautiful Ann Sheridan and Arthur Kennedy as Jimmy's classical composer brother, as well as the fantastic character actor Donald Crisp, who plays Jimmy's manager, grace this 1940 movie. Frank McHugh, George Tobias and a very young Anthony Quinn appear in this movie, as does Elia Kazan, in his pre-Great Director days.

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