As a pugnacious reporter, Cagney unearths evidence that will put some high-level politicians in jail. Before he can get his material into print, he is abducted, knocked unconscious and put into a car. Booze is poured over him, and the car is sent careening down the street. It runs over a
man and kills him. The brutal frame works; Cagney is convicted of manslaughter. In jail, he befriends Raft, a crime boss. On the train to the Big House, Raft jokingly asks Cagney to "write a piece about me. I like my name in the paper." At Rocky Point Prison, Cagney repeatedly applies for parole,
but is turned down. He becomes so embittered that he throws his lot in with Raft, the very person he has despised as a reporter, helping him to escape on the promise that Raft will try to get evidence to clear him. Earlier, Downing, an informer, was knifed while the prisoners watched a movie
(WINGS OF THE NAVY, 1939). Raft, upon whom Downing informed, is rightly suspected of the killing; he is brought into court, as is Cagney, as a witness. Cagney's testimony is never heard, because Raft dives through a window to land on the soft top of a waiting truck three stories below. He rolls
off and hops into a car that speeds away. At first, Cagney waits patiently for Raft to obtain the evidence which will clear him, but he despairs as the weeks pass; he is goaded into breaking rules, which brings him before the warden, Bancroft, who insists he tell how Raft engineered his escape.
Cagney refuses and is thrown into solitary confinement. Bryan, Cagney's faithful girl friend and fellow reporter, goes to Raft's hideout and begs the underworld kingpin to keep his promise. Raft tells her that he believes Cagney almost ruined his escape and sneers, "Who ever did anything for me?"
Bryan tells him how Cagney has gone into solitary confinement rather than inform on him. To repay the debt, Raft forces some hoodlums to identify Wray as the criminal who framed Cagney, but then learns that Wray is at Rocky Point Prison, doing time for another offense. Raft turns himself in to
Bancroft, so he can bring Wray to the peculiar justice of the underworld. He vows that he'll break out again after squaring things. During a wild prison riot and escape attempt, Raft compels Wray to confess, an admission which clears Cagney and is overheard by the warden. Raft then shoots Wray,
dives into the yard ringed by guards and dies by machinegun fire. Cagney is released and rejoins his paper and Bryan, vowing to work for prison reform.
Keighley's direction is sure and swift, as is Edeson's fluid camera work. Cagney and Raft give powerful and compassionate performances. Raft is more memorable in some scenes, but this is really Cagney's film all the way. The two were old pals who worked in vaudeville together; Cagney had persuaded
Warner Bros. to give Raft a small part in TAXI (1932) just before Raft's star rose at Paramount. Studio executives had planned to put either John Garfield or Fred MacMurray in the hoodlum role until Cagney insisted that Raft would be the only actor to do it justice. In his long and checkered
career, Raft had been a bootlegger for NYC gangster Owney Madden, and he had picked up his mannerisms by observing such hoodlums as Joe Adonis. Cagney, one of the best hoofers of his day, thought Raft a great dancer, ranking him with Fred Astaire. During the filming of EACH DAWN I DIE, it was
Cagney's great pleasure to introduce them to one another. EACH DAWN I DIE was a blockbuster at the box office, even though it rehashed familiar prison yarn material such as the trite jute mill scene which Hollywood had been grinding out since films like THE CRIMINAL CODE (1931). The script was
tight, and the acting electric, elevating the movie far above the average. leave a comment
