Turnabout Cagney film: he changed his film image from ruthless gangster to fearless FBI man, but the truth is his G-Man is as reckless, violent and prone to impulse as any of his hoods.
William Harrigan is a bigshot gangster who generously puts Cagney through law school. When Regis Toomey, Cagney's pal, becomes an FBI man and is gunned down without a chance--agents at the time not being legally able to bear arms--Cagney joins the FBI to seek revenge.
Keighley was not one of Cagney's favorites; Cagney thought the director affected because he spoke French to the cast and crew, he and his wife having recently learned the language in nonstop lessons. Lindsay also bothered the down-to-earth Cagney. To get her first role (in CAVALCADE), Lindsay, who
came from Dubuque, Iowa, had fibbed to producers, saying she was British since British accents were sought after as being easily understood in the early sound era. She continued to affect a slightly British accent with broad A's even in G-MEN, which annoyed Cagney.
J. Edgar Hoover made G-MEN a pet project and loaned several real agents to appear in the film, ostensibly to lend credibility to the production but really to make sure that the Bureau's story was told the way Hoover wanted it told. Actually, it was standard Warner pulp, ripped from the tabloid
page and briskly told. So durable was this film that Warner Bros. re-released G-MEN many times for box-office bonanzas. In the 1949 go-around, the studio added a prologue to the film with David Brian as the chief and Douglas Kennedy as an agent. Brian is teaching a class of recruits and introduces
the film to them by saying: "You are about to see the granddaddy of them all!" leave a comment
