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Great Guy

1936, Movie, NR, 75 mins

Great Guy: Review

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A disappointing entry in an otherwise sterling list of credits, GREAT GUY offers a low-pressure performance from Cagney as an ex-boxer given the public post of chief deputy of the Bureau of Weights and Measures. His honesty soon results in trouble. When Cagney discovers that racketeers are cheating the public in the food market through such means as weighing down chickens with lead slugs and inserting false bottoms in strawberry baskets, he goes after the chiselers. Racketeers try to bribe him and, when that fails, they beat him up. Meanwhile, his sweetheart, Clarke, tries to get him to stop risking his neck. Unknown to Clarke, her boss (Kolker) is one of the big shots behind the racket. With help from politician Brophy, Cagney's onetime ring opponent, and tough cop Burke, Cagney finally gets enough evidence to send Kolker, Gleckler, and other miscreants to jail, emerging victorious and with Clarke on his arm. Cagney appeared in this Grand National film at a time when he was feuding with his home studio, Warner Bros., and GN took full advantage of the situation, cashing in on his fame but providing a cheap production with little value and a poor script. The supporting cast is good and Grand National felt that teaming Cagney and Clarke again, for the first time since THE PUBLIC ENEMY, would provide box-office dynamite. But the film fizzled. Cagney received $100,000 from Grand National and would make one more film with this independent firm, SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT (it wasn't). By then his battle with Warners had ended and he was back in the fold, making bigger and better films for WB. The theme of crooked weights and measures was one Cagney would later resurrect for another independent production years later, A LION IS IN THE STREETS, which would be much more successful than THE GREAT GUY. leave a comment
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