Review of Torrid Zone

. . . and forgot to cast Bob? It might look a lot like TORRID ZONE. Only the steam engines are hot in this picture. James Cagney and Pat O'Brien try to get their staccato patter up to gangster film Tommy gun speed, but instead they go bananas. They probably don't know Who's on First, what with wondering who's on Gloria. Set in a so-called "banana republic," but filmed on Warner Bros.' back lot, there's not much to see, and even less to think about. Executions are more frequently threatened than the implausibly absent tropical rains, but it's all tongue-in-cheek. Ugly Americans may rule the roost, but why not, since the bananas are being grown for U.S. consumption? Perhaps the best time to view TORRID ZONE is when you're slicing up the yellow boomerangs into Jello or atop a bowl of cereal. But James Cagney is not yet a YANKEE DOODLE DANDY here, and his comic timing seems way off. Though there's one topical joke about FDR running for a third term, you'd never know the world as at war watching this twilight--Er, TORRID ZONE.