I don't think I've ever seen James Cagney in a role where he was so over the top frenetic as he was here, and Pat O'Brien wasn't far behind. Their quips and rejoinders come at you so fast you don't have chance to relish them, much less catch what the heck they're actually saying. There was a point in the film where they were both in the office of producer C. Elliott Friday (Ralph Bellamy), when talk turned to their self-description as the potential three godfathers of Baby Happy who was soon to be born to Miss Susie Seabrook (Marie Wilson). I couldn't help thinking this might have been an oblique reference or a nod to the 1936 movie "Three Godfathers", a Western starring Chester Morris, Lewis Stone and Ward Bond. In that one, three outlaws came upon an orphaned baby in the desert and decided to bring it to safety. The 1948 remake starring John Wayne, Harry Carey, Jr. And Ward Bond was still a decade away, and having seen both, I prefer the earlier version. There was also a 1916 silent version.
In this story, J. C. Benson (O'Brien) and Robert Law (Cagney) are screen writers struggling to come up with a winning script for fading cowboy actor, Larry Toms (Dick Foran). All throughout the picture, Benson and Law engage in a stream of consciousness form of script writing, hoping against hope that something will stick when they throw it up against a wall. When Susie Seabrook makes mention of her pregnancy, the pair take off on a riff describing how cowboy star Toms could be paired with the already named Happy before it's even born! Without even knowing it, Happy becomes a huge Hollywood hit and becomes cast with Toms in his next Western.
I get a kick out of these old Warner Brothers flicks for the way they name drop other movie stars under contract to them during the era. This one mentioned Bette Davis and Joan Blondell, and even went on to establish a movie premiere scene for "The White Rajah" starring Errol Flynn. That was a project never made with Flynn in mind, and my understanding is that he was peeved when the reference was made in the story. Topping things off, the red-carpet announcer for the premiere was none other than Ronald Reagan, who probably wasn't even thinking about politics at the time.
As I said earlier, the pace here is genuinely frantic, and is probably best recommended only for fans of the principal players. As a Cagney fan, I had to tune in, but it's far from his best work. It felt like he was told to just let it fly and see what happens while whipsawing with his co-star O'Brien. Otherwise, the film felt like a cross between the Marx Brothers and the Bowery Boys.
In this story, J. C. Benson (O'Brien) and Robert Law (Cagney) are screen writers struggling to come up with a winning script for fading cowboy actor, Larry Toms (Dick Foran). All throughout the picture, Benson and Law engage in a stream of consciousness form of script writing, hoping against hope that something will stick when they throw it up against a wall. When Susie Seabrook makes mention of her pregnancy, the pair take off on a riff describing how cowboy star Toms could be paired with the already named Happy before it's even born! Without even knowing it, Happy becomes a huge Hollywood hit and becomes cast with Toms in his next Western.
I get a kick out of these old Warner Brothers flicks for the way they name drop other movie stars under contract to them during the era. This one mentioned Bette Davis and Joan Blondell, and even went on to establish a movie premiere scene for "The White Rajah" starring Errol Flynn. That was a project never made with Flynn in mind, and my understanding is that he was peeved when the reference was made in the story. Topping things off, the red-carpet announcer for the premiere was none other than Ronald Reagan, who probably wasn't even thinking about politics at the time.
As I said earlier, the pace here is genuinely frantic, and is probably best recommended only for fans of the principal players. As a Cagney fan, I had to tune in, but it's far from his best work. It felt like he was told to just let it fly and see what happens while whipsawing with his co-star O'Brien. Otherwise, the film felt like a cross between the Marx Brothers and the Bowery Boys.