Cagney Makes the FilmMay 13, 2008 City for Conquest is an ambitious film about New York City, based on a novel written in the late 30s. James Cagney is the quintessential New Yorker here, playing his characterization to the hilt, and to great affect.
Ann Sheridan is his "goil," who learns the meaning of love too late, but just in time. Though a decent hoofer (and a great cryer), Sheridan is saddled by her dance partner in the film, Anthony Quinn, who couldn't dance a lick. Thus, dance shots were at a distance or closeups of "stand-in" feet. Otherwise, Quinn was great as a greaseball "villain."
Cagney's portrayal of a (for the most part) blind man (near the end) is very well actualized. Could have done without the "Old Timer" narrator/character, played by Frank Craven, who annoyed more than informed, but he had his purpose. Cagney does his own fight scenes.
Extras include an interesting commentary, cartoons, and trailers
Cagney in one of his best rolesOctober 28, 2006 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
James Cagney plays a fighter who's trying to impress his squeeze (Ann Sheridan) with his boxing ability, though she has some ambitions of her own, mainly a dancing career that partners her with the oily Anthony Quinn. Arthur Kennedy also appears (his debut in movies) as Cagney's brother, who dreams of writing long-hair symphonies one day but is busy now churning out pop tunes. When Cagney has success in the ring, he refuses to take back Sheridan, who also has success in her dancing career. Then the tide turns and Cagney is blinded in one of his fights and Sheridan also hits the skids. Only Kennedy has his dream come true: the final scene has Cagney and Sheridan listening to one of Kennedy's symphonies playing on the radio.
The script by John Wexley is excellent, and Anatole Litvak's direction is right on target. Cagney worked hard to get himself fighting trim, and he knows how to handle himself in the ring. As a sincere, emotionally forceful actor, Cagney is at his best in this picture. He is a true Hollywood craftsman. And, of course, Max Steiner's musical score adds points to the movies final production value. It's a winner all the way.
Poetry in MotionAugust 30, 2006 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
For me, "City For Conquest" is so honest in its emotion that I totally accept what others might call over-the-top melodramatics. It mirrors, on the outside, what most of us feel on the inside, especially in the dynamics of relationships. Think about those times when you were in love with someone and all the positives and negatives that were part of it; remember the emotional level you felt. Then see if you can feel that in the outward expression of this movie. The Max Steiner score is almost non-stop and punctuates each scene with an added flair of romanticism. The acting, especially by Ann Sheridan, is heartfelt. My problem with the dvd version is that it's restored. Most of Frank Craven's "Greek Chorus" comments, though well placed in the context of the film, slows the rhythm and is totally superfluous. It adds nothing. The version, according to literature I have read, which we see on TCM or vhs tape, is the 1948 re-release edition which removed almost all of Frank Craven's scenes. I much prefer that version to the restored original although Craven's added scenes don't really hurt the heart of the movie. If you are not afraid to feel and you embrace the unabashed romanticism of that era, "City For Conquest" is a must-see.
Cagney and Sheridan opusAugust 18, 2006 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"City for Conquest", a 1940 Warner Brothers release, is based on a pretentious novel published in the late thirties, a novel written to capture the heart of a great city, New York. The story traces the lives of a group of friends raised in poverty and striving in different ways to improve their lot. Cagney plays a good guy with no particular ambition other than to be happy. Sheridan plays his girlfriend, a ballroom dancer with aspirations to the big time. Arthur Kennedy plays Cagney's brother, a musician who writes serious music but teaches tenement kids the piano. There are other characters along the way including Anthony Quinn as Sheridan's odious dance partner and Elia Kazan as a small time crook who hits the big time.
James Cagney's best screen partner was probably Ann Sheridan. They complimented each other perfectly with their hard boiled sentiment. "City for Conquest's" greatest claim to fame is that at last they were teamed in a top flight A film. Cagney is superb as usual and Sheridan's part is very emotional and she rises to the challenge very well. This film contributed a lot to her stardom. Arthur Kennedy is perfectly cast as the intellectual and he is also excellent.
The film covers a lot of ground with prizefights, ballroom dancing, a symphony and good scenes of tenement life but Anatole Litvak's direction is slow so the film drags quite often. Elia Kazan adds a shot of energy in all his scenes. The climactic prize fight is harrowing. Sheridan and Quinn are limited dancers and the dancing sequences are unimpressive with an obvious use of a double for Sheridan in one scene. Also Frank Craven frames the story as a hobo. His corny philosophising could have been dispensed with and dates the film badly.
The DVD has many extras including a good commentary, a blooper reel from Warner Brothers and a radio version of the film with Alice Faye and Robert Preston. As part of the Warner's Tough Guy Collection, to which it is an uneasy fit, the DVD is good value but otherwise you may not want to revisit the film as part of your own collection.
The Forsyte Street GangAugust 16, 2006 0 out of 4 found this review helpful
It's a little silly having Ann Sheridan play the part of a gifted ballroom dancer, since she apparently can't put one foot in front of the other without losing her balance. Wasn't there anyone who else who could have played it? It doesn't really matter, for some deft stunt work and long distance shots give the bumpy illusion that while she's far away from the camera lens, she's Eleanor Powell, it's only when the camera is nearby she turns into a klutz. And actually I wouldn't trade her for Margot Fonteyn for in her own way she is perfect as Peg, and the buckets of tears that run down her beautiful, waxen face at the end of the movie sparked corresponding tears in my own eyes. I didn't think I'd be crying, and then all at once, when James Cagney leans up against his newstand and consoles the crying Ann Sheridan with the cheerful, "We ain't none of us got no score, do we Peg? All of us from Forsyte Street doin' pretty good," well, when he is so good to her, in his own perverse way, and after all, she has left him at every opportune time all throughout the movie whenever she spies a brass ring just outside the reach of the carousel, well, believe me, there's not a dry eye in the house. I don't even like Cagney but he's super as Danny Kenney, the reluctant welterweight the promoters call "Young Samson." He looks like he's about five feet four, but he's all muscle, and he spends a lot of the early scenes dressed in an extremely revealing black leotard cut up up here showing he'd endured a complete Brazilian bikini wax before taking the part. He and Arthur Kennedy, who plays the younger, sensitive, piano genius brother, are believable as close kin. They're two of a kind, and the music that Kennedy composes over the course of the picture sticks in your head. It's the "Magic Isle Symphony" he pounds over and over on a baby grand, very much in the Gershwin style. United should buy up the rights to this theme, and use it when their planes take off instead of the "Rhapsody in Blue" they abused to death. (The music is by Max Steiner, in a very different vein than most of his scores, much more jazz and pop oriented, but just as thrilling as say, GONE WITH THE WIND.)
Anthony Quinn, so evil!
Elia Kazan, all over the place, he seems animated, like a cartoon. Well, his name is "Googie," I guess it fits, he's the type they used to have in the movies called, the "hophead." Fifteen years later, he'd be the hipster character his oen films helped usher into cultural memory.
Warner Brothers chopped up this movie on re-release and only now have we been able to see it in one piece. Hurray for DVD and the mania for restoration!
This would be a good double feature with CINDERELLA MAN, for in the first reel of the picture, the poor people of Manhattan are all glued to borrowed radios, listening to the Maxie Baer-Primo Carnera match! This big, torrid, ubercool gangster melodrama has everything but the kitchen sink and then, in the penultimate scene, there's the sink too. Five stars.
