Flirting with Danger

A trio of girl-chasing explosives experts are sent to San Rico, where they get up to their necks in trouble with their employers, the police and the local women. An extremely modest - and largely plot-free - comedy from Poverty Row studio Monogram which is notable today only for a rare screen appearance from William Cagney, the younger brother of tough-guy actor, Jimmy. It's a weird experience watching Cagney Jr: he's taller and slimmer than his brother, but they are almost identical otherwise, particularly when William grins. He isn't given much to do, though, which suggests he was probably nothing more than a piece of novelty casting, and most of the heavy lifting is left to the ever-dependable Robert Armstrong and screen funny guy Edgar 'slow burn' Kennedy. The laughs are pretty thin, but the three of them at least generate some degree of on-screen camaraderie even though they spend most of their time double-crossing one another.