Gangster Cotter escapes prison and schemes his way into city underworld, leaving trail of broken bodies and broken hearts behind.
Cagney's pushing 50, but you'd never know it from the energy level. Ever the human dynamo, he's dishing it out to both the competition and the dames. True, it's a stretch when old man Dobson calls Cotter (Cagney) "young man", but you hardly notice. This is the legend's final gangster film. It may not be the best, still it is fast, tough, and unsentimental.
Once again, Cagney's the outlaw entrepreneur working his way up the money ladder with little more than guts, wits, and a .45 (automatic, please). Along the way, he corrals two crooked cops, a shady lawyer, a double-crossing garageman, and notorious Hollywood bad girl Barbara Payton. Looks like everybody's got an angle of some kind, just the types Cotter can subordinate to his relentless drive. The ending is really ironic when you think about it. This is a stone-cold movie. Hardly anyone's likable, least of all Cotter. His cocksure ambition fascinates even as it repels. Only a secure-in-his-skin actor like Cagney would risk a role as unsympathetic as this.
I wish IMDb had more on screenwriter Harry Brown (not Harry Joe Brown of the Ranown cycle of Westerns). This Harry Brown did a number of high quality screenplays (A Place in the Sun; Ocean's Eleven et al.), including the one here. Director Douglas manages several nice touches, such as the true believer at the phony psychic session. Note, however, that the quarry killings are not shown, at least in the version I've seen. In fact, showing that may have pushed the producers over the censorship line.
All in all, it's a worthy slice of thick ear for gangster Cagney to go out on, especially that last scene with it's great title line.
