... that is basically a poor man's "All The King's Men". I can't remember ever giving a James Cagney film less than a 6/10, if only because of James Cagney. This would probably get a 3 or 4 without him.
There's no chance for any of the cast to do any real character development as you jump from scene to scene. Cagney's Hank Martin is a bayou peddler who aspires to political office claiming to be a man of the people. He makes goofy moves considering he is an aspiring politician, with his rise to fame based on one scandal that Hank uncovers and a murder that results. Cagney assumes it is cotton gin owner and merchant Castleberry behind everything, but by the end of the film when I was told who was actually behind it, I just went WHO? And had to back up into the film to even see who this person was. And you haven't lived until you've seen a dead man -actually sitting in the courtroom - tried for murder.
Barbara Hale plays Hank's school marm wife. Ann Francis plays a bayou girl with a crush on Cagney who first tries to feed Hale to the alligators to get rid of her, then just pushes Hank - she doesn't have to push hard - until he relents and begins cheating on his wife with her. One interesting thing here - Frank McHugh as a malicious person. You don't see that very often. And I have no idea why a hound dog sleeping at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial has anything to do with this story, symbolically or otherwise.
I'd suggest it for Cagney completists and probably nobody else.
