Winner Take All

This pre code, Cagney, boxing flic is kind of like a lightweight match between standardization in one corner versus originality in the opposite, with the former winning by a decision. In other words, the fight scenes are merely ok, one tires of Cagney's ersatz Joe Palooka accent, the great Guy Kibbee is wasted, and Marian Nixon and that too adorable kid of hers are insufferably dull. But then, almost saving the picture, you've got some nice, cynical, edgy pre code dialogue courtesy of Wilson Mizener and Robert Lord, and Virginia Bruce's Daisy to Cagney's pug Gatsby is almost worth the price of admission. Give it a C plus.

PS...Bad call on the fighting abilities of the Japanese, wouldn't you say?

James Cagney plays a dim-witted boxer who falls for a widow with a sick kid, then for a sexy socialite (Virginia Bruce). This is notable for being Cagney's first boxing movie but, beyond that, there isn't a lot to recommend here. The script's kind of all over the place, with the early scenes seeming out of sync with the rest of the picture. Cagney's performance is fine, even if he doesn't have a lot to work with. A nice supporting cast including Guy Kibbee, Alan Mowbray, and Clarence Muse helps. George Raft has a bit part as a bandleader in a night club. Blink and you'll miss him. Clips from this were used in Cagney's final movie, the made-for-TV "Terrible Joe Moran". If you're a Cagney completist, give it a shot. Everybody else go watch City for Conquest.

Winner Take All is an early Cagney punch and rudie, in which he plays Jimmy Kane, a fighter with an ambiguous relationship to the ring. Although a top contender, he's taking off for a rest to a dude spa out west. He says his goodbyes at the Garden and even allows the fight fans to throw money into the ring to speed him on his way. A pre-Gabby George Hayes welcomes him to the Rancho. He meets s single mother with a small child, the always terrific Dickie Moore. Cagney is sporting a bulbous nose and puffy ears and talks through lower eastside mush, but he's always the man. Soon he's back in the ring in a grueling bout in Mexico to raise money for his new sweetheart. The character of Kane is interesting because he seems to have no ties to anyone and is a loner of an extreme even Cagney didn't play much. Cagney, of course excels. There is a nifty little scene with Ralfe Harold who sells hot jewelry, and Virginia Bruce, who should have been a much bigger star, scorches the furniture in every scene she's in. I'll take V.B. any day over most of the other '30s fire-eaters . This picture was new to me and deserves a place in the pantheon of Warner Bros. fast and snappys, if only for the scene where Cagney delays Bruce's ship sailing.

Winner Take All (1932)

*** (out of 4)

A hotshot New York prizefighter (James Cagney) leaves the city for the country so he can get some rest. While in the country he falls for a sweet single mother (Marian Nixon) but once he's back in the city he falls for a rich girl (Virginia Bruce) just using him. A subplot dealing with Cagney getting plastic surgery is rather weird as we get a different looking Cagney as well as one sounding a lot different. That aside, the story is actually pretty good and the moments at the start with Cagney and Nixon are very warm and touching. The film offers a lot of nice laughs and the boxing scenes are really, really good. There's one fight that has an ending, which appears to have been lifted in Rocky 2.

Definitely one of the oddest boxing movies ever made, and the first time in James Cagney's early career where his performance is obvious: As punchy Jimmy Kane, he speaks in a forced, dumb-guy dialect that shouldn't have gotten past the rehearsal stage...

Introduced as a total has-been, with crowds throwing money in the ring before a newer, more relevant fighter's bout, he's sent to a strange and remote New Mexico health farm (taking up the first act in a lonesome, flickering black & white that feels like another movie altogether) where he meets the good girl with a sick son, whose hopeful/helpful input pales to the gorgeous but shallow, conceited and suffocating dame who, back in New York, owns poor Jimmy right down to his flat nose and cauliflower ear: hence surgically altered to fit with her stuffy, pseudo-intellectual crowd...

So to protect his facial investment, he dances around the ring instead of fighting, turning off fans and especially Virginia Bruce's sexy society gal Joan Gibson as the entire second half's ruled by her impatient, fickle attitude...

But then, finally aware of the deplorable situation known to everyone but his hypnotized, duped self, Cagney's limited performance expands into a familiar street savvy edge. Along with fists flying in the right direction (with a jumping-bean style only Cagney could or would pull off), it's a comeback/turnaround that's long overdue.