Winner Take All

Winner Take All is a typical example of the roles James Cagney was so trying to get away from in those early years at Warner Brothers. In this programmer he's a lightweight prizefighter whose fans have to take up a collection in Madison Square Garden to send him away for a rest cure. Seems that Cagney liked the night life just a little too much and its put his health at risk.

While in New Mexico he meets and falls for good girl Marian Nixon and her son Dickie Moore. She's there with Moore for his health problems. An out of condition Cagney takes a local fight there to help pay for their expenses on a winner take all basis and barely survives the bout.

Then when he gets back to New York he starts hanging around with bad society girl Virginia Bruce and her crowd. She makes a chump out of street smart Jimmy.

I don't think I have to say too much more. Guy Kibbee as Cagney's manager and Clarence Muse as his corner man fill their roles very well.

The only two things that Winner Take All became noted for was that this was the first time Cagney did a boxing film. He got into the ring later on in The Irish in Us and City for Conquest. But also footage from this film was used in that last Cagney made for TV film Terrible Joe Moran.

That film was a mistake whereas this one is strictly routine.

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.

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.

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.

This begins slowly: James Cagney is boxer who needs some rest. He gets sent to a rural area by his manager, Guy Kibbee. There he meets Marian Nixon and her son, the (ostensibly) adorable Dickie Moore. He falls for her.

He goes back to New York and falls for high-class Virginia Bruce. And here it picks up. The early scenes are a little soppy. Back on familiar turf, Cagney can strut his stuff.

Without giving anything away, Bruce humiliates him. He makes himself over for her. There's lots more to come; so I have not given away the plot.

The cast is excellent, including the great actor Clarence Muse as a trainer named Rosebud. Nixon's role calls for her to be a little saccharine. But Bruce is excellent.

This is a change from the early Cagney movies in which he is a cocksure guy who knows the score. He knows the score, but loses track of it for a while.

There are some effeminate stereotypes, including a character played by the always entertaining Alan Mowbry. I can't hold these against the movie, though. They were of its time.

It's not Cagney at his best but it's by no means his worst, either.