Baseshment
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Stoutor
It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
Brendon Jones
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
JohnHowardReid
(An excellent Warner DVD). Copyright 21 August 1940 by Warner Bros Pictures, Inc. A Warner Bros-First National Picture. An Anatole Litvak Production. New York opening at the Strand: 27 August 1940. U.S. release: 21 September 1940. 12 reels. Running time variously reported as 101, 103 and 105 minutes. SYNOPSIS: The film opens with the lead characters, Danny Kenny (Cagney) and Peggy Nash (Sheridan), portrayed as youngsters. As Forsythe Street pals, Cagney wins the heart of Sheridan and she promises to "always be his girl". By the age of seventeen Cagney has won amateur golden gloves boxing bouts and has a bright future in the sports world, but he wants a steady job to finance the music of his piano-playing brother (Arthur Kennedy). NOTES: Wexley did the bulk of the screen adaptation (under the supervision of William Cagney). Robert Rossen was brought in for revisions. James Cagney himself contributed some additional dialogue. For his fight sequences - none of which were faked - Cagney trained with Harvey Perry under the direction of the movie's technical advisor, Mushy Callahan, ex-world-welterweight champion. Film debut of Arthur Kennedy. Feature film debut of Elia Kazan.
COMMENT: Famed Broadway director Elia Kazan wanted to get some movie experience and what better way than to take a leading role in a picture directed by Anatole Litvak! In fact I thought this slum-to-riches-to-slum saga chiefly memorable for Kazan's bravura portrayal. He knows how to steal every scene he appears in, - sometimes just by flicking his eyes. And his fall from grace is a real topper!I don't agree with those critics who say Cagney is more restrained than usual. I think he overdoes the part. The plot is hokey and familiar and corny and over-sentimental and is played rather too broadly. Typical Owen Marks editing - the occasional splices that don't quite match giving the film that jagged texture. Some typical Litvak crane shots and a very realistic and powerfully put across fight sequence. Craven's part in the TV version has been reduced to a walk-on at the beginning of the film.
AaronCapenBanner
Anatole Litvak directed this drama that begins with actor Frank Craven talking directly to the audience, saying how there are lots of stories in New York City, and he presents one of them: James Cagney plays Danny Kenny, a truck driver who is also a prize fighter, though has little interest in it. His brother Eddie(played by Arthur Kennedy) has dreams of being a concert pianist, which lead Danny to enter the fight racket to pay for his brother's tuition, though there will be tragic consequences...Ann Sheridan plays Peggy Nash, Danny's girlfriend who has dreams of becoming a professional dancer, but must put up with her lecherous male partner(played by Anthony Quinn). All three of them will have their fates intertwine in this interesting and well-acted film, especially Cagney, who does a fine job convincing the viewer he is blind... New Yorkers in particular will like this.
Neil Doyle
CITY FOR CONQUEST is one of those dated Warner Bros. melodramas from the '40s that gives JAMES CAGNEY another of his pugnacious fighter roles and ANN SHERIDAN is all career minded and good intentions while she is romanced by Cagney. ARTHUR KENNEDY does a standout job as Cagney's composer brother with his eye on the big time concert halls.The tale of New Yorkers with dreams shattered is briskly directed by Anatole Litvak but borders on the melodramatic at every turn. It does give Max Steiner a chance to compose a symphony (supposedly by Arthur Kennedy) that adds some conviction to the story of an ambitious composer.Sheridan and Cagney do nothing here that they haven't done countless times before in other Warner melodramas, with Sheridan alternating between tough and tender with her self-confident charm and Cagney showing the more sensitive side of his character whenever the script calls for it. The main trouble is the lumbering script, which reaches a climax with the big fight scene and then limps painfully toward a slow moving conclusion.It's strange to see upcoming director ELIA KAZAN doing nicely in a supporting role, along with DONALD CRISP, FRANK McHUGH, GEORGE TOBIAS, ANTHONY QUINN, FRANK CRAVEN, LEE PATRICK and THURSTON HALL but there's an uneven mix of boxing and music that somehow doesn't jell into a satisfying enough melodrama. The ending is sure to pull on the heartstrings but seems a bit contrived. Sheridan goes through the entire film lovingly photographed with tear-stained close-ups as she gazes at Cagney, never more so than at the end. Their last scene together is little more than a compilation of clichés.Not one of my favorite melodramas from the Warner mill.Typical line of '40s dialog from Ann Sheridan: "It's just like running through a dark alley and suddenly coming out in warm sunlight."
edwagreen
Terrific 1940 film where the great James Cagney does it again in giving a memorable performance. This time it's as a fighter who goes into boxing so that his brother, Arthur Kennedy, can fulfill a musical career as well as an escape for girl friend, Ann Sheridan, ditching him for a dancing career with Anthony Quinn, a real cad if there ever were.The film has a tremendous supporting cast and all do a fine job in showing what movie making should be.Future director, Elia Kazan, is in fine form as a mobster, a product of a rough childhood environment. In seeing Kazan here, I wonder what his acting career would have been like had he not chosen to go behind the camera.The aspect of N.Y. life is wonderfully shown by the upper class of musical life, life on the lower east side as well as the boxing center of sports. How they interact in this film is so well memorably accomplished.As a boxing magnate, I thought that the usual erudite Donald Crisp would be miscast. How wrong I was. He evoked much sympathy in trying to protect his fighter-Cagney.A truly memorable film. This is a heck of a movie classic.
