Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

edwagreen Utterly ridiculous and ultimately a bad movie with James Cagney, George Tobias, Ann Sheridan and others.As a revolutionary, Tobias turns the tables on the chief of police twice by devising the same exact trip.As the executive of a fruit company, Pat O'Brien gets Cagney to remain to manage things as current manager, Jerome Cowan, proves himself to be inept. In the meantime, Cowan's wife constantly throws herself at Cagney. This all changes when Sheridan, a nightclub singer, comes to town, but is immediately harassed by the O'Brien character.Throughout this mess, Cagney and Sheridan fall in and out of harmony.There is the usual shootout with Tobias and his fiery band of revolutionaries.

blanche-2 Even in comparison to today, when films shoot on location, Warner Brothers' tropical set looks like the tropics. It's not distracting; I'm thinking of the obvious painted backdrop in the last scene of "Treasure Island." In 1940's "Torrid Zone," Pat O'Brien is Steve Case, who manages the Banana Company in the Caribbean. His life has been no game since his co-worker, Nick Butler (Cagney) left to take a job in Chicago and continually sends him mocking telegrams - collect.He needs Nick to take over one of the plantations, so he makes a deal with him - just work for two weeks. Nick agrees; the money will be useful.There are also troubles with the rebel Rosario (George Tobias), who is on a hunger strike. The prison is afraid that he'll die before they can shoot him. Steve says, then just shoot him now. But Rosario escapes.Then there is Lee Donley, an earthy, sexy nightclub singer whom Steve wants on a ship bound for the U.S. She doesn't want to go and tells Steve "The stork who brought you must have been a vulture." Lee meets Nick, and sparks fly. Nick meanwhile has a flirtation with the wife Gloria (Helen Vinson) of a former manager Bob Anderson (Jerome Cowan). Lee ends up staying at their house and walks in on a kiss between Nick and the wife. There's a lit cigarette on the floor. Lee picks it up. "I believe Chicago fire started in a very similar manner," she says. "The Chicago fire was started by a cow," an aggravated Gloria says. Lee remarks, "History repeats itself." You just can't beat dialogue like that, and that's one of the things that makes "Torrid Zone" so much fun. Cagney, O'Brien, and Sheridan are all known commodities, with Sheridan at the top of her game, sparring with both Cagney and O'Brien, looking great, and doing her own singing. When she has to be serious and heartbroken, she is.Even Rosario's impending death is handled with some humor.Very good and recommended, a real treat from Warners.

writers_reign This movie was made right in the heart of the period when Hollywood was using one road-tested plot and just switching location and names and the fact that Jerry Wald - widely believed to be the prototype for Sammy Glick in Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run- is credited as producer adds credence as Wald was noted for 'stealing' ideas, plots, and/or anything that wasn't nailed down. Other posters have viewed this as The Front Page in drag but I find more parallels with the previous year's Only Angels Have Wings; tropical setting, incompetent professional (Cowan, Barthelmess) married to joint love interest (Vinson, Hayworth), 'adventuress' (Arthur, Sheridan) allowed to remain only on sufferance, plus outside factors (bandits, weather) affecting the efficiency of US-owned interests (bananas, mail). Hawks' movie had a classier cast - Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell - than Keithley's and overall was the classier movie but Torrid Zone gives almost as good as it gets and should not be dismissed lightly.

B&W-2 This remake of "The Front Page" is an improvement, as far as I'm concerned. The combination of Wald/Macaulay and the Warner Brothers stock company is sure-fire ("They Drive By Night"!) Ann Sheridan is vivacious as a trodden-upon showgirl, singing "My Caballero" and trading vicious quips with the scheming O'Brien and the dynamic Cagney. Special mention must go to George Tobias, one of the funniest character actors of the studio age, who plays Rosario, the guerilla leader sentenced to death "just because I shoot a man..."