James Cagney sure arrived at hollywood in a hurricane of strong roles. Here, he's the dance hall manager, and when it's time to award the prize contest money, his partner ran off with the cash. so now Lefty has to skip town and start over.... in another con man scheme. and to make it more complicated, he's dating the winner of the first dance contest. Co-stars Mary Brian, Claire Dodd, and mister Nasal, Allen Jenkins. keep an eye out for Sterling Holloway; he had done the voice of Winnie the Pooh (and other disney voices) for years. no-one here is good people... Mom Waters and her daughter keep skipping out on the rent, and Lefty chases after Ruth like a puppy dog, running cons all along the way. We are still in the depression in 1933, so I guess folks do what they gotta do to survive in hard times. Lefty comes up with one final scheme to solve all his problems... but can he pull it off in time? directed by Mervyn LeRoy. nominated for Random Harvest, although he worked on so many big films.... Gypsy, Wizard, Quo Vadis. Certainly interesting as an early Cagney role. the story itself is pretty good, too. partly written by Wilson Mizner, developer, story teller, adventurer.
Review of Hard to Handle
