JOHNNY EAGER (1941)

Second of the ‘JOHNNY’ mob pics. (APOLLO was first; then this, with ANGEL, ALLEGRO and O’CLOCK to follow; then, a parody, JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY/’84). EAGER is pretty out there as big-budget M-G-M releases go, with a screwy double-helix sort of plot and a panting bromance for tough guy Robert Taylor and intellectual sidekick Van Heflin. (Respectively, unknowing & half-knowing, it threatens to tip over into something positively physical.) Taylor’s a former mob boss, now on parole and keeping his nose clean by driving a hack. Except he’s really back running his old gang, working the angles to open his new doggie racetrack worth half a mill. Typical sideline for a cabbie, no? Heck, who’s going to notice a little racetrack in town? And so damned handsome every gal tosses her house-key at him. That would include an already engaged Lana Turner, daughter to Edward Arnold, the lawyer who put Johnny behind bars. Too bad Johnny doesn’t know what tru-love is; he’s just setting up Turner for a bit of blackmail so Papa will sign a waiver on the racetrack. Heflin, there to keep things running smoothly, is soused all the time, channeling thwarted passion into a bottle. Not that any of this is mentioned! But oh!, those close-up male-bonding two-shots. Yikes! And it all might have come off, if only rival gangs hadn’t felt cut out of the action; or if Johnny hadn’t noticed that he’d fallen for Lana . . . for real. It’s pretty entertaining trash. And if director Mervyn LeRoy doesn’t pay enough attention to his angles on the action stuff, he does gets cinematographer Harold Rosson to put out some snazzy, atmospheric cityscape backgrounds. Enough dramatic shadows & subway lights pulsating thru the tracks to camouflage a multitude of narrative nonsense.

DOUBLE-BILL: Henry Hathaway’s JOHNNY APOLLO/’40, first & best of the ‘JOHNNYs,’ with Tyrone Power, Dorothy Lamour and this film’s Edward Arnold. OR: Check out the plot pilfering from A FREE SOUL/’31 (for the romance) and THE ROARING TWENTIES/’39 (for the finale). (all three films, see below)