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Friday, May 16, 2008

CITY FOR CONQUEST (1940)


Faux Clifford Odets meets faux Gershwin in Anatole Litvak ’s full-rigged boxing drama. James Cagney is the regular guy who doesn’t like the fight game, but he’s a natural & gets in to support his musician kid brother (Arthur Kennedy) & his too ambitious dancer girlfriend (Ann Sheridan). It’s all hopelessly corny, but if you can make it through the ghastly prologue (Frank Craven’s philosopher bum keeps turning up like a bad penny), there’s an unusually flavorsome cast -- Donald Crisp, Frank McHugh, Jerome Cowan, Elia Kazan in his best acting gig, George Tobias, Anthony Quinn -- all with neat character bits to chew on. And Cagney, especially after he loses the big fight and his sight, is really something.

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