Great Guy ** (1936, James Cagney, Mae Clarke, James Burke) – Classic Movie Review 7620

James Cagney is the great guy here all right in director John G Blystone’s overly cost-conscious 1936 Great Guy [aka Pluck of the Irish], an independent production from poverty row studio Grand National Pictures, with the star working away from Warner Bros, the studio that made him a legend. It was Cagney’s first film in nearly a year because of litigation after the termination of his contract at Warner Bros.

Alas, though, it is not a great movie. The public of the day was disappointed because of the lower production values and recognised a cheap B-movie when it saw it. And the public had been encouraged to expect something different and new, but instead got the same old Cagney except at a lower voltage than usual in a humdrum, though peculiar tale with weird casting for Cagney as Johnny Cave, an incorruptible weights and measures inspector, fighting meat-trade corruption in New York.

The Department of Weights and Measures is up against a plot to cheat the public in a scam organised by crooked city alderman Marty Cavanaugh (Robert Gleckler).

Mae Clarke plays Johnny’s girlfriend Janet Henry, innocently working for a racketeer called Abel Canning (Henry Kolker) here, but previously was the woman into whose face Cagney infamously shoved a grapefruit in The Public Enemy (1931).

Also in the cast are James Burke, Edward Brophy, Bernadene Hayes, Edward J MacNamara, Joe Sawyer, Edward Gargan, Matty Fain, Mary Gordon, Wallis Clark, Douglas Wood, Jeffrey Sayre, Eddy Chandler and Arthur Hoyt.

It was made at RKO-Pathé Studios, 9336 Washington Blvd, Culver City, California.

Great Guy [Pluck of the Irish] is directed by John G Blystone, runs 66 minutes, is made by Zion Meyers Productions, is released by Grand National Pictures, is written by Henry McCarty, Henry Johnson and Harry Ruskin, based on the story The Johnny Cave Stories by James Edward Grant, is shot in black and white by Jack McKenzie, is produced by Douglas Maclean, and is scored by Marlin Skiles.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7620

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