Jeanne Cagney Movies

Adapting his own novel, Frank Gruber penned the screenplay for the A.C. Lyles production Town Tamer. Veteran filmmaker Leslie Selander directs an equally veteran cast in this high-action Western. After his wife is murdered, hired gun Tom Rosser (Dana Andrews) rides into town in search of revenge and justice. Two years later, the killers have become the corrupt town leaders: Marshall Lee Ring (Lyle Bettger) and saloon owner Riley Condor (Bruce Cabot). They are aided by the Marshall's sadist henchman Johnny Honsinger (Richard Jaeckel). Tom proceeds to clean up the town by engaging in constant shoot-outs and barroom brawls. Once he gets rid of the bad guys, he earns respect from Mayor Leach (Lon Chaney Jr.), Doctor Kent (Richard Arlen), and other townsfolk (Burton MacLane and Jeanne Cagney). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

In order to pass through Comanche territory, the stranded passengers of a West-bound wagon train must sell the Indians their rifles in this western from Carl Hittleman. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Sex symbol Marilyn Monroe went dramatic in 1952's Don't Bother to Knock. Monroe plays Nell Forbes, a beautiful but suicidal young woman, recently released from a mental institution. She doesn't mention this on her resumé when she takes a baby-sitting job in a posh hotel. Jed Towers (Richard Widmark), a hotel guest, tries to make time with Nell after his own girlfriend, played by Anne Bancroft, has told him to take a hike. As Nell and Jed neck on the couch, the little girl whom Nell is tending (Donna Corcoran) surprises the spooning couple. This drives the psychotic Nell over the edge, forcing Jed to try to keep the baby-sitter from killing both herself and the child. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mickey Rooney, with his kid roles and musicals behind him, went for a major change of image in this harrowing film noir. He gives what many consider to be the best performance of his career as Danny Brady, a well-meaning grease monkey whose life is destroyed in less than a week. Danny finds himself short of cash when he's supposed to take out Vera (Jeanne Cagney), a waitress whom he's just met who works at a hash-house. He borrows 20 dollars from the cash register, planning on paying it back with 20 dollars that a buddy owes him the next day, but the friend doesn't turn up. To get the 20 dollars, he buys a 100-dollar watch on a payment plan and then hocks it for the 20 dollars, but a detective picks up on the purchase and threatens to have him jailed if he doesn't pay the full 100 dollars immediately; desperate to raise the money, he robs a drunken bar patron of his bill-fold. His money problems seemingly behind him, Danny takes Vera out with the extra cash, but gets into a fight with her former boss, Nick (Peter Lorre), who picks up a clue that Danny did the robbery. Nick pressures Danny to provide him with a new car (a hard-to-get commodity in 1950) from the garage where he works, in return for keeping quiet. Danny steals the car and turns it over to Nick, but he and Vera decide to get even by robbing Nick's safe that night -- now they've got 3,600 dollars, which they split. But Danny's boss, Mackey, tells him he knows who stole the car, and wants either the car back or the full value, or he'll turn Danny in to the police. Vera has already blown her share on a mink coat, and he goes back to Mackey with what he has, 1,800 dollars. Mackey takes it and proceeds to call the police. Danny attacks him and leaves him for dead. Danny goes on the run, convinced he's wanted for Mackey's murder. Danny runs into Helen (Barbara Bates), a nice girl that he was dating and then dumped, and they end up fleeing together, hijacking a car and holding an innocent man at gunpoint. Impending tragedy seems to loom up even larger when they cross paths with police officers on a manhunt. Realizing that Helen has been good to him, he ends up on the run alone, with a gun in hand, as the law closes in. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Yankee Doodle Dandy is no more the true-life story of George M. Cohan than The Jolson Story was the unvarnished truth about Al Jolson -- but who the heck cares? Dandy has song, dance, pathos, pageantry, uproarious comedy, and, best of all, James Cagney at his Oscar-winning best. After several failed attempts to bring the life of legendary, flag-waving song-and-dance man Cohan to the screen, Warners scenarist Robert Buckner opted for the anecdotal approach, unifying the film's largely unrelated episodes with a flashback framework. Summoned to the White House by President Roosevelt, the aging Cohan is encouraged to relate the events leading up to this momentous occasion. He recalls his birth on the Fourth of July, 1878; his early years as a cocky child performer in his family's vaudeville act; his decision to go out as a "single"; his sealed-with-a-handshake partnership with writer/producer Sam Harris (Richard Whorf); his first Broadway success, 1903's Little Johnny Jones; his blissful marriage to winsome wife Mary (a fictional amalgam of Cohan's two wives, played by Joan Leslie -- who, incredibly, was only 17 at the time); his patriotic civilian activities during World War I, culminating with his writing of that conflict's unofficial anthem "Over There" (performed by Nora Bayes, as played by Frances Langford); the deaths of his sister, Josie (played by Cagney's real-life sister Jeanne), his mother, Nellie (Rosemary DeCamp), and his father, Jerry (Walter Huston); his abortive attempt to retire; and his triumphant return to Broadway in Rodgers & Hart's I'd Rather Be Right.

His story told, Cohan is surprised -- and profoundly moved -- when FDR presents him with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the first such honor bestowed upon an entertainer. His eyes welling up with tears, Cohan expresses his gratitude by invoking his old vaudeville curtain speech: "My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you." Glossing over such unsavory moments in Cohan's life as his bitter opposition of the formation of Actor's Equity -- not to mention George M.'s intense hatred of FDR! -- Yankee Doodle Dandy offers the George M. Cohan that people in 1942 wanted to see (proof of the pudding was the film's five-million-dollar gross). And besides, the plot and its fabrications were secondary to those marvelous Cohan melodies -- "Give My Regards to Broadway," "Harrigan," "Mary," "You're a Grand Old Flag," "45 Minutes from Broadway," and the title tune -- performed with brio by Cagney (who modifies his own loose-limbed dancing style in order to imitate Cohan's inimitable stiff-legged technique) and the rest of the spirited cast. Beyond its leading players, movie buffs will have a ball spotting the myriad of familiar character actors parading before the screen: S.Z. Sakall, George Tobias, Walter Catlett, George Barbier, Eddie Foy Jr. (playing his own father), Frank Faylen, Minor Watson, Tom Dugan, John Hamilton, and on and on and on. In addition to Cagney, music directors Ray Heindorf and Heinz Roemheld also won Oscars for their efforts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Billy Wilder was among the screenwriters of this easy-to-take Bing Crosby musical. Basil Rathbone dominates the proceedings as Oliver Courtney, a popular composer whose most successful tunes were actually ghost-written by musician Bob Summers (Crosby) and lyricist Cherry Lane (Mary Martin). Unaware of each other's existence at first, Bob and Cherry eventually discover that they've been duped by the pompous Courtney. They decide to break away from their employer and team up on their own, but the powerful Courtney manages to block their professional efforts. Ultimately, hero and heroine emerge triumphant, and Courtney is forced to help them get started on the road to success lest he be exposed as a charlatan. Piano prodigy Oscar Levant essays his first full-out comedy role as Courtney's sarcastic assistant, taking time out to poke fun at his own real-life phobias (in his memoirs, Levant recalled that he spent many a pleasant afternoon listening to the middle-aged Basil Rathbone discuss his digestive problems in vivid and eloquent detail!) None of the seven original songs in Rhythm on the River grew up to be hits, but the title tune did manage to get generous airplay thanks to Bing Crosby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

All Women Have Secrets affords a rare film starring role for James Cagney's talented sister Jeanne Cagney. Set on a college campus, the story concerns the trials and tribulations of married student John (Joseph Allen) and his pregnant wife Kay (Cagney). In addition to their existing financial woes, Kay faces dismissal from her nightclub singing job as her waistline expands. The "secret" refers to the fact that Kay has been withholding the fact that John is about to become a father , lest he offer to quit school to support them both. Some much-needed laughs are provided by Peter Lynd Hayes as the typical campus cutup. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide