Johnny Eager (1941)

That was an excellent one.

So much average

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Parolee John Eager (Robert Taylor) has everybody fooled that he's gone straight and is trying to make an honest living as a taxi driver. In reality, Eager hasn't given up his criminal life at all. He's still a racketeer and he's working to open up a new dog track but is finding opposition from a vigilant district attorney (Edward Arnold). Eager starts dating pretty society girl Lisbeth (Lana Turner). When he finds out she's the stepdaughter of the D.A., he tries to use his relationship with Lisbeth as leverage against her stepfather.Glossy crime drama from MGM with some film noir touches. Love the dialogue and the cast is terrific. This is one of my favorite Robert Taylor performances. Far more enjoyable to me than all of those sappy romantic melodramas from the '30s. Edward Arnold, of course, can do no wrong. Lana Turner looks gorgeous (no surprise) and does fine in a role that requires little from her but to be a naive lovestruck young woman. Van Heflin plays Taylor's cynical alcoholic friend who has many of the movie's best lines. He's the scene stealer in this, by the way, and deservedly won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. As with any old movie where there's a close male friendship, many reviewers read into it things that may or may not have been intended. Watch it and decide for yourself. The rest of the cast is full of great actors. Just take a gander at the cast list for this and you'll see how much talent was involved here. It's really a quality movie with a solid script, good characters, and a powerful ending.

No need to recap the plot. The glamour studio MGM shows here why it made so few gangster films. The emphasis throughout is on polish instead of grit. The resplendent Taylor does a decent enough job as a tough guy, while Turner provides enough eye candy to bankrupt Hershey's. Too bad she's largely wasted. But the narrative clearly prefers parlor room plotting to barroom savvy. That would be okay if there were more atmosphere, but director LeRoy films in uninspired fashion conveying little sense of evil. The story merely unfolds without engaging.Notice, however, how indifferent pretty boy Taylor is to the women who flock around him. Notice too how attached the generally useless Heflin is to Taylor and vice-versa. In my book, there's a subtle homosexual connection here that's not accidental and pretty daring for the times. Check out their last few scenes together if you think this is a stretch. All in all, the movie's for fans of Taylor who want to catch him in tough guy mode. But as a gangster film, it's a long way from Warner Bros.'s brand of compelling moxie.

Robert Taylor (as Johnny Eager) is a racketeer on parole; he is posing an honest taxi driver, but actually runs a successful criminal organization. His companion is Van Heflin (as Jeff Hartnett), an unrequited love-struck alcoholic. Adversarial district attorney Edward Arnold (as John Benson Farrell) has a tempting step-daughter, luscious Lana Turner (as Liz Bard), who complicates life considerably. Mr. Taylor is charismatic as gangster "Johnny Eager" and Ms. Turner is lovely as "Liz"… Van Heflin (as Jeff Hartnett) is the actor and performer to watch in this film. Every time he is on camera, Heflin is riveting - whether in the background, staring into space; or, when seen in close-up, crying his eyes out. Moreover, he never overplays his hand, or goes "over the top"; instead, he makes the absolute most out of a delicious role. In an otherwise routine production, Heflin delivers an unfolding, landmark supporting performance.Nothing is quite as good as Heflin's performance in "Johnny Eager", but Taylor's drunken crashing of the "poker party" makes the second half much more entertaining than the first half of the gangster story. Lana Turner watchers should know her clothing choices get sexier during the film's running time. Still, keep an eye on Heflin's "Jeff" - by the end of the film, he is unquestionably Taylor's "leading man". ******* Johnny Eager (12/9/41) Mervyn LeRoy ~ Robert Taylor, Van Heflin, Lana Turner

I saw this when I was 7 years old and immediately fell in love with Lana Turner. 60 years later the film is slightly dated, and my infatuation faded as I saw some of her later "turkeys". But I disagree with the commentator who found Van Heflin's performance unconvincing. I felt him compelling, his obvious intellectual superiority to Robert Taylor giving nice counterpoint.Taylor, whom I often find wooden, acted well and the film is satisfying. Maybe it is not in the same class as some of Humphrey Bogart's of that era, but there are moments, and Edward Arnold is impressive, particularly his repeated address to Taylor as "Thief". The story is convincing and well paced. The ending reflects the mood in the USA of that period:- that "Crime Does Not Pay"