Great Guy (1936)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Overrated and overhyped

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

James Cagney is Johnny Cave, a man who's given a job as head of the Bureau of Weights and Measures due to his boss being hospitalized.As usual Cagney is our "tough guy" - this time one of the good guys out to get those that run a scam by cheating people out of product and money: like adding lead weights inside whole chickens, adding weight to strawberry baskets, not giving them all their sugar in a bag nor all the gas they've paid for (example: if you pay for 5 gallons of gas you will only get 4 gallons) -- Cagney will bust them and is after the big man at the top of the scamming ring making all the dough.It's not a bad film - it's just kinda weird but enjoyable in it's way.5/10

With having been in the mood for the last week or so for an easy-going Film Noir,I decided,that due to having had a fun time seeing James Cagney combine espionage and Kung-Fu in the fun Blood on the Sun a while ago,that I would take a look at a Film Noir,that was Cagney's first indie production.The plot:Rushing to the hospital after hearing that Department of Weights & Measures head Joel Green has been hurt in a car crash,Weights & Measures officer Johnny 'Red' Cave is happy to find his boss alive,but is horrified to hear from Joel that he strongly suspects the 'accident' was an attempted mob hit. Realizing that he is going to be stuck to hospital for weeks on end,Green tells Johnny that he is officially making him head of the department.Deciding to show the gangsters which gang is really in charge,Cave begins going around the mob-run businesses and closing down all of the shady operations taking place on the premises. (which include chickens being filled with lead,so that the customer has to pay more when they are weighed on the scales.) Originally hoping that those in power would support his shakedown,Johnny soon discovers that the mob have their Weights & Measures going on in areas that he could never have guessed.View on the film:Leaving Warner Brothers behind due to feeling that he was getting nothing but the same scripts,James Cagney gives a good lively performance,but one which appears to be not stretching Cagney's (very good) acting ability to any great measure. Reuniting with Cagney after having a grape fruit whacked in her face,the very pretty Mae Clarke gives a delightful performance as Janet Henry,with Clarke showing Henry to be the only person who is attempting to keep Cave safely away from the mob.For the screenplay of the movie,writers James Edward Grant,Henry Johnson,Henry McCarthy and Harry Ruskin take their Film Noir in a terrifically off-beat direction,with the writers showing the Department for Weights & Measures to act more like the cops than the cops themselves ever do. Complimenting the off-beat Film Noir nature,the writers also give the title an extremely playful comedic streak which wraps round the movie on its sharp final note,as the mob discover what a great guy Johnny 'Red' Cave really is.

Just saw this movie for the first time last night and I really enjoyed it. It's not every day you see a film about the Weights and Measures investigator. I got to tell ya, even watching Cagney in this B movie was completely enjoyable. These movies are a lot different when the lead actor shows up to act the walls off the place. He is 100% believable from start to finish and it really ups the value and watch-ability of the film.My favorite scenes are his Investigation scenes. The film has several twists which are nice and some fun action scenes. Pretty intense fight scene at the end between Cagney and one of the bad guys. The two stuntmen were really duking it out.

It's fun to watch a young James Cagney doing his thing. He plays the cheapskate Weights and Measures guy who takes his job very seriously, stepping on the toes of a group of crooked politicians. He is offered the world, but keeps his integrity. He is beaten and set up, but that's the problem. We never know if he is really in danger. They say he's in a spot, but still seems to have carte blanche to move around and do what he needs to do. At times he's so cocky he doesn't do much to protect himself. His allies are in the police department but just about everything else is pretty corrupt. He perseveres (almost too good to be true), of course, and we pull for him. The problem for me is a lack of sustained suspense. It would have been much better if he had had to clear his name. He never drops into the depths, even when rejected by his wife to be. It's still fun with the bad guys kind of imploding. See it just to watch Cagney do his tough guy posturing.