Great Guy (1936)
Directed by John G. Blystone

Film Review

As he awaited the result of his lawsuit against Warner Brothers (for alleged breach of contract), James Cagney allowed Grand National Films to talk him into playing an atypical, sympathetic role in Great Guy, a break from his by now familiar gangster portrayals.  Cagney welcomed the change and appears surprisingly at ease playing a good guy, albeit one with an iron fist and the willingness to use it when the occasion demands.  Here, Cagney is again partnered with Mae Clarke, into whose face he famously pushed a grapefruit half in The Public Enemy (1931).

Great Guy was directed, competently but with noticeably less flair than Cagney's recent films at Warners, by John G. Blystone, who is better remembered for his Laurel and Hardy films, Block-Heads (1938) and Swiss Miss (1938).  Cagney subsequently starred in Grand National's Something to Sing About (1937).  Whilst both of these films were generally well-received by the critics, neither was a commercial success, and Grand National filed for bankruptcy before a third film, Dynamite, could be made.  Great Guy is a lesser film in Cagney's career, an engaging but pretty shallow inversion of a gangster film, with Cagney firmly on the side of the angels and petty bureaucrats.  Its main significance was that that it gave the actor the opportunity to show he could play a likeable character, allowing him to broaden his repertoire considerably over the following decade.

Film Synopsis

Former prize-fighter Johnny Cave takes his duties as an officer in the New York department of weights and measures seriously, too seriously for those who seek to profit by defrauding the public.  Cave's predecessor is lying in hospital, after a car accident arranged by his enemies.  Now Cave is on the receiving end of an intimidation campaign, orchestrated by the city's crooked alderman.  So committed is he to upholding the rule of law that Cave would rather give up his girlfriend than let his enemies off the hook...