Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

All 4 of the films starring Jimmy Cagney released in 1933 are worth seeing for Cagney fans. Besides this one, that includes "The Mayor of Hell", "The Picture Snatcher" and "Footlight Parade". The last is primarily a musical, with Jimmy hoofing it a bit, in preparation for his staring role in "Yankee Doodle Dandy", a decade later. The others are not hard-core gangster pictures, although there is some gangster element in each. This one has the most gangster element of these. Jimmy accidentally gets involved with a crooked cards ring which graduates to house burglaries, and which won't let him alone when he tries to go straight. There's a good measure of humor involved. One striking example is when Hollywood star Lois(Margaret Lindsay), Jimmy's recent girlfriend, teasingly asks for a barrel of monkeys for her birthday. Jimmy takes her literally and brings a cage full of capuchins to her elaborate birthday party. Somebody opens their cage, and they quickly take over the party, destroying things, making a mess of the cake, dropping light bulbs on people's heads etc.. Hilarious for the audience and Jimmy, but a disaster for Lois. Surprisingly, she was shown relaxing with Jimmy at some later date. She wasn't on speaking terms with him after he brought her to his home and discovered Myra(Mae Clarke) on his bed. Myra was the moll for his old NYC gang who had come with him from NYC to LA. Jimmy thought he had bribed them to vacate the LA region, but they were back. When Myra refused to leave, he dragged her by the hair to the door, then booted her into the hall, throwing her over-stuffed suitcase out, which opened to scatter the contents around. Soon after this incident, Jimmy, who was now a Hollywood star, and Lois were forced to kiss for a film. Afterwards, Lois returned to her hostile attitude, and pushed Jimmy into the fountain pool behind him. He thought it was funny.Now that Jimmy was a Hollywood star, his old gang pestered him to invite one of them to Hollywood parties, so they could check out the house for burglary. Of course, Jimmy didn't want to get involved, but they blackmailed him. Eventually, they targeted Lois's house, stealing some jewelry. Jimmy surprised the gang when they returned to their hideout and took the jewels at gun point, intending to return them to Lois. However, the police were outside the door, having been tipped off where they were hiding, and caught Jimmy with the goods, the others escaping out the window and fire escape. Jimmy was held in jail pending his trial, but both Lois and Myra volunteered to pay his steep bail. Myra got there first, but Jimmy was very suspicious why the gang would bail him out. He arranged for a police detail to follow the car containing the gang, which followed the car with him and Myra. I leave the result of this car chase for you to find out. Jimmy's relationships with both Myra and Lois had big ups and downs, you never were sure what their attitude would be next. Clearly, Lois was cast as a "good" girl and Myra as a "bad" girl. But which was more appropriate for Jimmy? The second half of this film is definitely more interesting than the first half. In the beginning, Jimmy is being fired from his job as a theater usher, for various transgressions. He picks up a purse dropped by a woman and takes it to her address. It's Myra. He becomes aware of a card game by several men in her apartment, and joins, losing all his money. On the way out, he encounters a man returning a dropped pocketbook of Myra's. Pretty soon, another man comes calling with another dropped purse belonging to Myra. Jimmy smells a racket, and demands to be included in the gang or he will go to the police. Under Jimmy's recommendation, they start robbing houses, then use their "earnings" to buy a nightclub and casino. They seem to be doing well with that business, and gain information about wealthy clients as potential robbery victims. Seems to me, if their casino business is doing well, why risk a jail sentence continuing to do criminal things that attract the police? Perhaps they didn't think they would be caught, and wanted more riches, or perhaps they would miss the challenges involved. In any case, when a butler died from a blow, Jimmy decided it was time to quit this racket, and relocated to LA, where he was eventually tapped for movie stardom, with his rugged looks and thin moustache. Seems the public was weary of handsome matinée idols as leading men.

Roy Del Ruth directed this gangster comedy as Jimmy Cagney plays a recently fired movie usher named Dan, who ends up with criminals, learning their ways, but who takes the rap for one of their crimes, and goes on the run to Hollywood where he becomes a famous movie star, attracting the attentions of his old associates who want in on the action, or they'll expose him... Mae Clarke plays his love interest, and has an amusing scene that reminds you of the famous "grapefruit" sequence from "The Public Enemy". Good Cagney Performance, but film isn't particularly funny as comedy, and overly familiar as a gangster picture. Innocuous and mostly forgettable.

The early James Cagney comedy "Lady Killer" chronicles the life of fast-talking grafter Dan Quigley from nobody to somebody. Dan (Cagney) starts out as an obnoxious dice slinging, usher at a Warner Brothers' studio. After he is fired him for insubordination, Dan stumbles into the illegal gambling racket. He retrieves a purse that a beautiful young lady has left in the Randolph Hotel. Dan takes the purse to the lady and finds himself participating in a penny ante poker. Predictably, Spade Maddock (Douglass Dumbrille of "Female") and his henchmen Smiley (Russell Hopton of "Car 99"), Pete (Raymond Hatton of "Motorcycle Gang"), and Duke (Leslie Fenton of "The Public Enemy"), fleece Dan, but he gets wise to them when he encounters another man looking for Myra's hotel room. Dan uncovers the fleece and blackmails them into letting him join them. Later, he crashes his car deliberately into a wealthy woman's limo so he can access to her mansion and then relays information about her valuable possessions to his larcenous cronies. Things take a turn for the worse when a goon in Dan's outfit, Duke, clobbers an innocent maid harder than necessary. News about the maid's condition prompts Dan's gang to split and he runs for it. Eventually, our protagonist lands a job as an extra at a Hollywood studio. As it happens, the studio is searching for a new matinée idol, and Dan finds himself living high, wide, and handsome. Nevertheless, he hasn't forgotten that his former accomplices, Myra Gale (Mae Clarke), Spade, Smiley, Pete, and Duke left him in the lurch and stole the $5-thousand for his bail bond. Dan manages to get out of jail, but the local authorities aren't happy with him. They promise him 30 days in the slammer if he doesn't find a job. One day a film talent scout (William Davidson of "Seven Sinners") runs Dan down. Dan suspects the talent scout as detectives sent to arrest him so he runs from them. Bumping into a beat cop, Dan finds himself cornered by the talent scouts and he receives an invitation to an open casting call. Dan embarks on the new career and we watch him as he goes from a hard-knuckled escaped convict with a deadly right cross to a romantic leading man." "Golddiggers of Broadway" director Roy Del Ruth has fashioned a snappy, lighthearted, urbane saga that provides some hilarious behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood and gives Cagney a legitimate reason to brandish a revolver. The turning point of the film occurs after Cagney's old girlfriend Myra catches up with him. She makes an unexpected appearance at his Hollywood apartment. It doesn't help their enmity that Dan is showing off to leading lady Lois Underwood (Margaret Lindsay of "British Intelligence") how he has redecorated his pad. Presumably, the villains didn't waste their money on movies. Anyway, the gang follows Myra back after Dan banishes her from his presence. Dan gives them his entire fortune to leave him alone. Trouble is they take his money and stick around after they'd agreed to leave town. Dan is furious because they have stolen some of Lois' jewelry. He takes a gun and confronts Spade and the others about the robbery. He takes Lois' jewelry at gunpoint but as he is backing out the door, the police arrest him! This is one of the few Pre-Codes where you see the gangsters wielding Tommy guns, and the final quarter of the action is as hot as anything in Cagney's later blockbuster "G-Men." Clocking in at 76 minutes, Cagney's fifteenth movie is terrific, especially the scene were the monkeys run wild at a Hollywood starlet's party.

Lady Killer (1933) *** (out of 4) James Cagney plays a movie usher who gets fired and then gets mixed up with some gangster being led by Douglas Dumbrille and Margaret Lindsay. Soon a crime goes wrong so Cagney runs off to Hollywood where he starts work as an extra but quickly becomes a movie star. This is an enjoyable little comedy that works pretty well as a spoof of Hollywood and it gives Cagney a chance to make fun of his own image. Cagney is very good in his role, which once again shows him as a cocky, high tempered thug but there's also other moments including Cagney playing an Indian as well as showing off his comic side. Mae Clarke plays Cagney's love interest in Hollywood and the two are very good together with that infamous scene of Cagney dragging her across the floor by her hair. Both Lindsay and Dumbrille add nice support in their roles. One of the film's highlights is when Cagney orders two dozen monkeys to a party where they escape and cause all sorts of trouble. There's also plenty of nice gags aimed at Hollywood and directors. The film starts to run out of steam during the final act but if you're a fan of Cagney or films of this era then this is certainly worth checking out.