Very well executed

Awesome Movie

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The first thing I suggest you do before watching this film is to read the Wikipedia article about Jim Fisk -- the subject of this film. On the one hand, this is a fairly entertaining "biopic". On the other hand, it's highly fictionalized...accurate enough to recognize that it is the story of Jim Fisk, but why they didn't just tell the true story and also make it accurate, I don't know...well, actually I do know, because the character played by Frances Farmer was, in real life, a fat prostitute; after all, this picture was made in 1937. But, nevertheless, it's an interesting film, though hardly one you'll want to watch more than once.Edward Arnold plays Jim Fisk, does it nicely, and actually looks a bit like the real Fisk.Cary Grant gets second billing here as his partner; some of our reviewers seem stunned that Grant didn't get top billing, but the year this was made -- 1937 -- was the year that Grant established himself as a lead actor. The film he made just before this one was the great "Topper", and right after this one the equally entertaining "The Awful Truth". After "The Awful Truth", Grant would never again take second billing. He's interesting here, and somehow his performance reminds me a tad of how he presented himself in "The Howards Of Virginia".I really hadn't noticed Frances Farmer in any films before this one, and I can't say I was particularly impressed. Jack Oakie is along as another of Fisk's confederates; he's mildly entertaining here. Similarly, Donald Meek plays Daniel Drew, an unwilling confederate of Fisk, although in real life, Fisk worked for Drew. Clarence Kolb plays himself as Cornelius Vanderbilt. Billy Gilbert is interesting in a small role as a portrait photographer.In some ways interesting, but this film is no great shakes. It's okay for one viewing, and in reality, Edward Arnold has the most interesting role here.

This makes for interesting viewing in the wake of Martin Scorsese's THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (2013), even if I only intend checking that one out in time for the Oscar ceremony next month! It is the biopic of 19th century American financier Jim Fisk – a larger-than-life Edward Arnold – who rose to prominence from nothing but ultimately grew too big for his boots.The film has a nice period flavour, punctuated by the initial comedy sense of Fisk's petty swindles (done in cahoots with partners Cary Grant and Jack Oakie). Their fortunes turn during the Civil War, but Fisk's ambitions are set too high (taking on mild-mannered tycoon Donald Meek and Clarence Kolb as the famed Cornelius Vanderbilt) and his ruthless tactics certainly do not endear him to rivals and 'victims'. Eventually, Grant himself steps out to oppose him: though this has just as much to do with his personal feelings towards Fisk's girlfriend (played by the tragic Frances Farmer) – whom he at first frowns upon but then falls for (when pushed by Fisk himself to take care of her for him, while he is busy making more money for the two of them!).The whole is typical Hollywood entertainment of the era, the heyday of the biopics (though Warners had cornered the market in this field, the film under review is an RKO production) – even if the subject matter proves necessarily heavy-going to the casual viewer. The sheer professionalism with which this is made also extends to the bit parts – which, surprisingly yet very amusingly, include two of the most likable foils in the classic comedies of Laurel & Hardy, namely Billy Gilbert as a flustered (what else?) photographer and James Finlayson (curiously unbilled) as one of the myriad inventors who turn up at Fisk's firm hoping to be financed.

If Jim Fisk were alive and operating today, he'd be on television and would run that well known introvert Donald Trump right off the tube with bad ratings. It's how that colorful fellow operated, never did anything in a small way.Though the film has taken a great deal of liberty with the facts as has been pointed out by other reviewers, the essence of the man has been quite accurately captured by Edward Arnold. Also the characters of Uncle Dan'l Drew and Cornelius Vanderbilt are finely etched by Donald Meek and Clarence Kolb respectively.It's quite true that Fisk got the start of his fortune by running contraband cotton out of the South, taking advantage of the fact that the one crop Confederacy couldn't export its crop because of the Union blockade. I'm sure that things were pretty hairy for Fisk as well as for his fictional partners Cary Grant and Jack Oakie.Josie Mansfield as played by Frances Farmer was certainly not the first or last entertainer to take advantage of the attentions of a wealthy man. That was certainly demonstrated more accurately in Love Me or Leave Me by Doris Day as Ruth Etting. She was not as nice as Farmer and the script made her.Frances Farmer in her memoirs said that while the film was not the type of material she was looking to do, she did enjoy working with Cary Grant who was to her as he appears on screen.Though his efforts to control the gold market got him his most notoriety, they were not responsible for Fisk's demise. In fact the film's most glaring factual error was the omission of Fisk's partner in that enterprise, Jay Gould.By the way Gould was in personal habits the exact opposite of Fisk. He was a rather sober, responsible family man who had no real vices of any kind other than greed. The second big factual error was in that in the gold cornering scheme Fisk and Gould sought to gain influence in the Grant White House through hooking Ulysses Grant's brother-in-law, Abel R. Corbin in the move. That part did not work.Nevertheless Edward Arnold in the title role gives a grand portrayal of a most colorful character from The Gilded Age.

Great film - starts out as a whimsical joyride and ends with a thought-provoking meditation on the evils of greed. Arnold is grand as the larger than life huckster turned Wall Street whiz. Farmer is his temptation (she actually stars in a musical by that name in the movie) and boy does Arnold take the bait. Unusual mix of biblical imagery and slapstick, but it all holds together. One point of interest - Arnold and Farmer play almost exactly the same characters in another movie of that period - "Come and Get it"