

Acting
Cagney and Blondell's electric, improvisational spark.
Writing
Sizzling pre-code dialogue that somehow got past censors.
Direction
Del Ruth keeps 79 minutes tighter than a rigged roulette wheel.

Director
Roy Del Ruth
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Cagney and Blondell were Warner Bros. contract players thrown together repeatedly; their combustible chemistry was studio-exploited, not manufactured.
Released mere months before the Production Code enforcement began, this is pre-code Hollywood's death rattle—criminals unpunished, sex unapologetic, endings ambiguous.