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
James Cagney
Albert 'Bert' Harris
Joan Blondell
Anne Roberts
Louis Calhern
'Dapper Dan' Barker
Noel Francis
Helen Wilson
Ray Milland
Joe Reynolds
Guy Kibbee
A. Rupert Johnson Jr.
Polly Walters
Peggy
William Burress
Colonel Bellock
Maude Eburne
Mrs. Snyder
Nat Pendleton
Hank aka Pete
Wade Boteler
Detective (uncredited)
Richard Cramer
Cabbie (uncredited)
Bill Elliott
Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
Peter Erkelenz
Kansas City Dutch (uncredited)
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.
US
