The 1930s Films of James Cagney Quiz

Answer: Coney Island

"Sinner's Holiday" was based on a Broadway play called "Penny Arcade". It was the first of seven films Cagney made with Joan Blondell. The two had played the lead roles in the Broadway show.

Ma Delano, the character played by Lucille La Verne, operates a penny arcade at Coney Island, assisted by her three children, one of whom, Harry, is played by Cagney. Harry gets involved in a bootlegging operation disguised as a sideshow. Harry takes over the operation and ends up shooting the original owner. Ma Delano is inconsolable.

The movie is only an hour long.

Answer: A gangster's best friend

"The Doorway to Hell" was advertised as "the picture Gangland defied Hollywood to make". Cagney plays a gangster's friend who tries to take the fall for his buddy in a murder case. The Cagney character is having an affair with the gangster's fiancee, and agrees to "look after" the woman while the gangster is in prison.

Answer: Jack, an assistant barber

Nick transforms from a small-town barber into a slick gambler. Likewise, Jack (no last name) becomes his henchman. In the end, Nick and Jack get into a scuffle and Nick knocks Jack down, which doesn't seem too bad until it is revealed that Jack hit his head on a doorstop and is dead. Nick goes to prison. Boris Karloff plays an uncredited role; "Smart Money" was released four months before "Frankenstein".

Edward G. Robinson played the title role in "Little Caesar", which is considered an essential gangster film. Tom Powers was Cagney's role in 1931's "The Public Enemy".

Answer: I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles

The persistent use of "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" in "Public Enemy" is a leadup to the final scene, in which the song is playing as Cagney's brother's character opens his front door and the mummy-wrapped body of Tom Powers falls in.

Answer: Speaking Yiddish

Cagney grew up on the Lower East Side of New York, where he learned how to speak fluent Yiddish from his Jewish friends. Here, he interprets for an altercation between a flustered policeman and a frantic Jewish man.

Answer: Dances

Cagney began his professional life as a dancer, and one of his first gigs was as a chorus girl (!) in a vaudeville show called "Every Sailor". He later proved his dancing chops in other movies, including "Footlight Parade" and, of course, "Yankee Doodle Dandy".

Cagney's character, in addition to being a taxi driver, is an amateur dancer and often enters ballroom dancing contests, which he usually wins. His competition one nights includes an unbilled George Raft, who wins with his partner. Jimmy slugs him.

Answer: Bette Davis

"Jimmy the Gent" was a success at the box office, unlike Cagney and Davis's second picture, the dreadful 1941 "The Bride Came C.O.D.". Cagney plays Jimmy, who pretends to find heirs to dead people, but instead provides bogus heirs with whom he splits the money. He later sees the error of his ways.

Answer: Jujitsu

Cagney's character joins the FBI in response to the death of his friend, an FBI agent who was killed in action. He is better than his instructors in almost every class. Cagney also showed off his martial arts skills in the 1945 "Blood on the Sun", in which he uses judo to fight off an assailant.

In "G Men", Cagney's instructor explains that the use of leverage in jujitsu is "practically the same as in wrestling". The instructor is disdainful of Cagney's law degree and sneers, "I think I'll take charge of your training personally."

Some references show that the instructor is played by Lloyd Nolan, but this is not true. The instructor, Jeff McCord, was played by Robert Armstrong; Nolan played a fellow agent.

Several reference works mention Cagney being a black belt in judo.

Answer: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Cagney played Nick Bottom, the weaver whose head is turned into that of a donkey by the fairy Puck, played by Mickey Rooney. Other stars included Dick Powell and a radiant 18-year-old Olivia De Havilland.

Answer: A cowboy

Bogart played the bad guy, Whip McCord. As The Oklahoma Kid, Cagney is seen singing twice, both in peculiar scenes: In a saloon, he sings "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard", a children's song from 1894, and later begins singing "Rock-a-bye Baby" to an infant, beginning in English and continuing in Spanish.