James Cagney: Signature Collection DVD | Crime

Film Description

Seven films starring the Hollywood legend, James Cagney. Features The Public Enemy, White Heat, The Roaring Twenties, The Fighting 69th, The Bride Came C.O.D, Torrid Zone and The West Point Story.

In 'The Public Enemy' (1931) two boys (Cagney and Edward Woods) graduate from the slums to petty crime and eventually gangsterhood. This was the role which launched Cagney to stardom and contains the famous scene in which he pushes a grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face.

In 'White Heat' (1949) Cody Jarrett (Cagney) leads his gang to a mountain hideaway after a mail coach robbery ends with four men dead. The T-men are on his trail, mob cohort Big Ed (Steve Cochran) is after control of the gang and the affections of his wife (Virginia Mayo), but Cody remains fixated on the well-being of his Ma (Margaret Wycherly).

In 'The Roaring Twenties' (1939), three servicemen return from WWI to Prohibition-era New York, and end up running a bootlegging operation. Eddie Bartlett (Cagney) is ostensibly in charge of the business, with George Hally (Humphrey Bogart) his second-in-command, and Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn) his 'legal' advisor. However, Hally's ambition gets the better of him and he sets out to double-cross his erstwhile friends, in a power struggle that spans the decade.

'The Fighting 69th' (1940) is a classic, propagandist war film set in the trenches of World War I following the famous 69th Irish regiment of Rainbow Division. Cagney plays a brash new recruit whose rebelliousness causes tragedy but he discovers his patriotism after being given a second chance.

In 'The Bride Came C.O.D' (1941) Cagney stars as charter pilot Steve Collins, a man who is desperate to make some money. When Steve's latest charter is rich heiress Joan Winfield (Bette Davis) who, against her father's wishes, is heading to Vegas to marry her less than suitable boyfriend, he is happy to assist her disapproving father by pretending to kidnap the heiress in return for a hefty sum of money. However, when the plane is forced to land in a remote town, Steve and Joan find themselves growing closer.

In 'Torrid Zone' (1940) ruthless banana plantation boss, Steve Case (Pat O'Brien), uses every method possible to try and lure back former employee, Nick Butler (Cagney). Nick agrees to return, but only for a few weeks. Upon his return Nick has to deal with the affections of a married woman, an escaped revolutionary who is recruiting plantation workers and his feelings for singer Lee Donley (Ann Sheridan) who is on the run from Case.

In 'The West Point Story' (1950) Cagney plays an out of work Broadway musical director, Elwin 'Bix' Bixby, who takes a job staging a play at a military academy which was written by cadet Tom Fletcher (Gordon McRae). Bix is keen on the job as he thinks Tom's show could be a Broadway success. First, however, he must endure the strict military rules at the academy and after getting into a fight with a cadet, winds up becoming a cadet himself. To add to his troubles he must then go after Tom when he runs off to Hollywood with one of the stars of the show, Jan Wilson (Doris Day).