MovieChat Forums > These Wilder Years (1956) Discussion > one of cagney's best performances

one of cagney's best performances

posted 9 years ago by whiskeyTango-06
3 replies | jump to latest

subtle and withdrawn, but perfectly effective as anything he ever did.

Agree - it's the performance of a lifetime.

I also think the chronology makes no sense and it detracts
somewhat from the story as a whole. Cagney by himself more
than makes up for it.

[–] davidjanuzbrown 9 years ago

It is not one of Cagney's best performances. Not because it was bad or even fair, but if you see movies like 'Each Dawn I Die', 'Yankee Doodle Dandy', 'Tribute To A Bad Man', 'White Heat', or 'The Public Enemy' you know what his best films were. Even when he was not featured ('Smart Money', 'Seven Little Foys', "Love Me Or Leave Me' 'The Millionaire, or 'The Doorway To Hell') he steals the movie. What makes the movie work is the relationship between Steve Bradford (Cagney), and Suzie (Betty Lou Keim). spoilers: What you expected was Steve would mend fences with his son, his son would be dead, he would end up with Ann Dempster (Barbara Stanwyck), or some combination of these. What I did not see but should have, because Suzie met Steve before Ann did, was he would end up adopting her, which would allow her to keep her baby.

[–] liscarkat (16469) 3 years ago

It most certainly was one of Cagney's best performances. Sure, he made quite a few movies in which he had excellent performances, but there's no limit to how many he could do. This was one of them. As far as expectations for the plot are concerned, I suspected and hoped from early on that Cagney's character would end up taking care of the girl and her baby. I never thought he was going to have a romance with Stanwyck's character.