Lady Killer (1933)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Roy Del Ruth

Writers:

Rosalind Keating Shaffer (story)
Ben Markson (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

9 December 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Is Hollywood howling ! at this inside story of The Screen Idol Who Threw -?- -?- -?- Out Of His -?- -?- -?- On Her -?- !

Plot:

When a movie theater usher is fired, he takes up with criminals and finds himself quite adept at various illegal activities...

Plot Keywords:

Police | Blackmail | Usher | Rehabilitation | Jail

Cast

James Cagney	...	Dan Quigley
Mae Clarke	...	Myra Gale
Margaret Lindsay	...	Lois Underwood
Leslie Fenton	...	Duke
Douglass Dumbrille	...	Spade Maddock (as Douglas Dumbrille)
Russell Hopton	...	Smiley
Raymond Hatton	...	Pete
Henry O'Neill	...	Ramick
Robert Elliott	...	Detective Joe Brannigan
Marjorie Gateson	...	Mrs. Marley
Willard Robertson	...	Detective Conroy
William B. Davidson	...	Director Williams (as William Davidson)
Douglas Cosgrove	...	Detective Jones

Also Known As:

Finger Man (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

76 min (Turner library print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Yiddish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Finland:(Banned) (1934) | Finland:K-16 (re-rating) (1940)

Filming Locations:

Cocoanut Grove Nightclub, Ambassador Hotel - 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

When Myra (Mae Clarke) is reading from the California travel brochure, she gets a worried look on her face when she reads "Grapefruit." This is a reference to The Public Enemy (1931) (which also stars James Cagney and Clarke) where Cagney's character pushes a grapefruit into the face of hers.

Goofs:

Continuity: A victim of an armed robbery is identified in dialogue and newspaper shots as a female maid. Later on, however, when news of the victim's fate is revealed, we are told "the butler died."

Quotes:

Spade Maddock: [admiring an 8 x 10 of Lois Underwood] Friend a yours? You been rubbing noses with all the big shots in the picture business.
Dan Quigley: [chuckling] We'll call it noses if you like.

Movie Connections:

References Dark Hazard (1934)

Soundtrack:

Dancing with Tears in My Eyes

Fast-paced, exciting Cagney comedy!

If you like James Cagney, and I sure do, you'll love this comedy melodrama from the pre-code years at Warner Brothers. Cagney portrays a cheap hoodlum who falls in with a gang of petty con artists, gets wrapped on the knucklesl by the long arm of the law, and winds up becoming a movie matinee idol. It's fun all the way, with enough wise-cracking dialogue, rapid action, car chases, gunfire, and double-dealing to satisfy any fan of the early gangster films, yet it's a lively, tongue-in-cheek comedy from start to finish. Enjoy!