MAYOR OF HELL.
James Cagney & Madge Evans,
Allen Jenkins, Dudley Digges, Frankie Darro.
Dir: Archie Mayo, 1933, Warner Bros.
Remade as Crime School with Humphrey Bogart in '38.

SYNOPSIS:
Standard Cagney gear, he's almost winking at us, letting us in on the recycled jokes. The Dead End Kids spice it up a little but really it's only held together by Cagney's magical charisma.

"Making pictures then was a fatiguing business, and in my next, Mayor of Hell, it was the old mixture as before, only more so. As a crook who helped reform a reform school, I was kept plenty busy, and I mean literally to all hours. Frequently we worked until three or four in the morning. I'd look over and there'd be the director, Archie Mayo, sitting with his head thrown back, sawing away. He was tired; we were all tired. This kind of pressure the studio put on us because they wanted to get the thing done as cheaply as possible."
- Jimmy Cagney.

REVIEWS:
"Propaganda for nothing: like most of what comes out of Hollywood, it is entertaining trash."
- Time.