After making a career out of playing tough guys on the wrong side of the law, Cagney finally got to play for the good guys. Photo copyright: Warner Bros. (1935)

Cagney finally got to be on the side of the law in this movie. It was his first serious gangster picture since Public Enemy. There's plenty of action of the car-chase, machine-gun blasting variety; the only difference is that the story is told from the side of the law. Brick Davis is an honest lawyer from the streets of New York. He was sent to law school by a big-shot racketeer, but joins the FBI to avenge the murder of his best friend. He winds up battling the former henchman of his benefactor. Along the way there's a dame or two. The climax at the hunting lodge is intense.

Although it's more of an ensemble than most of Cagney's movies it still has him playing his stock-in-trade, cock of the walk. True to form he manages to punch a guy's lights out within the first 5 minutes. And he gets to utter snappy wisecracks like when his boss points at a circle on a map and says the gangsters are somewhere within it, Cagney retorts with, "Only 6 states, we've got them cornered." When Brick first enters the academy for training, the agent assigned to teach him assumes that since he was a lawyer he must also be some kind of cowardly bookworm. Brick then proceeds to impress him with his left hook, demonstrates his incredible marksmanship and helps to identify the fingerprints of a gangster. Like I said typical Cagney.

Ann Dvorak and Margaret Lindsay do the best they can in this man's movie. It's interesting to note that they were both household names in the 1930's and 40's, but not many people know them today. They were attractive women and they could both act. What they didn't possess was true star quality. It makes you wonder which famous actors of today will be remembered 50 or 100 years from now and which ones will be known only to movie historians.

This movie is about the early days of the FBI, back when agents didn't have jurisdiction to cross state lines and weren't even allowed to carry guns. It was reissued in 1949, with an added introduction, to mark the 25th anniversary of the agency, which by then had become world famous. In 1935, just 6 years after the FBI was created, this movie played a pivotal role in making federal agents both famous and cool. James Cagney was one of the original movie MIBs.

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