(1936)
2
Richard Gilliam
Tired of not being able to make the projects he wanted at Warner Bros., Great Guy was the first James Cagney-produced film from Grand National Pictures. Cagney, the production company mogul, however proved to be a not so good judge of material. There was little in this pedantically routine formula drama to interest audiences of 1936 and there's even less today. Cagney is the excessively honest and earnest dedicated public servant, trying to scrape together enough money to marry his girlfriend (Mae Clarke). No matter what they tempt him with, he just won't give in to the corrupt politicians and power-brokers. He's the everyman little-guy fighting the system -- hardly a new plot for depression-era audiences who had already seen this sort of film done much better by Frank Capra and others. The direction by John G. Blystone and the cinematography by Jack MacKenzie is strictly painting-by-numbers. With a tired, stale story and none of the flair that Clarke and Cagney created together in The Public Enemy, Great Guy was a box-office flop, though it would take a second costly failure, Something to Sing About, before Cagney returned to studio work.
Great Guy on AllMovie
Great Guy (1936)
