Dir.: Anatole Litvak
Plot: An ex-boxer returns to the ring to support his younger brother and impress his ambitious fiancee, with tragic consequences.
James Cagney didn’t
get too much credit as a serious dramatic actor before his Oscar-winning turn as
George M. Cohan in 1942. City For Conquest is
therefore a rather rare opportunity to see a pre-Yankee Doodle Dandy Cagney
giving it his all in a heady, romantic melodrama which demands very little of
the bantam histrionics which had defined him for much of the 1930s. An uneven,
sudsy affair kept afloat by several strong, affecting performances, it is
possibly most notable for its proto-Manhattan
use of New York
as a romantic metaphor.
