Lady Killer (Warner Bros.) (1933)

Ad TG WHAT ER JAMES CAGNEY An Impertinent Portrait By Carlisle Jones AMES CAGNEY, whose latest Warner Bros. picture, ‘Lady Killer,’ comes to the. . ue neabre-On-... 5 . , is short, stocky, red-headed, square-shouldered and freckled all over his body. His hands and feet are small, his hair is unruly, his eye lids are heavy and he suffers from neuritis in the right arm. He sleeps in pajamas, likes to read in bed, kicks in his sleep and dreams constantly. His middle name is Francis, which he never uses. Cagney likes cold weather. He can play a ukelele. He does not carry matches and shaves himself. The tough boy of pictures will not wear a shirt until it has been laundered. He will not put the studs in a dress shirt. He can tie a bow tie but he has never changed a flat tire. Jimmy sings in the bathroom and likes to swim nude. He eats chocolate eclairs when the spirit moves him but he dislikes raw oysters. He does not belong to any club. He has never owned a red automobile. He doesn’t like bananas. The hero of a dozen well-fought screen battles—with both sexes— wears silk underwear. He does not write poetry . . . has never invented anything understands how a radio works but calls a plumber to repair a leaky faucet. He doesn’t like to bait a fish hook. He doesn’t play golf . likes puns and knows how to roller skate. He has never caught a large fish or worn spats. He likes lemon pie . . . is afraid of the dentist and he dislikes revolying doors. He does not play poker and he is a bad shot with a rifle. He reads James Joyce and claims to understand him. Jimmy likes to be alone. He likes ice cream. He likes rocking chairs and rubber heels and O. O. McIntyre and fancy desserts. He has never bought any boom real estate nor been in a train wreck nor mowed a lawn nor carried an umbrella in rainy weather. He doesn’t answer his own front door bell. He has a swimming pool at home. And a cookie jar. Jimmy Cagney never wears a cap. He doesn’t take setting up exercises in the morning . . . doesn’t like saxophone music .. . doesn’t carry a good luck charm is not afraid of spiders and prefers a shower bath to a tub. He peels an apple before eating it. He loves to look at sunsets. He has his shoes re-soled when they wear out. JAMES CAGNEY Page Four He likes cats . . . sometimes sings “Asleep in the Deep” for his own amusement... can swim under water . has broken a few bones and many windows. He likes to eat fish . . . frequently missés trains . . . doesn’t like a short hair cut. He gets very seasick on water .. does not carry a pocket watch, wear garters or belt. Jimmy is not ticklish, He reads his newspaper at breakfast. He sometimes loses his collar button and has been late to engagements because of this. He wears bedroom slippers around home and takes aspirin for headaches. He has known hunger . . has raised a beard .. . doesn’t like crowds or jewelry . . . doesn’t like to sleep late mornings. He counts the words of a telegram after he writes it .. . suffers digestive disturbances during the filming of a picture. He is under contract to Warner Bros. and has never made a picture for any other company. He likes to sit in front of a fire ... likes to talk over social problems. He reads Upton Sinclair .. . and is interested in Tom Mooney. He once appeared in a dance act as “Adam” in gilt paint and the legal minimum of clothing. Cagney is married. He is not particularly fond of grapefruit but would rather eat one than wash a woman’s face with it as he did Mae Clarke’s in “Public Enemy.” He has never struck a woman outside of pictures, and prefers not to do it in pictures. Nevertheless, he handles his leading lady in “Lady Killer” plenty rough. She happens to be none other than Mae Clarke. He thinks Margaret Lindsay, the heroine of the picture, is a_ swell actress . . . likes to work under the direction of Roy Del Ruth, who handled “Lady Killer” and several other Cagney pictures. His present picture was authored by Rosalind Keating Shaffer. Mat No. 18 Price 10c Cagney Promised Not to Hit Mae Clarke Above Her Neck But What He Does to Her in “‘Lady Killer” Below That Point Is Plenty Rough and Tough HEN Jimmie Cagney planted half a grapefruit, juicy side \ \ foremost, upon the indignant features of Mae Clarke during a scene in “Public Enemy” two years ago, he made history. The splash of citrus juice was heard around the world. This year, when Hollywood heard that Jimmie and Mae had been teamed again in “Lady Killer,” the Warner Bros. picture which comes to the. ... Theatre on.... , everybody exclaimed: “Ts history about to repeat itself?” The answer was—yes and no. “We just moved the prize-fight belt According to the articles of war| UP under my chin,” laughed Mae, in drawn up between the two, the first | ©XPlaining the compact, “and agreed day “Lady Killer” went into production, grapefruit was barred. This didn’t mean that Jimmie had to lay off the rough stuff altogether, but certain types of manhandling and mayhem were out. And for a very good reason. Since “Public Enemy” was made, Mae was the victim of an automobile accident. She came out of it with a broken jaw, among other things. For a good many weeks it was a toss-up as to whether Mae Clarke would be able to resume her screen career. Thanks to an _ excellent surgeon, vou mav look in vain for any sign of the harrowing experience the young actress has been through. With a Cagney picture in prospect. however, Mae realized that she would have to adopt a “handle with care” volicv regarding her face. None of the famous Cagney slaps—not above the neck. anvway. No more facial massages a la Cagney with grapefruit. So Mae and Jimmie, with Director Rov Del Ruth listening in, sat down and drew a covenant for the picture that is probably unique in motion picture history. | Belt Line Moved Up It was agreed that Jimmie could he as rough and cave-mannish as he liked with Mae, from the neck down. Mae’s face was to be considered as a “neutral zone,’ a “non-combatant area.” hitting above the belt was a foul, in Sparring Partners Return stead of below it, as with the Queensbury rules. “I was black-and-blue in a dozen places before the picture was finished, especially after the scene where Jimmie picks me up from the bed in his room and throws me out into the hall. When I say ‘throw,’ I don’t mean that he dropped me in the hall, or lay me down there gently. The script said ‘throw, and that’s what Jimmie did. “However, it’s all in the day’s work and as long as I can keep my face outside the theatre of war, I don’t care what happens.” “Lady Killer,” based on the story by Rosalind Keating Shaffer, is a fascinating tale of a crook who takes Hollywood by storm and promotes himself into a star. Besides James Cagney and Mae Clarke, there is a large and impressive cast, including Margaret Lindsay, Henry O’Neill, Leslie Fenton, Russell Hopton, Raymond Hatton, Douglas Dumbrille, Margaret Gateson, George Blackwood and others. The screen play is by Ben Markson and Lillie Hayward. Jimmy Cagney and Mae Clarke, who achieved fame together via the grapefruit route in “Public Enemy,” return to the screen in “Lady Killer,” the story of the rise of a small-time movie usher to the heights of Hollywood. “Lady Killer” opens in run on Wednesday at the Strand Theatre. Mat No. 4—Price 10c “Finger Man” Quaint and Colorful Underworld Term James Cagney Plays One in Early Sequences of *“‘Lady Killer’ Before He Turns Movie Star dictionaries. The experts who decide what is and what is not Was term “finger man” doesn’t appear in any of the standard good English haven’t yet admitted the phrase to polite society. Any crook, however, can explain to you in a few words what a “finger man” is. Any racketeer or policeman can give you a definition of the appellation. And, since James Cagney, in the early sequences of “Lady Killer,” his Warner Bros. picture which comes to the. ..:., 0 Theatre.on..*.,:. 2 piays the role of a “finger man,” it may not be amiss to explain -just what a “finger man” is. A “finger man” is the person who can “put his finger” on the man or woman his associates are anxious to contact, at any given time. Perhaps a racketeer has hired a brace of professional killers to put a troublesome rival out of the way. They wouldn’t know him if they fell over him on the street, unless there were someone to identify their victim for them. That’s where the “finger man” comes in. He is to the assassins what the pointer dog is to the hunter. He leads them to their quarry, flushes the game—and leaves the more sanguinary side of the business to his gun-toting associates. He gets paid for his trouble, of course, though his fee is small compared with the price of a gunman’s bullet. With this type of “finger man” James Cagney’s picture has nothing to do. Cagney’s pals in “Lady Killer” are a gang of high-class, big-time robbers, who specialize in relieving wealthy women of their jewels, ransacking millionaires’ homes, and turning a few thousand dishonest dollars any time the opportunity presents itself. | Jimmy’s business, as “finger man” for this mob, is to spot those whose worldly goods make them suitable candidates for his friends’ professional attention; obtain all the information about the intended victims that is necessary to insure a safe and successful job—and be miles away with an ironclad alibi when the trick actually comes off. To Dan Quigley, played by Cagney, the whole thing is just a lark. The thrill and glamour of taking chances, and matching wits with the law as well as with the crooks’ prospective victims, appeals to him as an exciting sport for which he gets paid far more handsomely than in any lawful occupation he has tried to follow. The criminal side of it doesn’t bother him much. It isn’t forced upon his attention and the crooks whose finger man he is, take care that he doesn’t know too much about the unpleasant side of their activities, which occasionally ends in somebody’s death. But when a hot-headed member of the gang, with an itching trigger finger, brings murder into the story, Dan Quigley decides he’s been playing with fire too long. Whereupon the story of “Lady Killer” takes an unexpected turn that lifts Cagney and his experiences out of the underworld and sets him down in Hollywood, where his ready wits soon result in his hbecoming a motion picture star. His experiences in the mad Movie Capitol form the basis for the fastmoving action of “Lady Killer.” The arrival of his gangster associates in Hollywood, the re-entry into his life of the “moll” with whom he had been friendly, and a series of peculiar circumstances contrive to keep Dan Quigley hopping pretty quickly. Margaret Lindsay, as the beautiful movie queen, plays opposite Cagney in “Lady Killer’ and in the picture within the picture. Advance rumors have it that Jimmy is a wow when he climbs into costume to do a fancy dress movie part. The cast of “Lady Killer” includes Margaret Lindsay, Mae Clarke, Henry O’Neill, Russell Hopton, Douglas Dumbrille, Raymond Hatton, Willard Robertson, Marjorie Gateson and Leslie Fenton. Roy Del Ruth directed the picture, which is based on Rosalind Keating Shaffer’s story, adapted for motion picture purposes by Ben Markson and Lillie Hayward.