One of the more lightweight comedies Bette Davis made early in her career, working for Warner Bros. JIMMY THE GENT pairs Davis up for the first time with James Cagney. Cagney was another powerhouse actor who would engage in his own form of battle against the studio for handing down unremarkable stories with rather repetitive characters in which he was almost invariably the gangster. Here, his flashing an extreme military buzz cut was his way of protesting, and in Bette Davis he found a kindred spirit. They were well matched here and would be so in THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. made in 1941, right before his own Oscar win for the musical YANKEE DOODLE DANDY.
A convoluted plot centering on Jimmy Corrigan, an investigator in charge of tracking down missing people -- in this case, heirs -- and his rivalry with onetime girlfriend Joan Martin, now working for a competitor, James Wallingham (Alan Dinehart). At a little over an hour, the movie has a near breakneck pace and its dialog is as rhythmic as a jazz piano. It's not a matter of what happens or who does what to whom as much as seeing Corrigan try and win his girl back. Directed by Michael Curtiz, he of MILDRED PIERCE fame, this is a pretty entertaining short movie, less gritty and hard bitten, a little farcical here and there, but still little more than a product churned out for the masses, devoid of any real style.
A convoluted plot centering on Jimmy Corrigan, an investigator in charge of tracking down missing people -- in this case, heirs -- and his rivalry with onetime girlfriend Joan Martin, now working for a competitor, James Wallingham (Alan Dinehart). At a little over an hour, the movie has a near breakneck pace and its dialog is as rhythmic as a jazz piano. It's not a matter of what happens or who does what to whom as much as seeing Corrigan try and win his girl back. Directed by Michael Curtiz, he of MILDRED PIERCE fame, this is a pretty entertaining short movie, less gritty and hard bitten, a little farcical here and there, but still little more than a product churned out for the masses, devoid of any real style.