Pretty Good

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I think everyone in this film was really wonderful. This kind of result is why we had movie stars, and such great films in the 1940s. Cagney is top notch as usual, and I fell in love with this movie on late night TV as a young teenager.I always love Ann Sheridan! Think how many great performances she gave in different roles. Sometimes I didn't even realize it was her because of her variety of roles. I really like this era because as a history buff, you get to see how people lived in a different era, the scenery, and little bits of Americana. Another thing missing from so many films today even in great films, is how the old screenplays and directors allowed you to get to know the characters more and allowed the plot to slowly develop rather than quickly jumping ahead of the plot development. See this movie!!

City for Conquest (1940) *** (out of 4) James Cagney's brilliant performance is the highlight of this film about a boxer (Cagney) who risks it all for the love of his girl (Ann Sheridan) and his brother (Arthur Kennedy). It's rather amazing at how great Cagney can be in so many different type of roles. Yes, he mainly played wise guys but whenever he broke this mode he just shows what a great actor he was and that's certainly true with his performance here, which has to rank as one of the greatest of his career. The transformations his character goes through is certainly a juicy role for an actor and Cagney nails all of the different moods without any problems. When the boxer starts to lose his site is when Cagney really shines and his performance here is brilliantly done. I'm not sure what they did to Cagney's eyes but whatever they did looked terrific. I didn't care too much for Sheridan as I thought she brought the film down and a better actress would have suited the film better. The supporting cast is excellent and features nice performances by Kennedy, Frank Craven, Donald Crisp, Frank McHugh and George Tobias. Anthony Quinn is terrific in his role as Cagney's rival and future director Elia Kazan also shocked me with how great he was. The big boxing scene was brilliantly filmed and looked extremely well bringing in all sorts of intense action. The ending is pretty hokey but otherwise this is a highly impressive little film.

CITY FOR CONQUEST is one of those dated Warner Bros. melodramas from the '40s that gives JAMES CAGNEY another of his pugnacious fighter roles and ANN SHERIDAN is all career minded and good intentions while she is romanced by Cagney. ARTHUR KENNEDY does a standout job as Cagney's composer brother with his eye on the big time concert halls.The tale of New Yorkers with dreams shattered is briskly directed by Anatole Litvak but borders on the melodramatic at every turn. It does give Max Steiner a chance to compose a symphony (supposedly by Arthur Kennedy) that adds some conviction to the story of an ambitious composer.Sheridan and Cagney do nothing here that they haven't done countless times before in other Warner melodramas, with Sheridan alternating between tough and tender with her self-confident charm and Cagney showing the more sensitive side of his character whenever the script calls for it. The main trouble is the lumbering script, which reaches a climax with the big fight scene and then limps painfully toward a slow moving conclusion.It's strange to see upcoming director ELIA KAZAN doing nicely in a supporting role, along with DONALD CRISP, FRANK McHUGH, GEORGE TOBIAS, ANTHONY QUINN, FRANK CRAVEN, LEE PATRICK and THURSTON HALL but there's an uneven mix of boxing and music that somehow doesn't jell into a satisfying enough melodrama. The ending is sure to pull on the heartstrings but seems a bit contrived. Sheridan goes through the entire film lovingly photographed with tear-stained close-ups as she gazes at Cagney, never more so than at the end. Their last scene together is little more than a compilation of clichés.Not one of my favorite melodramas from the Warner mill.Typical line of '40s dialog from Ann Sheridan: "It's just like running through a dark alley and suddenly coming out in warm sunlight."

Terrific 1940 film where the great James Cagney does it again in giving a memorable performance. This time it's as a fighter who goes into boxing so that his brother, Arthur Kennedy, can fulfill a musical career as well as an escape for girl friend, Ann Sheridan, ditching him for a dancing career with Anthony Quinn, a real cad if there ever were.The film has a tremendous supporting cast and all do a fine job in showing what movie making should be.Future director, Elia Kazan, is in fine form as a mobster, a product of a rough childhood environment. In seeing Kazan here, I wonder what his acting career would have been like had he not chosen to go behind the camera.The aspect of N.Y. life is wonderfully shown by the upper class of musical life, life on the lower east side as well as the boxing center of sports. How they interact in this film is so well memorably accomplished.As a boxing magnate, I thought that the usual erudite Donald Crisp would be miscast. How wrong I was. He evoked much sympathy in trying to protect his fighter-Cagney.A truly memorable film. This is a heck of a movie classic.