Main Cast: James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Lloyd Nolan, Ann Dvorak, Robert Armstrong, Barton MacLane
Release Year: 1935
Country: US
Run Time: 86 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
In G Men, Warner Bros. "bad boy" James Cagney plays James "Brick" Davis, a young lawyer whose education has been financed by soft-hearted racketeer McKay (William Harrigan). When Cagney's best pal, detective Eddie Buchanan (Regis Toomey), is killed in a gangland shooting, James decides to become a G-Man. Though scrupulously honest, Davis is looked upon with suspicion by his fellow agents because of his association with the crooked McKay. He proves he's a "good guy" when his former girlfriend, Jean Ann Dvorak, now the wife of mobster Brad Collins (Barton MacLane), tips him off to a "Little Bohemia"-style gangster hideaway. Jean later sacrifices her own life to help James rescue his new girl, nurse Kay McCord (Margaret Lindsay), from the vengeful Collins. Based on Gregory Miller's book Public Enemy No. 1, G-Men was reissued in 1949, with an added prologue featuring David Brian as an FBI trainer who advises his students not to laugh at the old-fashioned costumes and slang in the 1935 film; seen today, it is Brian's superfluous opening comments that seem hopelessly dated, while the film itself is as exciting and entertaining as ever. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Former screen hoodlum James Cagney may be on the side of law and order in G-Men but he is really the same old cocky Jimmy, still refusing to take guff from anyone and still with that certain bounce in his step. And Warner Bros. certainly doesn't skimp on ammunition and falling bodies this time around either. In fact, G-Men has one of the noisiest slam-bangs of a shootout this side of Bonnie and Clyde, and with plenty of gun-molls getting in on the action to boot. Sirens are blaring and cop cruisers careen into buildings with abandon as Jimmy becomes one of J. Edgar Hoover's boys and once again leaves poor downtrodden Ann Dvorak to pick up the pieces, so to speak. Ann is eventually gunned down in cold blood by nasty gangster Barton MacLane, leaving Cagney free to take up with the more upscale Margaret Lindsay. In other words, not much has changed from the good old Pre-Code days of wanton crime and that is just as it should be. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
John Hughes - Art Director, Bobby Connolly - Choreography, Orry-Kelly - Costume Designer, William Keighley - Director, Jack Killifer - Editor, Leo F. Forbstein - Musical Direction/Supervision, Sammy Fain - Songwriter, Irving Kahal - Songwriter, Sol Polito - Cinematographer, Louis Edelman - Producer, Seton Miller - Screenwriter, Gregory Rogers - Book Author
G Men is a 1935Warner Bros. film starring James Cagney and Ann Dvorak that is based on the mythologized origins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States. The film's significance is less in its cinematic merits than as a propaganda effort in the FBI's "war on crime" in the middle years of the depression. According to Variety Magazine, it was one of the top-grossing films of 1935.[1]
G Men was made as part of a deliberate attempt to counteract what many conservative political and business leaders claimed was a disturbing trend of glorifying criminals in the early 1930s gangster film genre. Although the gangster films were typically presented as moral indictments of organized crime where the criminal protagonist inevitably died, they nevertheless depicted a life of freedom, power and luxury enjoyed by gangsters in the midst of a real-life economic crisis. Foremost of these films were Little Caesar, the original Scarface, and perhaps the most memorable, The Public Enemy, which catapulted Cagney to stardom. Also notable about these films was that law enforcement was typically portrayed as either impotent in the face of crime, or, as with Public Enemy, akin to a derelict and largely absentee father shirking his duty. Based on this interpretation, G Men supplanted the criminal protagonist with the heroic federal police officer.
Most prints of this film include a brief scene added at the beginning for the 1949 re-release.
Newspaper ad for G Men making a connection between the film and real-life G Men in the FBI, who were tracking kidnappers in the Pacific Northwest.
Plot
Brick Davis (James Cagney) is a young criminal lawyer who attempts to resist the lure of the criminal underworld even though his own education was paid for by a gangster. But in a world where the only successful lawyers are the crooked ones, Davis finds it nearly impossible to establish a successful law practice without compromising his integrity and ideals. His life takes a dramatic turn after a friend and federal agent, or G-Man, is killed by a gangster shortly after attempting to recruit Davis to the FBI. After the murder, Cagney closes his law practice and joins the FBI, determined to bring the killer to justice. Davis prevails and gets the girl, but must first overcome major obstacles, such as a complacent policing culture and legal constraints on federal agents like not having the right to carry firearms.
The struggles faced by Brick Davis mirror a public image that was being carefully cultivated for the FBI during the war on crime, particularly by J. Edgar Hoover. Not only was Davis incorruptible, for example, but he had a law degree at a time when police work was usually learned on-the-job. The FBI opened its training academy the same year G-Men was released, and claimed that it recruited college graduates. Although Hoover did not directly serve as an advisor to G-Men, as his power and independence from his political superiors grew over time, he became more overtly involved in cultural offerings that promoted his agency, including comic strips and radio dramas.
Potter, Clair Bond (1998). War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN0-8135-2487-3.
Powers, Richard Gid (1983). G-Men: Hoover’s FBI in American Popular Culture. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN0-8093-1096-1.
