Product Description

4 movies / 2 DVD's

1. Blood on the Sun (1945, 98 minutes) Also starring Sylvia Sidney
Nick Condon (Cagney) a newspaper reporter working in Tokyo, gets wind of Japanese plans to bomb the US. Fans will enjoy an exciting Judo sequence as Cagney avoids the clutches of interrogators who wish to dispose of him. Academy Award for Best Art Direction.

2. Time of Your Life (1948, 105 minutes) Also starring William Bendix
Cagney plays Joe 'T' in this whimsical film version of William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a rundown San Francisco waterfront bar, populated by a group of lovable characters.

3. Great Guy (1936, 75 minutes) Also starring Robert Gleckler
Corruption and violence have gnawed to the core of democratic society. Cagney, as pugnacious Johnny 'Red' Cave, uses his brains, fists and attitude to battle for truth and justice against crooked city politicians.

4. Something to Sing About (1937, 93 minutes) Also starring Evelyn Daw and William Frawley
In this musical comedy, Cagney, as New York band leader Terry Rooney, journeys to Hollywood looking for a big break. He gets married, and when the happy couple returns from a honeymoon, a movie contract is offered--if he remains single! Academy Award Nomination for Best Score.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112105 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-11-25
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 371 minutes

Customer Reviews

james cagney classics-DVD-Genius-AMC
i am a big cagney fan, and i am accustomed to AMC playing quality prints of classic movies, so you can understand my disappointment in seeing these poor quality transfers, especially since it says "digitally remastered" on the front cover. save your money and hopefully a remastered set of cagney movies will appear soon.

Forget Maltin's review
If you appreciate James Cagney for the quality and spunk of his dancing, this film is for you!

Sure, the plot is nothing to sing about, but this film is to be watched for Cagney alone.

He has several hilarious episodes as he enters Hollywood as a small time bandleader from NY. He is measured, analyzed and critiqued by a voice coach, hair dresser and tailor, and his reactions to all the poking and prodding show him as one of the underrated but awesome comedic actors. (Anyone who doesn't recognize Cagney as a great comedic actor hasn't seen enough of his films.)

Another great scene is when he does some great Vaudevillian slapstick facial pantomimes of "the take, the double take, and the double take with the fade-away."

Now the dancing! Cagney, who always billed himself as a song and dance man, never danced enough in his movies. But this has four great scenes of him him at his best -- a combination of down-to-earth hoofing and ballet. He does one scene with Johnny Boyle and Harland Dixon, the former who danced for George M. Cohan and helped Cag choreograph dancing sequences for "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Much of Cagney's dancing style is taken from Boyle.

No one could say that Cagney is the greatest dancer, but he injected a street attitude into his dancing along with exquisite grace that made him incomparable.

A must see!

One Star for the Quality not the Movies
These are some more great Cagney films as always, but I do not suggest purchasing this version since they look terrible. It seems like they have recorded the original negatives without them being cleaned, not even VHS quality, it's best to buy them by themselves, there are much better quality copies. I've seen Blood on the Sun on VHS, then saw it in this set and was amazed at how much worse the quality was. They are great films, just get them in a different set or by themselves, trust me.