This is easily the 3rd worst Cagney movie of the 1930's (I'll leave it to you to decide whether GREAT GUY or SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT is #1, but the latter single-handedly sunk Grand National). The problem here isn't the performers--- Cagney is my all-time favorite actor--- but the script. The Broadway-anchored Spewacks just do a rotten attempt at replicating the energy of THE FRONT PAGE, likely reminded of Pat O'Brien being in that gem some 7 years earlier. Buddies Cagney & O'Brien obviously enjoyed the rapid-fire dialog but here, it's just too much that goes nowhere. Ralph Bellamy is a $50,000 year idiot producer and Dick Foran plays an oater star concerned about the direction of his nominal career. The picture doesn't generate laughs and is chock full of inside Warner cracks ("they broke the Vita-Glass!"--- okay, that was amusing I'll admit) and blatant name-dropping of lots of stars--- all Warner contractees. The main interest is the stellar cast that performs far beyond the call of duty: Penny Singleton does a bit as a manicurist, Marie Wilson co-stars as a dumb commissary employee who's preggers--- with questionable marital status (odd for a film made during the Hays Code) and a voice that could peel paint. In the highlight of the movie, a 27-year old Ronald Reagan appears in a well played bit as an announcer doing a remote at a film premier who cuts Wilson off a nanosecond before the Production Code would've kicked in. Also look for curvy Carol Landis in an uncredited role as a cashier. There's enough fodder for a movie nut but a casual viewer would find the movie a waste of DVR space. I found myself thinking about Cagney & O'Brien all appearing in RAGTIME 43 years later and the amazing never-got-the-girl career Bellamy had right up until he died in 1991. Note: I think the IMDb link to the alleged "Baby Happy" actor is wrong. The actor's birth date is listed as 1927 and this '38 release has an actual infant in it.
Review of Boy Meets Girl
