City for Conquest (1940) User Reviews

Bring Your Hankies!

[bsmith5552 · 7/10 · 29 September 2006]

"City For Conquest" is the story of five New York street kids who grow up and pursue their respective dreams. The film opens with an "Old Timer" (Frank Craven in a role similar to one he played in "Our Town" the same year) commenting on the story. He pops up at different point in the story to add his commentary.

Danny Kenny (James Cagney) is content with his life as a truck driver. He has been carrying the torch for Peg Nash (Ann Sheridan) since they were kids. She has ambitions of becoming a professional dancer. Mutt (Frank McHugh) is Danny's pal with no ambitions of his own but to follow Danny wherever that may lead. Googi Zucco (Elia Kazan - yes THAT Elia Kazan) grows up to be a prominent gangster after Danny helps him out on his release from prison. Eddie Kenny (Arthur Kennedy in his film debut), Danny's brother is an aspiring classical composer.

One night at a dance contest Peg meets "65th St. sharpie" Murray Burns (Anthony Quinn). They win the contest and Burns offers Peg the chance to fulfill her dream to become a professional dancer. Peg signs a contract with Burns' manager (Charles Lane) and the team sets out on the road to success. Danny meanwhile is talked into becoming a professional boxer. After defeating contender Kid Callaghan (Bob Steele), Danny is signed up by promoter Scotty MacPherson (Donald Crisp). Danny hopes that his success will bring him closer to Peg and that he will be able to support his brother's ambitions as well.

Both Peg and Danny become successful. Peg is offered a chance to play the big clubs and earn $850 a week. Danny meets her again one night and is given the impression that Peg is ready to marry him. Unfortunately for Danny, Peg chooses her career over marriage and leaves him in the lurch.

Peg becomes even more successful and Danny, despondent over the loss of Peg pushes Scottie for a title fight. Then tragedy strikes.

The last third of the film is a melodramatic typical Hollywood tear jerker. Cagney's performance, especially in this segment is outstanding. Sheridan, one of the few actresses of the day that could hold her own with Cagney is also compelling. Quinn also stands out as the oily dancer.

Others in the cast include George Tobias as Pinky, one of Danny's handlers, Lee Patrick as Gladys who befriends Peg, Jerome Cowan and Georgr Lloyd as gangsters, Ward Bond as the cop in the opening sequence, Frank Faylen as a band leader and Laurel & Hardy's favorite drunk Arthur Houseman as, you guessed it, a drunk.

Oddly enough, Cagney who was "just an old hoofer" doesn't get to dance in this film. He has to pretend that he can't dance instead.

Rather than a love triangle, a triangle of ambition

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 2 December 2023]

The story begins in the tenements of New York, with two brothers, one an aspiring musician and the other a fighter, who already has a yen for a pretty young neighbor who is an aspiring dancer. Cut to some years later, and the boxer is James Cagney, the musician's Arthur Kennedy, and the young neighbor is Ann Sheridan. All three of them are on the way to making it in their chosen careers, but in doing so, Sheridan's character falls in love with a sleazy ballroom dancer (Anthony Quinn). Cagney makes it big in boxing in order to help fund his brother's music career, before tragedy brings the three back together.

Cagney is Cagney as ever, but Sheridan seems a little too genteel as his tenement-bred girl - although that's partly the point - and I kept wondering why they didn't pick a dancer for the part. Whenever they need a dance number, they either shoot it from the waist down or cut to a long shot. It's too bad WB didn't have Rita Hayworth under contract - she would have been ideal, and a much better fit than the role she was doing over at Columbia at that time, in Ben Hecht's Angels Over Broadway (1940). Arthur Kennedy as the musical brother doesn't make a huge impression, but it's interesting to see Elia Kazan in a small role.

It has great camerawork with a great sense of the late 30s. I didn't realize until afterwards that the great James Wong Howe had a hand in this, but it figures. It's one of those films that feels like it fell a little short of its lofty ambitions, but it's so handsome that I hardly cared.

The power and the curse of dreams

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 12 November 2007]

James Cagney, Arthur Kennedy and Ann Sheridan all live in the "City for Conquest" - New York, that is - in this 1940 film directed by Anatole Litvak and also starring Frank McHugh, Donald Crisp, Anthony Quinn and - yes, Elia Kazan.

Cagney and Kennedy are the Kenny Brothers, Danny and Eddie. Danny is a truck driver in love with Peg, his childhood sweetheart. He has two dreams - Peg and his brother's composing career. When he's discovered by a fight manager (Crisp), Danny becomes a fighter for the money. The ambitious Peg has her eyes on fame and fortune and pairs up with a brutish but equally ambitious dancer, played with force by Anthony Quinn. Eddie, meanwhile, is discovered not for his magnificent composition "City for Conquest" but for his Broadway musical capabilities.

When he realizes he's losing Peg, Danny, who is being brought up gradually into the bigger fights, demands to go for a big purse that will give him the championship - and, he thinks, Peg. Thanks to a crooked mobster, the fight nearly destroys Danny and he has to give up fighting. Down but not out, he insists that Eddie still pursue his dream of a classical career.

This is a good movie that tugs at the heartstrings, very melodramatic, with excellent acting all around. Cagney is wonderful and sympathetic as a simple, loving man who takes what life gives him; Crisp gives a fine performance as his caring fight manager. Ann Sheridan, always an earthier, tougher version of Rita Hayworth, is marvelous as a young woman who, though she loves Danny, can't fight the lure of the glamor and fame offered by her dance partnership. Kazan, in a small role as a gangster, is great, though his contributions as a director are far more valuable than what he might have given film history as an actor.

The standout for me was one of the most brilliant and underrated actors of our time, Arthur Kennedy. Kennedy enjoyed a wonderful career in film and on stage in a variety of roles, but because he wasn't a true leading man and not a Warners "tough guy" like Cagney, Robinson, or Bogart who could graduate into lead roles, he toiled as a supporting actor, earning no less than 5 Oscar nominations. Here he is young and good-looking, and his performance is passionate without being maudlin. Surely there wasn't a dry eye in any movie house after the speech he gives about his brother the night his symphony (very much modeled on "Rhapsody in Blue") debuts. Truly a great treasure, and he was discovered by James Cagney, who knew talent when he saw it.

A heartfelt movie, and you'll need that box of tissues nearby. See it and celebrate the good old days of the rough streets of New York and movies about the common man and dreams coming true.

Before Kazan was a big-time director, he played a terrific small-time thug.

[squelle · 14 August 2003]

I saw this movie a long time ago (about 1968) and was quite impressed by the story, acting, and filming. Cagney plays a typical role for him--the decent little guy who's out to do big things but gets beaten down by the bad guys. As in "Angels with Dirty Faces" and "Torrid Zone," he teams up well with Ann Sheridan. Ann worked often and well with the movie tough guys of the late 30's and early 40's (e.g. John Garfield, George Raft, et al) but seems to have become rather forgotten over the years. All I remember of the Arthur Kennedy role is him sitting at a piano in a New York apartment composing a symphony, which he ultimately succeeds in doing due to the sacrifices of his on-screen brother played by Cagney. As I recall, the symphony is titled "City for Conquest."

The ending of the film is exceptionally moving. But for me the best and most memorable sequences were those few brief scenes involving Elia Kazan as Googi Zucco. With his cocky bearing and slick black hair, Kazan plays as good a mob-like thug as anyone I've ever seen.

One of Cagney's best.

[Art-22 · 7/10 · 14 April 1999]

With a first-rate cast, good boxing sequences, an excellent music score by Max Steiner, a smattering of romance and action sequences, this film has got to be one of James Cagney's best films. Besides, you get a chance to see Arthur Kennedy and Elia Kazan in their first film, and both are excellent. If Kazan weren't such a great director, he easily could have made a career as an actor. Be sure to notice the surprising scene where Anthony Quinn seems to force himself on Ann Sheridan, who pleads for him to stop as the scene fades. Surprising, because even an implied rape was against the strict code in 1940. I wonder how that scene got past the Hays Office.

The Unconquerable Kenny Brothers

[bkoganbing · 10/10 · 2 August 2006]

As working class stiff Danny Kenny who drives a truck for a living, James Cagney created one of his most unforgettable screen heroes and one of my favorite Cagney films in City for Conquest.

No studio could do a working class film like Warner Brothers and this is one of the best. It does get melodramatic and has large doses of sentimentality with it, but never to extreme.

For a guy who eventually makes his living as a prizefighter, Danny Kenny is one of the gentlest heroes James Cagney brought to the screen. His greatest pleasures are found in the girl friend he has from the neighborhood, Ann Sheridan, and in listening to the music creations of his brother Ed, played by Arthur Kennedy in his film debut. Kennedy has ambitions to be a serious composer and Sheridan has ambitions herself to get out of the Lower East Side of New York via show business as a dancer. To realize those ambitions she hooks up with a no good dancer/gigolo in Anthony Quinn.

So Cagney who if he had his way would have been content to spend his life driving a truck, to help Kennedy with his dream and to win Ann Sheridan back, takes up boxing. It all results in some terrible sacrifices he makes for both of them.

Director Anatole Litvak gave Cagney and Sheridan a fine supporting cast to help carry the story along. Donald Crisp is Cagney's manager, Frank McHugh in his ever familiar role as best friend, and future director Elia Kazan as another pal from the neighborhood who becomes a gangster,

Kazan exacts some vengeance on Cagney's behalf, but then pays for it himself in a never to be forgotten death scene.

My suggestion is that when you watch City for Conquest do it alone, because if you do it alone you might more easily give way to tears at Arthur Kennedy's dedication to his symphony to his brother.

Unless you cry better in a group. Kennedy's performance and this scene in particular insured that man of the long and great career he had.

But the film is really for James Cagney fans in every generation.

Lots of great night scenes, and a romance with the usual delays, beautifully done.

[secondtake · 7/10 · 9 January 2010]

City for Conquest (1940)

Great credentials here, from director Anatole Litvak to photographers (two of them) James Wong Howe and Sol Polito. That's enough for any movie. And music by Max Steiner, and throw in James Cagney, and you get a sense of the rich tapestry of New York that gets better and better as it goes, with even a small (sensational) part by Elia Kazan and Arthur Kennedy's first role.

Now it's a little stretch to see Cagney as a fighter--he's fit about as much as I am, and has no boxer's physique. But the movie is a hair lightweight in a heartwarming way (this is no Raging Bull, nor even James Garfield, later in the 1940s). But it creates a great milieux, just as the war is going in Europe and the Depression is ending in New York. The streets are abuzz, and love is in the air. There are a lot of 1930s era effects that are quaint--the fast montages of the city, or of dancers--and the plot itself, of a couple destined for each other but buffeted by life's usual distractions, is sweet.

And it all unfolds with such well-oiled perfection, the same era as Kane and Casablanca, and the same studio system and film stock. Great stuff, well made, and overcoming whatever conventional sentiments that thread through it all. It's even enjoyable without the plot, the boatride at night (think Weegee), the street scenes with kids everywhere (think Helen Levitt). It's a surprisingly honest, vivid movie.

New York Symphony

[lugonian · 9/10 · 7 June 2002]

CITY FOR CONQUEST (Warner Brothers, 1940), directed by Anatole Litvak, starring James Cagney and Ann Sheridan, is another one of many movies produced during the 1930s and 40s to represent New York City life with a realistic approach, and one of the best of its kind. Not as famous as Cagney and Sheridan's previous effort, ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938), which also featured the same street setting and tenement apartment backdrops, CITY FOR CONQUEST, which begins in 1934 in a city of seven million people, does have its strong points (the forceful acting, particularly by Cagney, with Sheridan coming a close second) and bad points (occasional heavy handiness in melodramatics), but it still makes a fine story highlighted by a well staged, but brutal prizefight sequence, and a memorable Max Steiner score.

Focusing on the ambitions of three people from the Lower East Side, Cagney stars as the self-sacrificing Danny Kenny, a truck driver who becomes a prizefighter, only to become nearly blinded in a stadium ring when double-dealing gangsters place resin powder in the gloves of his opponent; Sheridan as Peggy Nash, an over anxious girl who wants to become a professional ballroom dancer, only to become partnered with the wrong kind of guy named Murray Burns (played by the menacing Anthony Quinn); and Arthur Kennedy (in his movie debut), featured as Cagney's younger brother, Eddie, working as a piano teacher who strives on becoming a symphony composer. After the ups and downs of the three central characters are presented, the outcome results in a powerful conclusion.

The supporting cast includes Donald Crisp as Scotty, Danny's fighting manager; Frank McHugh as Mutt; George Tobias as Pinky; Jerome Cowan as Dutch; and Blanche Yurka seen briefly as Sheridan's tenement mother, Mrs. Nash. Then there is future movie director, Elia Kazan, making his movie debut as Googi. His performance is small but excellent. As mentioned before, Arthur Kennedy, another good but underrated actor, also makes his debut. Interestingly Kennedy closely resembles Cagney well enough to actually be his brother, but his Eddie character comes close to being a George Gershwin-type, especially when conducting his symphony at Carnegie Hall in the latter part of the story. Another performer who should not go unnoticed is Lee Patrick, usually cast in sophisticated character roles, and best remembered as Effie, Sam Spade's secretary in the 1941 version to THE MALTESE FALCON, playing Gladys, a floozy but good-natured chorus girl who offers the down-and-out Sheridan accommodations at her place.

One cannot help noticing character actor and playwright Frank Craven as "Old Timer" being featured THIRD in the opening and closing cast credits. He appears in only ONE brief scene in the opening segment where he happens to be walking down Delancey Street. He notices a young teen stealing two pieces of bread, catches the boy only to say, "If you must steal bread in New York (slight pause), don't get caught!" Afterwards he gives the boy one piece and takes one for himself. Old Timer is never seen or heard from again. Craven's character name of "Old Timer" isn't even heard or called out during those few minutes. What does Craven's cameo, which ranks third in the cast, have to do with the plot? After doing some research, I have come to learn that the print in circulation, both on video cassette and television presentations, is from a 1948 theatrical reissue, which excised all but one of Craven's scenes. Anyone who has ever seen his performance in OUR TOWN (United Artists, 1940), where he plays a philosopher appearing throughout the story delivering messages to his audience, will be interested to know that Craven has done the same in the original version of CITY FOR CONQUEST, which could have been a revamped production re-titled OUR CITY. In CITY FOR CONQUEST, Craven occasionally intrudes or narrates in numerous scenes to tell the camera eye about the central characters. It would be interesting to see the outlook of this restored version someday. (That someday finally took place on the night of November 12, 2007, on TCM, getting to see Frank Craven address the story to the viewers, to see the main characters of Danny, Peggy and Googi as children, Ward Bond as a cop, and other scenes not before seen since its original theatrical release).

Aside from its melodramatic storyline, CITY FOR CONQUEST features a handful of instrumental melodies, many from previous 1930s musicals, including "Lullaby of Broadway," "The Continental," "Corn Pickin'" "Garden of the Moon," "I'm Just Wild About Harry," "The Shadow Waltz," "The Words Are in My Heart," "42nd Street," "Where Were You When the Moon Came Out?" "Powder My Back for Me" and the six minute finale, "Symphony of a Great City." Many of these tunes are part of the ballroom dancing as performed by Sheridan and Quinn.

CITY FOR CONQUEST is an interesting look on New York lifestyle of long ago, which makes this worth viewing whenever aired on Turner Classic Movies. (***1/2)

"Every day the big parade comes in shaking their faces..."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 14 August 2012]

Dedicated to his craft, Jimmy Cagney underwent a grueling twelve week training regimen to lose weight and get into shape as a prize fighter. At forty two, his weight had gone up to a hefty one hundred eighty pounds, but his enthusiasm for the film motivated him to drop thirty five pounds for the role. Apparently the film recognized his actual weight in fight posters in which he's listed as a hundred forty five pound welterweight.

"City For Conquest" was one of three pictures teaming Cagney with feisty Ann Sheridan. Both actors are personal favorites of mine, and "Angels With Dirty Faces" earns a spot in my personal Top Ten film list. Like 'Angels' this one will tug at your heartstrings at the finale, although the situations presented are significantly different. Reduced to selling newspapers after a vicious fight in which he loses his eyesight, Danny Kenny (Cagney) is overcome with joy at hearing a symphony his brother (Arthur Kennedy) wrote. Equally moving, Danny is reunited with his childhood sweetheart Peggy (Sheridan).

The picture is non stop in terms of action and dialog. From the opening scenes, there's always a sense of hustle and bustle emanating from the streets and neighborhoods of the picture's locale, New York City. In that respect it's vintage Warner Brothers, brought to life by the crisp black and white photography of James Wong Howe and Sol Polito.

Backing up the principal actors are veteran Warner contract players Donald Crisp and Frank McHugh along with a couple of casting surprises. Anthony Quinn appears as the suave but seedy dance partner who guides Sheridan's character to stardom, and future director Elia Kazan pops up in a small but significant role as one of Danny's friends who goes the gangster route as time goes by. I have to say, his performance seemed pretty natural to me and had he stayed with it, might have made his mark as an actor with the same success he achieved on the other side of the camera.

As good as the film is, and as well as it was received by the public when it was released, this turned out to be a picture Cagney didn't like at all. Part of that stems from his relationship with director Anatole Litvak with whom he argued constantly over the story's interpretation. So much so that he even wrote a letter of apology to Aben Kandel, the writer of the novel on which the film was based. Whether true or not, Cagney swore at the time never to watch another one of his movies. I don't think I would have bet the ranch on that one.

Cagney's last professional work occurred in the 1984 TV movie "Terrible Joe Moran", in which he portrays a retired boxer. That picture offers up a number of scenes in which Cagney is shown mixing it up in the ring and for the longest time I couldn't figure out where the footage came from. Now I know that those clips were inserted from the boxing scenes appearing in "City For Conquest".

Another James Cagney Winner, With Special Touches

[ccthemovieman-1 · 10/10 · 9 January 2007]

A nice cast elevates this melodrama about good-guy James Cagney ("Danny Kenny" ) trying to win over career-minded Ann Sheridan ("Peggy Nash"). Cagney's "Danny" is a regular kind of guy. All he wants in life is a nice, simple job and to settle down with his lifelong girlfriend "Peg."

"Peg" likes him, too, but wants her dancing career and the limelight more. Several times she breaks poor Danny's heart. Meanwhile, Danny has a talent for prizefighting but no desire to do it for a living. He doesn't want to hurt anybody. Near the end, he resorts to a ring career only as a last-ditch attempt to win his girl......with tragic results

This is not a Cagney gangster movie nor a boxing film. It is simply a drama-romance with some boxing thrown in, and only one fight highlighted. That main event in which Cagney is blinded by his opponent cheating is a painful segment to watch, especially since it results in a brutal beating. What happens afterward makes this movie special.

There are some memorable scenes in this movie, both tough and tender. The finish is an old-fashioned touching one guaranteed to bring a tear or two to anyone's eyes who has a heart.

There are a number of dated lines of dialog, but hearing the lingo of the day is kind of fun. Cagney, as usual, is extremely interesting to watch. He's the best of a good cast. Included in that cast is famous director Elia Kazan, who plays "Googie." Kazan shows he could act, too. The film also marked the acting debut of Arthur Kennedy, who plays Cagney's brother "Eddie." Kennedy's role is a key one in the emotional ending.

Overall, this is really good storytelling and movie-making, the kind that gives "the classic era" a good reputation.

Cagney is indomitable; Boxing Scenes Terrific in Good Melodrama

[tedr0113 · 7/10 · 25 July 2006]

How this film missed out on the 100 Most inspiring films list is beyond me. Cagney is treated miserably by Ann Sheridan, is practically blinded and still is content and happy. Amazing, if not exactly realistic. The highpoint of the movie for me was the boxing sequence which was long and brutal. It was mesmerizing in a way that you felt for Cagney as he was being pummeled.

Elsewhere, Frank McHugh is a wonderful second banana, the Frank Craven role is just pretentious blather (and further distances this film from reality), a very young Anthony Quinn looks...odd cast as a professional dancer and Elia Kazan does make a good slimy mobster. Donald Crisp is a good-hearted manager who only cares for the welfare of Cagney (yeah, right) and Charles Lane does a nice bit as the dance team manager.

Overall, a good, not great film, if you are willing to swallow some of its romanticized aspects.

One other note: you might notice the boxer in the training room that walks by in extremely short and revealing shorts and the two dancers near the end with very revealing fishnet costumes that leave very little to the imagination. How did these pass the censors?

City for Conquest-Captures Mood of N.Y. ****

[edwagreen · 10/10 · 13 November 2007]

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.

Voice Of New York.

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 5 November 2013]

Anatole Litvak directed this drama that begins with actor Frank Craven talking directly to the audience, saying how there are lots of stories in New York City, and he presents one of them: James Cagney plays Danny Kenny, a truck driver who is also a prize fighter, though has little interest in it. His brother Eddie(played by Arthur Kennedy) has dreams of being a concert pianist, which lead Danny to enter the fight racket to pay for his brother's tuition, though there will be tragic consequences...Ann Sheridan plays Peggy Nash, Danny's girlfriend who has dreams of becoming a professional dancer, but must put up with her lecherous male partner(played by Anthony Quinn). All three of them will have their fates intertwine in this interesting and well-acted film, especially Cagney, who does a fine job convincing the viewer he is blind... New Yorkers in particular will like this.

Big City Blues

[slokes · 5/10 · 15 April 2012]

Late in the film, our hero Danny Kenny (James Cagney) tells us he "don't like that tear-jerking sob stuff." No doubt he would have winced sitting through "City Of Conquest." I did, a lot of the time.

A tough but amiable West Side kid, Danny is a skilled amateur boxer who doesn't like fighting. He cares more about his love for the girl who lives up the stairs from his apartment. But when she grows up, Peg (Ann Sheridan) wants more out of life than to be the wife of a truck driver. She has aspirations to be a big-time dancer. To keep up, Danny takes his chances in the professional ring, with hard results.

"City For Conquest" is a film that wants to hit a home run every inning. To the extent it relies on Cagney, it delivers more than it fails. Cagney is in great form, dialing down on his trademark bantam ambition and commanding the screen in his unaffected way. Other pictures make you fear or admire Cagney; here you just really like him and enjoy his easy charm.

Alas, the film uses this to shoehorn a lot of melodrama. In addition to Danny, you get the story of his musical brother Eddie (Arthur Kennedy) and Peg's struggle for success as the partner of headcase-on-the-make Murray Burns (Anthony Quinn). Quinn and Kennedy would go on to score nine Oscar nominations between them and co-star in "Lawrence Of Arabia," a film as epically ambitious as "City For Conquest" but much more successful.

There's a lot of talent in evidence here, both on screen and behind the camera. Maybe too much. Elia Kazan's performance as Danny's loyal gangster pal Googi is rightly praised for its naturalism, which is easy to notice in a film where so much of the supporting cast plays their one-note parts with such over-revved gusto. Googi is an interesting character, but his scenes, like Kennedy's, too often stretch the narrative more than it can afford. Third-billed Frank Craven jumps in and out of the movie as the same kind of narrator he played in "Our Town," offering a lot of folky, overwritten nonsense he insists is true because "I got clothes on my back."

I guess they wanted to make a point about Manhattan as dream-weaver and back-breaker, but instead of just letting the characters breathe and develop in a natural way you get a kind of big-studio meat-grinder effect, a pushed-up drama with tears and big speeches of the kind Holden Caulfield complained about in "Catcher In The Rye." I like that artificiality in other movies, but here the emotions are played a little too strong and too quick. Poor Sheridan seems lost alternately playing a hustling heel and a loyal girlfriend.

Director Anatole Litvak delivers some interesting setpieces, and he is handsomely supported by the cinematography of Sol Polito and James Wong Howe, wizards of black-and-white and the best thing about "City For Conquest" after Cagney. One amazing shot of a street dance zooms out from Cagney watching Sheridan to swoop under a line of lights and up over the adoring crowd. How they did that I have no idea. You get shots like that throughout the film, pieces of artistry that call no attention to themselves.

Most everything else does, though. Sometimes it works, like the Max Steiner score. Sure, it's Gershwin-lite and played up too much, stopping the film dead near the end when Eddie introduces his "Magic Isle Symphony." Still, it's a great number.

Too often, though, you get another close-up of Sheridan in tears, or Craven smirking up a storm as he grandiloquently lights into another quandary posed by the big city. A better script, with a tighter focus on Danny the fighter, and "City For Conquest" could have been up there with Cagney's best. Instead, it's a worthy depiction of how well Cagney could hold up a lesser film with sheer acting power and finesse, something to see for his many fans but a missed opportunity for the rest of us.

typical Warner Brothers gem

[vironpride · 1 December 2004]

I had the very great pleasure this Thanksgiving week of seeing one of my sentimental favorites from the good old Late Show days (nights), City for Conquest. I had not seen it in more years than I should like to remember, but, as I watched, it all came back to me. James Cagney, who has always been a great favorite of mine, plays Danny Kenney (they always seemed to give James Cagney's characters names like "Danny" or "Tommy"), who takes up boxing to finance his younger brother's music career. Sizzling Ann Sheridan is Danny's girlfriend, who has ambitions of her own in the wider world. And indeed Ann Sheridan was a wonderful dancer, and her numbers with Anthony Quinn are erotic in only the way a great dance team can be. Anthony Quinn (man, he was HOT! He looked a lot like Rudolph Valentino) plays a slime ball who fills Peggy's ears with what she wants to hear. They can be a sensational dance team as "Maurice and Margalo" and conquer the world. Of course, she winds up breaking Danny's heart and Danny winds up blind. Soap opera stuff, to be sure, but it WORKS! I believe I once read that Warner Brothers hired a professional boxer to coach James Cagney in this role. Not that he needed much coaching, considering his Hell's Kitchen background. The coach was impressed with Cagney and asked him where he got those moves. "I'm a hoofer," Cagney replied. In any case, if you can avoid bawling your eyes out at the end of City for Conquest," you are stronger than I am! A must-see!

Who knew Elia Kazan could act?

[Nate-48 · 7/10 · 1 July 2020]

Sure, Elia Kazan helped start the Actor's studio and made his mark on actors like Brando, Dean and Steiger but I didn't realize he had serious acting chops on the big screen which he does here stealing the movie in a handful of scenes with James Cagney.

Cagney is still the picture though he is probably five years too old to make this picture but nonetheless it is prototypical tour de force for Cagney.

This movie was co-written by a Romanian with a Hollywood writer, co-directed by a Romanian and Ukranian so it has an unusual touch for what is mostly standard Hollywood code fare.

Despite numerous shortcomings and slow parts which drag the picture down, there is a lot to like - Ann Sheridan is solid, Anthony Quinn makes a major impression early in his career though he had already been in about 20 movies. Donald Crisp is in top form - a great actor who doesn't get enough mentions.

A lot of positives which get weighed down by the pace of the film - I wonder how many people saw this film because you can see semblances of a lot of future films from Rocky to Raging Bull, Rudy and even Good Will Hunting.

It's a boxing picture but more than that. Cagney was a real boxer when he was young so the boxing scenes are very realistic.

This is one of Cagney's more complex performances. Just needed a bit more editing but it's worth sitting through even though it may not seem so at times.

pretty good Warner film

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 24 May 2006]

This is a pretty good film from Warners about three people all trying to pull themselves out of the crowd in the big city. Ann Sheridan has dreams of dancing on Broadway with her slimy dance partner, Anthony Quinn. Jimmy Cagney initially just wants to be a working stiff, but later decides to take up boxing and has a chance for the title. And, finally, Arthur Kennedy wants to play his compositions in the fanciest of concert halls. How much they are willing to work and compromise themselves is the heart of the film.

Sheridan, at first a decent and simple lady, becomes a skanky woman willing to put up with ANYTHING from Quinn to make it to the top--including disappointing and lying to her boyfriend, Cagney. Cagney, at first not interested in boxing, ultimately is blinded in the ring. Only Kennedy achieves his goal while maintaining his dignity and eyesight! In the end, everything is wrapped up pretty predictably--perhaps TOO predictably. A decent film with some excellent performances but perhaps a few too many clichés to make it an exceptional film.

Great boxing drama, story and cast: James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Anthony Quinn and more

[jacobs-greenwood · 7/10 · 16 December 2016]

Directed by Anatole Litvak, this above average boxing drama features an all-star cast that includes James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Frank Craven, Donald Crisp, Frank McHugh, Arthur Kennedy, George Tobias, Jerome Cowan, Elia Kazan, Anthony Quinn, Lee Patrick, and the list goes on, including lesser knowns who were uncredited like Edward Gargan. John Wexley's screenplay was based on Aben Kandel's novel. Its ending should leave a tear in your eye.

Cagney plays a truck driver who was also a Golden Gloves boxing champ in his youth; Sheridan plays his girlfriend. Kennedy plays Cagney's younger brother, a composer-pianist whose classical work isn't appreciated by anyone but his older brother. McHugh plays Cagney's friend and co-worker, Tobias another who also runs the gym where Cagney still boxes to stay in shape. Kazan plays another former kid from the neighborhood that Cagney & McHugh run into right after he's gotten out of jail, so they help him a little. Craven only has a small cameo, as a street bum. When Kennedy's scholarship is cut in half, Cagney enters the ring for the first time in 5 years to make up the difference. He wins and impresses (an honest!) boxing manager Crisp, but Cagney believes that all boxers end up punchy old men, and declines Crisp's offer to make a career of it.

Out on the town celebrating his win, Cagney and friends go to a nightclub where Quinn is the dance master. Since Cagney doesn't dance, he lets Sheridan go with Quinn and the two win a dancing competition. With stars in her eyes, Sheridan pursues her dream to become famous dancing with Quinn, after she's told Cagney he has no ambition 'cause he's happy just being a truck driver. To impress and provide better for Sheridan, Cagney visits Crisp who insists he can make Cagney champ if he'll let him call the shots. Cagney agrees, and makes progress steadily rising through the ranks, until he's within a fight or two of a title fight. He then insists that Crisp get him a chance to fight the champ so that he can win back Sheridan from her now famous dancing duo with Quinn. Though Crisp would rather wait, he does what Cagney asks. Kazan, now a big success as a gangster, bets Cowan $50,000 that his old pal Cagney will beat Cowan's champ. Cagney loses the fight, and his sight, through dirty tricks by the champ and his manager in the ring. Kazan gets even with Cowan, but then gets the surprise of his life.

That's really just the film's first half, even though it makes a pretty good movie (if somewhat incomplete) by itself. The second half is comprised of Cagney's struggle to be useful again, which inspires his brother Kennedy to strive for his dream of one day playing at Carnegie Hall. Sheridan is made to feel responsible for Cagney's condition by Crisp, and then ends up rooming with Patrick when she leaves Quinn's employ.

The film's sentimental endings (there are two, really) are both tearjerking and satisfying.

No less than a symphony to WB Pictures & a vision of USA

[phlbrq · 10/10 · 18 August 2010]

I've watched this film over the space of 35 years and my admiration changes but never diminishes. It's a powerful story of the immigrant saga, high vs. popular art, soul killing careerism, street America, brotherhood 'hoodism'... this picture has got a lot going on.

If you don't like it, I don't like you.

Anatole Litvak was an immigrant along with many WB employees. Donald Crisp, Elia Kazan, Sig Ruman are all here. It's an important film for Cagney and WB in The context of their place in history. So many WB films are more highly regarded but for me this is the best representation of the WB aesthetic.

Better than average Cagney film with a number of good performances

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 29 July 2017]

I wasn't expecting much out of this film because I grew tired of all the cops-n-robbers flicks that Warner Brothers pumped out with stars such as James Cagney. In fact, I almost didn't watch it all. But I'm glad I did, because this film stands out over many other such WB films of the era.

Cagney plays a truck driver here, who also fools around with amateur boxing...and has a life-long girlfriend played by Ann Sheridan. Cagney also has a brother, a sort of musical prodigy, and Cagney turns to professional boxing in order to help his brother pay for music school. Meanwhile, however, Sheridan falls for a dancer -- Anthony Quinn -- who helps her professional aspirations to be a dancer on the stage. Sheridan and Cagney drift apart. During a title fight, an opponent makes Cagney go nearly blind by putting rosin on his gloves, which he then rubs into his eyes during the fight. After the prognosis of the blindness is permanent, Cagney operates a newspaper stand, while his brother becomes a successful composer. Of course, in the end, Sheridan and Cagney are reunited.

There are a number of nice touches which make this film enjoyable for many types of viewers. While it's about boxing, there isn't so much of it in the film that if you dislike boxing that you won't want to watch. It's a nice period piece in terms of the music and dancing of the era. Cagney, Sheridan, and Arthur Kennedy (as the brother) all have their own stories to tell. Years ago a Thai friend was visiting my home and one evening we watched some James Cagney movie, and when it was done my friend said, "Americans think James Cagney could act?" And, Cagney did have a bit of an unreal style of acting, which is more restrained here. I think he was maturing as an actor in this phase of his career, and it wasn't long after this that he starred in "Yankee Doodle Dandy".

So, this is a good starring vehicle for James Cagney. Ann Sheridan shines here as Peggy Nash, and it reminded me that she was very pleasing on the big screen, and is not remembered as well as she should be. I've never been impressed with Arthur Kennedy, but he's satisfactory here. Frank Craven as the "Old Timer" is interesting...he sort of narrates, much as he had done very recently in "Our Town". Anthony Quinn is not very pleasant as the dancer...but handsome...and of course, this was in his phase as a bad guy. Interestingly, Elia Kazan is here as a gangster-type. And venerable character actor Donald Crisp shines as a boxing promoter; what a versatile actor he was! Even Frank McHugh, whom I often find irritating, was pretty good here.

I enjoyed this film a lot, and I recommend it.

Beautiful WB production of the 40´s

[marionaito · 8/10 · 30 December 2002]

Beautiful WB production of the 40´s really surprised me because of its dynamic pace, excellent cinematography and wonderful performances. What could had been only a tearful melodrama is instead a very good film with a powerful script and many alluring characters. Except Cagney, who never was a great actor for me, although he gave notable performances in Yankee Doodle Dandy and White heat, and tries hard in this picture, Sheridan is much better than usual and the rest of the cast of WB supporting players is really excellent. Kennedy was always a great presence, although he never was a star, but he could easily classify among the best American character actors of all time. A very young Anthony Quinn does a good job as a dancer-seducer, and Elia Kazan in a magnificent early role as an actor gives me the impression of having serve as a model for the young Robert De Niro of Mean Streets. Also the terrific fighting scenes, though keeping the time distance, seem a true inspiration of what Scorsese reach in Raging Bull.An underrated film which deserves further recognition.

A young love endures.

[michaelRokeefe · 7/10 · 22 January 2008]

A very memorable role for James Cagney. As a youngster he makes Ann Sheridan his girl and they promise to be together forever. Cagney grows to be a hard working truck driver that has to turn to boxing to make real dough. Another reason for quick bucks is that his girl has grown to be an award winning dancer, but with a scoundrel for a partner(Anthony Quinn). Cagney ends up blind from a beating in the ring; and to make ends meet he operates a newspaper stand. His girl gives up her dancing to take care of him. Elia Kazan turns in a marvelous death scene; my favorite of the movie. Also in the cast: Donald Crisp, George Tobias, Arthur Kennedy and Frank McHugh.

Fantastic in its time; great now

[bluerider521 · 8/10 · 12 June 2013]

This was made for an urban immigrant audience, and it must have touched them mightily in 1940. Ultimately, this is about poverty and ambition. It is still great; only a grinch will not tear up at the end. Corny, dated, melodramatic, full of clichés, but played by the most professional cast you can imagine. It touches on basic human emotions and needs which have not changed since 1940.

Now and then a 21st century movie comes along which can compete. I go to see them. Most of the time I am part of only a half dozen people in the theater. The great genius of the old studios was that they could make movies which touched on the human condition in such a way that it appealed to a mass audience.

Just keep a positive attitude

[nomoons11 · 7/10 · 11 October 2011]

Jimmy Cagney was the king of cinema for quite a few years and with this one, you can see why.

The basic premise of this film is that Cagney is a good prize fighter but he doesn't like to fight so he just keeps his job as a truck driver...i.e...he has no ambition. His life-long girlfriend, who does love him, doesn't care for that so she goes out of her way to further her dancing career and leaves him behind for her life and not theirs together. What you get from the Ann Sheridan character is that she's too ambitious but what she really is is naive.

Jimmy Cagney ends up taking up fighting so he can try and keep the attention of his girl but ends up almost blind when another fighter cheats and uses a substance on his glove to blind him while they fight.

Throughout the entire film he's just a super positive guy. He lets his girl do whatever and he says.."I'm not worried". He's almost blinded and he says..."It'll get better..just takes time". At the end you'll have a tear in your eye but most of that will be from the positive outlook has regardless of the circumstance he's in.

One nice little surprise you'll see in this one is a very young Anthony Quinn. His role is in the first half of the film but does a good job with it.

If your feeling down and need a pick-me-up...see this one. It'll brighten you day.

Giving it Up for James Cagney

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 15 September 2007]

James Cagney (as Danny) is a New York City truck driver who takes up boxing in order to finance his brother Arthur Kennedy (as Eddie)'s musical career. Ann Sheridan (as Peggy) is Danny's childhood girlfriend - she gives up their romance for a dancing career, and ends up weeping profusely for it.

The film begins as the "City for Conquest" characters are children, living in New York city's lower East Side. Each child mirrors his/her adult development; for example, "Danny" fights, "Peggy" dances, and "Eddie" squeezes his music box. These opening scenes are well-done, and effectively introduce the characters. However, the switch from children to adult actors fails because the "Danny" boy is so unlike actor James Cagney - it's very startling when Cagney appears. The other children are very well-cast; the boy playing Elia Kazan's "Googi" character looks especially like the adult "Googi". The boy playing Mr. Cagney looks so different, you have to wonder if another actor might have been planned to star in this film.

Additionally, the children are depicted as being about the same age, but the adult Cagney appears much older when they are adults; he goes from being about Ms. Sheridan's age to looking like her father! He looks too out-of-shape for the role, also, of the "Young Samson". Frank Craven appears as "Old Timer"; he seems to have great knowledge, but his role is confusing. Anthony Quinn is Ms. Sheridan's greasy dancing partner (and abductor?) Murray Burns. For some reason, Mr. Quinn spent way too long in the make-up chair - his eye make-up is the film's heaviest. Yet, the cast is worth watching. James Cagney is, after all, still Cagney. Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Kazan perform their parts very well. The structurally flawed story does move - and, Sheridan's profuse weeping could squeeze one out of you.

***** City for Conquest (9/21/40) Anatole Litvak ~ James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Arthur Kennedy, Anthony Quinn