Evening star., 1933-03-26

JAMES CAGNEY, the carrot
headed boy wonder of the
- films, once a hoofer and now
a stalwart gentleman OF
fighting blood, is in quandary.
He wants advice He is in doubt
about his screen future. Whether
to be meek and mild or hard
boiled and ruthless is the question.
Shall he, he asks, be human,
iikable and good natured" (as he
was in Hard to HandleD, or
shall he turn to rougher heldS
and continue with some OF that
rough and tough bravado with
which he started out his film
career?
The Warner Brothers, of course,
would like to know this, too. They
have this sometimes gentle young
man on their star list and are
planning to present him to his
public in the kind of vein that
the public likes him best. But
they don't know the public's
state of nind-and as a matter
of fact, the public probably
doesn't know it's state of mind
either, since Mr.. Cagney is a per-
suasive actor, easy of manner and
deft of speech and can probably
fool anybody into believing ne Is
good in anything.
Our advice to Mr.. Cagney IS to
be as hard-boiled as he likes and
to treat his heroines in the free
and easv manner which has been
his custom. Few screen heroes
are so magnificently flip as is MIR,
Cagney. He has seldom Deen
known to relax into the. warm love
lingo of some of his confereeS.
When he thinks he is in love with
a screen siren, he tells her so
either by patting her forcetully
on the cheek with a solid right
"hook," or by molesting her
roughly in other unconventional
euises. He has seldom been known
to dissolve into that conveyed ex-
nression which is meant to sug-
rest love, and he has been won
derfully free from balcony scenes
and Coney Island back-seat-
roller-coast sequences In Wnlcn
clinches of greater and lesser
sorts are always expected.
X x
ITO look at Mr.. Cagney one would
never suspect that he can be
so rugged before the camera: HIS
hair is a near orange, his cheeks
pink, and his eyes deep and blue.
When he appeared here last ION
the stage of the Earle Theater)
he was far from at ease, vocally
uncertain. and he apologized for
his act with a smile, a giggle and
a short bit of "hoofing." Short,
square. well built, with his make
up on he looked like boy still
cudgeling his brains in college.
You would never suspect that his
best cinema moments have come
when he clouds his brow, heaveS
his chest, speaks words Of "east-
side" thunder and strikes out with
a wicked "left."
AS gentle and subdued and
young as Mr.. Cagney looks in
real life, the camera, however, has
managed to plant the pugilist's
crown on him. With the result
that you like him dancing around
in a ring rather than tripping
about on his toes on the stage. Or
YOU prefer him running around as
a callous bell-boy, upsetting plates
and plots in hotel quarters, to
settling down i'm a corner with
Mary Brian Tin the manner OF
Buddy Rogersl and making un-
happy noises about the moon and
the stars.
Cagney is in class all by him
self. When he is hard-boiled, he
is still pleasant. He has not that
ability to be believably dour in
the way of Paul NUM-. Although
he was splendid in "The Public
Enemy" he is still more splendid
when he has a wink under his
face of steel, and when you know
that while he is a tough guy he
has a heart of gold"
Therefore, there is no real rea-
son why the public should have
to decide one way or the other
about him. He has settled his
own fate. We are willing to wager,
however. that Warner Brothers