Sdrawde

One of Cagney's last pictures before his extended retirement (he returned in Ragtime). Like On The Waterfront, Never Steel Anything Small deals with a corrupt longshoreman's union on the U.S. east coast. That's where the similarity ends, as one is a straight drama and the other a musical comedy. Cagney, with his roots as a vaudeville hoofer, dances and sings in some neat production numbers choreographed by Hermes Pan, Fred Astaire's (mostly) off-screen collaborator. The movie also sends up television commercials; an unusual thing in the 1950s when Hollywood was loathe to acknowledge the upstart TV medium. Shirley Jones does a nice job as the good wife who inadvertently tempts the wiley union boss/climber-with-a-heart-of-gold Cagney.

The most rewarding musicals have a dark, not a sunny soul.

It's Always Fair Weather has a brilliant mid-fifties screenplay: the effect of World War II lays its hand on it; television is an added character to be lampooned as the film studios tried to maintain supremacy over the upstart TV medium (you can see where My Favorite Year got its ending); roles for the principles that were all worldly and complex.

The dance numbers are top-drawer in this underrated gem; unfortunately the songs aren't memorable. (Not bad, mind you.)

Watch for the brilliant Jerry Lewis impression by Dan Dailey about 3/4 of the way in!

Under The Volcano was originally a complex novel written by real-life alcoholic Malcolm Lowry. Film director John Huston also had a passing acquaintanceship with the bottle and a sensibility for grasping the dark, mystical side of Mexican culture. This all adds up to potent cinematic symbolic imagery underlining terrific performances from Finney, Bissett and Andrews. 8 stars