Facets Film School begins the first full week of March with four diverse classes taught by qualified instructors who not only know their topics but love cinema. On Mondays, Philip Sorenson and Olivia Cronk will offer Cinema of Absence: Objects of Desire; on Tuesdays Ben Sachs will ruminate on Alain Resnais and His World of Imagination; and on Wednesdays, Jeffrey Jon Smith will look at Couture Cinema: The World of Fashion on Film. However, on Thursdays, Doug Deuchler is offering James Cagney: Superhero of the Depression, which is the class I would take if there were more hours in the day and more days in the week. While this is no reflection on the other classes—which all sound fascinating—Cagney trumps fashion, the French, and the failure to get your heart’s desire, at least in my book. No contest.
In 1931, Cagney created the definitive portrayal of the tough-talking, swaggering movie gangster in The Public Enemy, which seared the archetype into the minds of millions of Americans for decades to come. Fifty years later, in failing health, he gave a memorable performance as a tough guy on the other side of the law in Milos Forman’s Ragtime. He epitomized what the star system of the Golden Age did best—constructing a highly recognizable screen persona that not only stood the test of time but held value for movie-goers of many generations.
Few of today’s young movie-goers understand the star system as anything more than glorified hype about overindulged celebrities who are worshiped by a vapid movie-going public. But, the star system that developed in Hollywood during the 1910s and was honed to a finely tuned industry practice during the Golden Age was an ingenious system that worked on many levels. Stars were the primary method of marketing films during the Golden Age, so a star’s screen image was worth a dollar value to studios. Directors and producers used a star’s image to help craft a character and to manipulate audience expectations regarding that character. Hitchcock once noted that casting was half the battle in character development because audiences were already familiar with the personality traits of a star’s image and applied them to the character before walking into the theater. A star’s image was part of the raw material of creating a film—as important as the words in the script or the continuity editing that made everything look so smooth and natural.
Audiences selected their favorites based on the ideals, values, and ideas the stars represented. Grant was a favorite among women not only because of his drop-dead looks but because he was known for playing sophisticated gentleman who treated women with tenderness and respect. Stewart became the everyman defined by his integrity and honesty with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Shirley Temple represented optimism during the Depression, when Americans needed hope for the future. John Wayne represented the rugged individualism so associated with American ideology; Marlon Brando symbolized a healthy rebellion against that ideology. The star system was a complex industry practice that took into account the director’s need to create a character, the audience’s desire to validate their own values, and the studio’s need to promote their product.
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| Cagney and Edward Woods in THE PUBLIC ENEMY |
Whether cast as a gangster or a lawman, James Cagney excelled at playing a variation of the tough guy. From the beginning, Warner Bros. cast him in roles that established his star image as the working-class urbanite who could be as raw and brutal as life on the streets. Brimming over with tense energy that left him wound like a spring, Cagney became a signifier of the pent-up rage of folks who were downtrodden by the realities of the Depression. He spoke quickly in the tough slang of the times and seemed always on the verge of some spontaneous violence. His characters’ gutsy self-confidence offered a view of the lower classes in which they were not beaten or demoralized—undoubtedly appealing to audiences given the times. Doug Deuchler will show several films from this important phase of Cagney’s career, including The Public Enemy, The Mayor of Hell, and Footlight Parade—a musical. Cagney had been a hoofer in vaudeville and on Broadway, and the physicality of his screen characters owe much to his background as a dancer.
In addition to understanding Cagney’s star image and its importance to the Depression era, the class offers an opportunity to see several pre-Code films, which are movies made before the rigid censorship of the Production Code was enforced. Movie fans are always fascinated by the references to sex and the seedy side of life in pre-Code films that few associate with “old movies.” Cagney’s pre-Code films are rife with scenes and characters from the underbelly of New York.
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| Cagney and Ruby Keeler in the "Shanghai Lil" number from FOOTLIGHT PARADE |
Cagney gave American pop culture some of its most lasting screen moments—smashing a grapefruit in the face of Mae Clark in The Public Enemy; singing and dancing to “Shanghai Lil” in Footlight Parade; pretending to “turn yellow” in Angels with Dirty Faces. He deserved his stardom and his place in the pantheon of American cultural icons, and James Cagney: Superhero of the Depression will offer a context for understanding why.--Susan Doll
