Engaging but not particularly engrossing gangster flick. This is exactly the sort of role that Cagney is remembered for: the iconic mob boss, murderous and crazy and just charismatic enough to make the viewer wonder if maybe you should root for the psychopath after all. But most of the rest of this one is boilerplate crime drama. I'm not sure why this one is rated as highly as it is, other than Cagney's iconic presence (he does get off all the best lines), though I must admit that there's also some good direction at work here, too. You probably want to watch it to burnish your film historian bona fides, but I don't think it really goes much further than that. After all, it's hard to take seriously a villain--even an antihero--named "Cody."
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