Less star vehicle than star steamroller, Lady Killer boasts James Cagney doing what James Cagney does best: moving like a caffeinated blur, tossing his fists into other people's faces, spewing out wild streams of New Yorkese insults, and slapping poor Mae Clarke (Public Enemy's notorious grapefuit-in-the-face recipient). “An all-time high in roughneck character work” (New York Times), Lady Killer finds Cagney as a bare-knuckled New York gangster forced to flee the East for Hollywood. Finding that his talents for browbeating innocents, out-shouting naysayers, and manipulating enemies have a perfect home in the studio system, Cagney becomes a star, setting up an eventual showdown with his old gang, who'd like a piece of the profits. Both satirizing and reveling in Cagney's persona (uncouth NYC street-kid who's become famous, indeed), Lady Killer is Cagney Baroque, and “a sly satire of Hollywood and the gangster genre” (Time Out). —Jason Sanders