Hard to Handle (1933)

Hard to Handle
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by Robert Lord and Wilson Mizner; original story by Houston Branch
1933/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
First viewing/Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 5

Lefty Merrill: Did Ruth tell you I was in town?
Lil Waters: Yeah. You and the rest of the Depression.

A dose of James Cagney is always a great pick-me-up.  The rest of this cast not so much.

The story begins in Southern California.  Lefty Merrill (Cagney) is a con man.  His latest scam is a rigged dance marathon.  His girlfriend Ruth Waters (Mary Brian) is one-half of the winning pair.  Her mother Lil (Ruth Donnelly) is counting on the $500 to pay her back rent. But the joke is on Lefty when he is left holding the bag by his partner who takes the entire proceeds including the prize money.  Now Lil hates Lefty and wants her daughter to have nothing to do with him.  Lil proves herself to be a pretty ruthless scam artist herself.

Ruth and Lil move to New York City and Ruth gets a job as a photographer’s model.  The photographer is sweet on her and Lil covets his $25,000 a year salary.  Lefty can’t stay away and comes up with more crooked get-rich-quick schemes to try to win Ruth back. The scams are both outrageous and obvious and Lil’s opinion of him rises and falls with his fortunes.  With Allen Jenkins as a radio announcer reporting on the dance marathon.

Jimmy Cagney, as always, is a magnetic force of nature in this film.  However none of the rest of the cast can match him.  Also, I love Ruth Donnelly.  She overacts shamelessly to provide a lot of stupid comic relief here.  Also I thought the fact the mother and daughter wear matching outfits throughout much of the movie was distinctly odd.  Not a bad way to kill an hour and 18 minutes I suppose.