Johnny Come Lately (1943) - film review

Vinnie McLeod is the ageing proprietor of a local newspaper in a small American town.  She also finds time to perform small acts of charity, her good works including giving a helping hand to vagrants.  One day, she meets Tom Richards, a former newspaper reporter who now prefers the life of the open road to that of an office.  To prevent Tom from being arrested for vagrancy, Mrs McLeod offers him the job of editor on her newspaper.  Moved by the old woman’s kindness, Tom accepts willingly, but soon discovers that the seemingly harmless dowager is locked in a bitter and potentially explosive feud with the town’s other notable, a disreputable politician and businessman named Dougherty....

For his first independently produced production after his Houdini-like escape from Warner Brothers, James Cagney teamed up with his brother William for this homespun social drama, based on Louis Bromfield’s novel McLeod’s Folly.  Audiences used to Cagney’s hard man gangster portrayals will be surprised by his genteel good guy persona in this film, although neither the script nor the direction do the actor many favours.  The creaking plot manages to cram in its maximum quota of clichés and it often looks like director William K. Howard can’t quite work out whether the film is melodrama, action film or farce.  Indeed, one or two sequences appear to have been lifted from a (bad) Keystone Kops movie.  That the film has any entertainment value at all is entirely down to the enjoyable turns from the supporting cast.  The contributions of such colourful characters as Grace George (her only major film role), Marjorie Main and Hattie McDaniel come close to eclipsing the star presence of its lead actor.  Although James Cagney was immensely fond of this film, it is most definitely not his finest hour.

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