Great Guy

Name: Great Guy
Director: John G. Blystone
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Released: 1936
Duration: 1 h 6 min
Cast: James Cagney, Mae Clarke, James Burke, Edward Brophy, Henry Kolker

1936 Crime Drama 66 minutes Directed by John G. Blystone

About Great Guy

After chief deputy Joe Green is nearly killed in a crash set up by politician Marty Cavanaugh, ex-boxer Johnny Cave takes over the New York weights-and-measures job. With partner Aloysius Haley he fines a market for lead in the chickens and a gas station for short measure, and he turns down bribes. Cavanaugh frames him, then offers to clear him. Johnny refuses a soft job from the mayor. He finds that his fiancée Janet Henry's boss, Abel Canning, is billing an orphanage for food it never got. Janet breaks the engagement when Johnny gives the story to the papers. Cavanaugh's man Joe Burton steals the evidence and blackmails Canning. At a party Johnny sees the payoff, stops Canning and Cavanaugh from burning the papers, and the police take them. Janet takes the ring back.

Cast & crew

More about Great Guy

John G. Blystone directed. Henry McCarty and Henry Johnson wrote the screenplay, with extra dialogue by Henry Ruskin, from James Edward Grant's 'Johnnie Cave' stories in The Saturday Evening Post in 1933 and 1934. Douglas MacLean produced it. Jack MacKenzie photographed it. Grand National Pictures released it in December 1936. It runs 66 minutes.

Themes

Short weights in a city market
A frame that comes with a job offer
An orphanage billed for food it did not get
Johnny Cave
weights and measures
Marty Cavanaugh
Abel Canning
Janet Henry
Grand National

Reviews

Graham Greene, writing in The Spectator in 1937, singled out Cagney's playing and the party climax with the ward politicians, the mayor, and the crooks.

Look

Jack MacKenzie shot the market inspections and the apartment where the papers are almost burned.

Music

Marlin Skiles wrote the score.

Preservation

Prints are on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.

Notes

James Cagney plays Johnny Cave. Mae Clarke plays Janet Henry. James Burke plays Aloysius Haley. Robert Gleckler plays Marty Cavanaugh. Henry Kolker plays Abel Canning. Joe Sawyer plays Joe Burton.
Cagney had left Warner Bros. and made this for the new Grand National company.
The ring he gives Janet at the end was bought on the installment plan.
Marlin Skiles is credited with the music.

Scenes

Johnny fines the market for lead weights in the stewing chickens.
Canning tries to burn the evidence in the apartment.
Janet takes the installment-plan ring.

Influenced by

James Edward Grant's Saturday Evening Post stories (1933–1934)

Also available

Internet Archive (Great_Guy.avi)
Wikimedia Commons (Great Guy (1936).webm)