На этот фильм меня навел Тони Сопрано, смотревший в одной серии телевизор.
Да и давно пора бы познакомиться с такими голливудскими именами.
Джеймс Кэгни интересный. А вот Джин Харлоу похожа на манекен с передозом.
А так в вечерней темноте стиль классических голливудских фильмов смотрится просто волшебно.
When taking on the assignment as director, William A. Wellman told studio head Darryl F. Zanuck "I'll bring you the toughest, most violent picture you ever did see".
Several versions exist of the origin of the notorious grapefruit scene, but the most plausible is the one on which both James Cagney and Mae Clarke agree:
The scene, they explained, was actually staged as a practical joke at the expense of the film crew, just to see their stunned reactions.
There was never any intention of ever using the shot in the completed film. Director William A.
Wellman, however, eventually decided to keep the shot, and use it in the film's final release print.
According to James Cagney's autobiography, Mae Clarke's ex-husband, Lew Brice, enjoyed the "grapefruit scene" so much that he went to the movie theater every day just to watch that scene only and leave.
The infamous grapefruit scene caused women's groups around America to protest the on-screen abuse of Mae Clarke.
The scene where Tom shoots the horse that threw and killed Sam "Nails" Nathan in a riding accident was based on an actual incident.
In 1924 Sam "Nails" Morton, a member of Charles Dion O'Bannion's gang, was thrown from his horse and killed while riding in Chicago's Lincoln Park.
Other members of the gang, led by Louis "Two Gun" Alteri, kidnapped the horse, took it to the spot where the accident occurred and shot it dead. Source: Carl Sifakis, "Encyclopedia Of American Crime."