The opening credits of 1953’s A Lion Is in the Streets play out on top of footage of a lion in front of the Lincoln Memorial. It walks back and forth in front of it, occasionally stretching up towards it and roaring. Though I’m sure this was done a set, I wondered how they got the lion to do this. More than that, I wondered why they did this. I’m sure it is a metaphor for something, likely something about politics, but I was confused as to exact what it was supposed to convey. And yet I don’t think I was as confused as this movie.
It takes place in the rural south, where James Cagney plays a peddler whose smooth talk can convince people to do his bidding. He convinces the local schoolmarm (Barbara Hale) to marry him. He convinces the congregants of the local church to renovate his house. If his powers of persuasion are so strong, I wonder why he was not in a more financially rewarding form of employment than travelling salesman.
Already, I had a hard time swallowing the “aw-shuckness” of this whole endeavor. Hollywood has consistently portrayed the poverty-stricken of the rural south in a patronizing manner, and this is no exception. Even worse, there’s an outright dishonesty on display, such as the “JIST MARRIED” sign on the back of the peddler’s caravan. You just know his wife, who is a teacher, would correct that.
And things get even worse when Anne Francis enters the plot as a scheming bayou hussy who always had designs on Cagney. Furious he has tied the knot, she flails at him, yelling that he always promised her he would wait. She even tries to feed Hale to a gator. Surprisingly, the fake gator isn’t too bad for a film of this vintage.
Since Francis and Cagney will eventually have an affair, I found myself wondering if their relationship was entirely legitimate before she become of age. But that would make the peddler a pedophile, and I just can’t think of a portmanteau which does that justice. Pedoler? Peddlerphile?
The action really kicks into gear when Cagney takes on a conglomerate of cotton gins that had been using dodgy weights to shortchange farmers. Larry Keating, as the head of the syndicate, sues Cagney, claiming he has been falsely accused.
There’s a tense scene where a mill foils a trap laid by Cagney, correctly assessing the first time the amount of cotton a farmer (John McIntire) brings in. But out protagonist notices the weights are brand new and a search finds the ones that had been used every previous time.
Thugs shoot McIntire to keep him from testifying in court. Cagney convinces the dying man to testify in court instead of gently slipping away courtesy of a morphine shot a doctor mercifully offers. As if that isn’t audacious enough, he convinces a judge to hold a spur-of-the-moment hearing. McIntire still dies in the courtroom before he can say anything. But Cagney uses this moment to whip the mob into a frenzy.
Cagney will channel this populism into a campaign to elect him governor. But that can only be accomplished with the assistance of Onslow Stevens, a puppet master with a goal in mind Cagney can’t foresee. In the end, Cagney will be a pawn in a game he realizes only too late he is part of. Still, he gladly shook the devil’s hand at every step of the way.
This movie tries to do many things and fails at all of them. I understand Cagney’s character is supposed to be a “man of the people” who simply connives or bullies others into doing what he wants. But he should be charismatic to be able to do that, and that didn’t come across to me. The character Francis plays should generate friction between the married couple, but their affair is carried out without Hale even finding out, so there aren’t any repercussions. There’s simply no reason for Francis to still be in the picture after her unsuccessful attempt to kill Hale.
Even the political perspective of the film is wobbly, as it seems to switch alliances constantly. I’m all for objectivity, but there’s a noticeable lack of commitment here. Without some sort of center, the whole thing just falls apart.
The very last shot of A Lion Is in the Streets brings us full circle to the opening credit images, except the lion collapses at the foot of the memorial. This was so daft and unexpected that I was literally in tears from laughing so hard. It may have been the perfect image to summarize a picture so confused that it dies on the screen. There weren’t any close-ups of the lion but, if there were, I hoped we would see it was toothless. That would have been an even better metaphor.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Starring James Cagney, Barbara Hale, Anne Francis
Watched on Warner Archive blu-ray