When I think of actors from Hollywood’s golden era who were best in tough guy roles, my mind immediately goes to Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney, and in that order.  From today’s perspective, I find it odd one of the hottest actors of the time for such parts was George Raft.

My confusion is largely because he doesn’t have anything visually or vocally which distinguishes him significantly from his peers.  It doesn’t help that his performances often lack that unique element of good acting where we don’t discern any of the craft behind the characterization. 

Such is the case with 1939’s Each Dawn I Die.  Even worse, his co-lead in this prison drama is James Cagney, and woe to the actor who tries to hold their own against him.  Cagney’s ability to command one’s attention seems curious to me, as I almost never believe him to be the characters he’s portraying.  Instead, there is just something so distinctly odd about his voice and mannerisms so as to make it impossible not to watch him, if only in fear of missing what he will say or do next.

In this picture, Cagney is a newspaper man who has blown the lid off a company associated with gubernatorial candidate Thurston Hall which has been cooking their books.  The reporter sees employees doing that more literally than how the phrase is usually taken, as they chuck the ledgers straight into a roaring furnace.  Thugs try to silence him by knocking him unconscious, putting him back in his car, dousing him with alcohol and sending the vehicle careening out of control.  Three people will be killed before it rolls over.  An angry mob appears to be ready to lynch Cagney, and I appreciate the irony of their potential victim being an idealistic reporter who was always looking out for the best interest of the public. Insert here a wry observation on the current state of the free press and the public’s regard of the same.

Unfortunately for Cagney, Hall is the district attorney and he successfully gets the reporter sentenced to a stretch of one to twenty years in prison.  That is a surprisingly wide range.  I also wondered if it was common for somebody like Hall to be the prosecutor in a case with which they are associated, as that scans like a conflict of interest.  Even more bizarre is, upon the end of the trial, the bailiffs allow Cagney to be hugged by his fellow reporter and girlfriend (Jane Bryan), but they block his mother (Emma Dunn). Do we even have a word like “cockblocking”, but which means one is preventing from hugging a relative?

That’s cold, but it is nothing compared to what Cagney will be subjected to in prison.  The guards all carry canes, and it isn’t because they have difficulty walking nor because they might suddenly break out into a song and dance.  The cruelest of the lot is always ordering his wards to not talk unless spoken to, and to fold their arms across their chests when being addressed.  In one moment, he issues conflicting simultaneous orders to the lowest inmate in the pecking order, telling the man to salute while folding his arms.  Things won’t go well for that prisoner.

Cagney, on the other hand, largely serves his time well while waiting for attorneys and his newspaper pals to get him released.  Still, over time, he starts to lose hope.  Parole isn’t looking that promising, either, as one of now-governor Hall’s lackeys is the head of that board.  Eventually, an extended stay in solitary is what will break him as, per the title, he dreads the dawn and what the next day will bring.

Hope arrives in the unlikely form of fellow inmate Raft.  This gangster is serving 199 years, but he has an unusual escape plan.  You see, he isn’t the one who kills stool pigeon Joe Downing, but he wants Cagney to claim he had.  Then Raft will escape from the courtroom when he is inevitably tried and then, supposedly, use his underworld connections to get the evidence needed to overturn Cagney’s conviction.

That entire set-up feels dodgy to me, and it is no surprise Raft, once he’s comfortably on the outside, will change his mind about looking for that evidence to spring Cagney.  Something which struck me as odd is Cagney had inexplicably alerted reporters to turn out for Raft’s hearing.  By doing this, he can’t later plausibly deny he knew nothing about the escape plan.

The escape is quite thrilling, as Raft simply dives out a window, lands in a truck full of feathers arranged to be three stories below and then bounces into a waiting car.  We see a stuntman do the actual multi-story drop.  Also exciting is a prison riot at the end, which feels like something from a combat picture of the time. 

This is a remarkably violent film for a product of that era, and much of that comes from, as I mentioned earlier, the guards assaulting the prisoners.  There’s even the strong potential for mayhem in some of the situations, even if those set-ups don’t always pay off.  That nobody gets fed through the terrifying machines the inmates use to make twine is a missed opportunity.

I’m surprised this film escaped significant censoring, as the production code neutered many other movies of the period.  It isn’t even the violence I surprised by, but more how the prison system is shown as unnecessarily cruel.  And it isn’t just the direct brutality, but also extended stays in solitary, which is what will finally break Cagney’s spirit.  If he went in believing in the system, he will forever be psychologically scarred by the time he’s released.

Typical of this kind of thing, there will be many actors in minor roles you will recognize from other period films, including many of this genre.  Raft has a gang in the joint, of which Cagney will be a member.  Also in that gang is former boxer Maxie Rosenbloom as the kind-hearted big lug he frequently played, with such dialogue as that concerning his failure as a dogcatcher: “I turned them loose as soon as they were catched.”  Of a far different mindset is Stanley Ridges, who is hellbent of exacting revenge upon the worst of the guards, practically frothing at the mouth when he says, “When I think of him helpless in my hands…”

Much of Each Dawn I Die recalls Brute Force though, alas, to its detriment.  I know that isn’t fair, given the latter film arrived almost a decade later.  And yet, it is impossible to not compare the films when both have a loose gang of convicts oppressed by a brutal prison regime.  Both even have a stool pigeon who is dealt with in an extreme manner.  But the older film is not as believable, and largely because everything in the plot hinges upon a conceit I never believed.

Dir: William Keighley

Starring James Cagney, George Raft, Jane Bryan

Watched on Warner Archive blu-ray