This was Cagney's and Blondell's last film together, as well as the last film for each released prior to the onset of the Production Code Administration (the "Hays Office"). It's mainly of interest to admirers of these two justly celebrated screen stars, mainly because of the downbeat story and characterizations.
Warner Brothers apparently didn't think much of HE WAS HER MAN (lousy title) and wasn't interested in spending much money on developing it. Despite the presence of two of their biggest stars, this film has the look and feel of a "B" picture, as evidenced by its 70 minute running time. Cagney apparently didn't like the film either. The awful haircut he wore in his previous film, JIMMY THE GENT, and the mustache sported by Flicker Hayes in this film, were symbols of Cagney's increasing dissatisfaction with the roles he was getting, though it would be another year or so before he would try to break his Warner Brothers contract.
The film's premise is promising. Career safecracker Flicker Hayes (Cagney) double-crosses a couple of fellow criminals after they frame him for another job. In the double-cross, one of the hoods kills a New York cop and is sentenced to die in the electric chair. Flicker flees to San Francisco, seeking a hide-out. A small-time Frisco hood, Pop Sims (Frank Craven), fingers Flicker for the New York mob. Two gunmen, J.C. (Harold Huber) and Monk (Russell Hopton), head for California to take care of Flicker.
Meanwhile, Flicker (now calling himself "Jerry Allen") meets Rose (Blondell), a survivor who apparently has been selling her sexual favors to various men -- one of whom, surprisingly, has now offered to marry her. (The screenwriters make much of the written marriage proposal -- this was the era when "breach of promise" was still an actionable tort in most states.) Rose, despite her immediate attraction to Jerry, is on her way to join her fiancé in his little fishing village near Frisco. Jerry is attracted to Rose, too (and it's strongly implied they have a sexual encounter just hours after meeting), but he also smells a good place to hide out, and he offers to stake her and take her by bus to her new home.
The fiancé', Nick Gardella (Victor Jory), is a salt-of-the-earth fisherman who tells Rose that her past life will be forgotten once they are wed. (There's more to Nick and Rose than the screenplay tells us, or could tell us under the censorship standards of that era. Nick met Rose "professionally." Here's a guy in his thirties, living with Mom in little, out-of-the-way Santa Avila -- and he seems pleased to marry a woman about whom he knows little save she's a prostitute?) Rose and Jerry arrive in Santa Avila and the wedding plans get underway. Jerry wants to stay and hide, but Rose is increasingly torn between Nick and her attraction to Jerry. Pop Sims follows Jerry to Santa Avila, posing as sports fisherman, to set up Jerry for the arrival of J.C. and Monk.
That's a lot of plot for such a slight film, and it gets better, but the "B" picture limitations get in the way. It would have been nice if the studio would have allowed a little more air into the story, fleshing out the characterizations -- especially the relationships among Rose, Jerry and Nick -- and expanding the film to 90 or 95 minutes. (The quick attraction between Rose and Jerry is especially sketchy and needs more time.) This could have been the much better movie that the story hints at.
Flicker/Jerry does the right thing by Rose and Nick, though apparently he pays for it with his life. (Another interesting point: Under the Production Code Authority, a movie killer had to pay for taking a life -- unless the killer is a lawman or soldier -- either by being arrested or by dying himself. We don't actually see Flicker/Jerry getting killed, and his likely assassins aren't punished. One wonders how this outcome would have been altered by the Hays Office just a short time later.) The film ends with a subdued wedding between Rose and Nick -- a happy occasion tempered by our knowledge of Flicker's apparent fate.
Fans of Cagney/Blondell will find both actors dialing back their usual exuberance/perkiness in this film and playing characters who are more like real people than in many of their other early Warners' films. Jory tries to be a little too ethnic, but he effectively portrays Nick's essential kindness and decency. Huber and Hopton, as the gunmen, are surprisingly human, as is James Eagle(s) in a small role as their driver. Sarah Padden, as Nick's mother, is a bit over the top but charming, and it's interesting to hear John Qualen in a small role sans his trademark Scandinavian accent. Frank Craven's Sims is an interesting character too -- sinister but folksy. The dependable Lloyd Bacon directs with his usual understated style but should have made more of the exotic isolation of "Santa Avila."
To summarize: HE WAS HER MAN is an unusual Warner Brothers film of the period, made as Hollywood was feeling the heat from the Legion of Decency and other pressure groups that would lead to the institution of the Production Code Administration in mid-1934. It's of interest mainly for Cagney and Blondell fans who want to see them in quieter roles that sharply contrast with their usual energy. Outside those contexts, though, I doubt you'll be favorably impressed.
(Does anyone know if this film, or plot, was ever remade? Seems like something that Warners would use again, though I can imagine if they did so before 1945 they would have brightened it up considerably. One can imagine RKO doing something nicely noirish with the same story c.1948.)
P.S. -- A "C" from the Legion of Decency? Not according to the listing of such "C" films in Wikipedia. What was its rating?
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