The Time of Your Life (1948) User Reviews (42)

The Friendly Tavern

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 19 July 2005]

James Cagney had an affinity for nostalgic type stories and if The Time of Your Life is a contemporary piece for 1939 when it made its Broadway debut, it has a nostalgic feel to it.

No real plot here, just a whole group of character studies about the various habitués of Nick's Place on the San Francisco Embarcadero in the Thirties. The observer here is Joe, a man who just whiles a way the hours observing humankind in the bar with no visible means of support. He must be a retired civil servant on a pension like me. Maybe that's why I like the film so much.

Two members of the original Broadway cast did the film version, Reginald Beane the black piano player and William Bendix as Nick, owner and proprietor of the place. By that time Bendix was a big star with The Life of Riley on radio and he must have cost Cagney a bundle. But Bill Bendix is always worth it.

The villain of the piece is Tom Powers who either played thugs or policemen in film. As Blick, he's a bottom feeding scuzzball who either informs on people or blackmails them depending on how he can make some dirty money. In this case he focuses on a young woman with a shady past played by the star's sister Jeanne Cagney. It's probably her best film role.

Someone else remarked in a review that he thought it was timely that The Time of Your Life came out in 1948 as the McCarthy era was getting underway. True enough, but I believe that author William Saroyan had a specific political target in mind in 1939 in Congressman Martin Dies who headed the House Un-American Activities Committee when it was created in the late Thirties. Dies was that kind of a bullying interrogator that Blick is in the play.

Paul Draper who was the dancer/comedian in the cast was in fact blacklisted shortly after this came out. On Broadway his part was played by Gene Kelly. I guess getting Kelly from MGM would have blown Cagney's whole budget in 1948.

The Time of Your Life has always struck me as kind of an anti-The Iceman Cometh another play set in a tavern. But that one is by Eugene O'Neill and no one ever accused O'Neill of being optimistic. O'Neill's characters in his play are as pessimistic a lot as Saroyan's are optimistic. The two works really ought to be seen back to back.

The tavern as a setting for theater has a tradition that goes from Falstaff to Cheers. The Time of Your Life is an honorable addition to the tradition.

Interesting Idea Plus Some Good Character Profiles

[Snow Leopard · 19 January 2006]

It was an interesting idea to film this William Saroyan play, which does not seem to lend itself particularly well to a screen adaptation. It turned out well enough, and in particular most of the characters are brought to life believably and effectively. James Cagney stars in what is quite an atypical role for him, and he is backed up by a good cast of character actors.

The story has Cagney as Joe, a regular at Nick's saloon who watches everyone come and go. Rather than a main story line, there are instead a number of things happening in the lives of the characters - some are important and some trivial, but all of them matter to the characters themselves. To make it work as a movie, it is essential that the cast makes the characters realistic and worth caring about, and in that regard they succeed pretty well.

William Bendix is very enjoyable as Nick, and the cast also includes Jimmy Lydon, Cagney's sister Jeanne, and Tom Powers, who is pretty effective as a menacing bully. Even most of the minor characters get some good moments of their own.

This is the kind of movie that can be pretty enjoyable if you are in the right mood for it, but that won't seem like much if you aren't. Most of it relies on simple conversation and interaction among the characters, and it has a decidedly offbeat feel to it, but if/when that's what you're in the mood for, then this works rather well.

The Denizens of Nick's Bar

[theowinthrop · 7/10 · 20 July 2005]

In 1941 Richard Rogers and Lawrence (Larry) Hart did the score of a brilliant musical called PAL JOEY. One highlight was a striptease dance and song done by Elaine Stritch towards the end of the second act, where she is a reporter talking about interviewing Gypsy Rose Lee. Gypsy (if you recall the movie with Natalie Wood) was always self-taught, and well read. The song spoofed this having her show off her knowledge (it begins with her mentioning reading Schopenhauer, not the easiest thing in the world). One couplet is the following:

"Zip, Walter Lippman wasn't brilliant today." "Zip, will Saroyan ever write a great play?"

It is a little ironic that this barb was directed to William Saroyan, as the star of PAL JOEY was Gene Kelly, who played "Harry, a natural born hoofer" in Saroyan's one and only Broadway success, THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE. Why the barb? Well William Saroyan was a popular short story writer and novelist, especially for books like MY NAME IS ARAM, about the life of the Armenian-American immigrants in California. However, try as he might he never wrote a monumental dramatic masterpiece. THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE is not in the same level of dramaturgy as A LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, THE DEATH OF A SALESMAN, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, or WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF. THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE is a pleasant play, and still gets revived, but it is a lesser work for the stage. Even Thornton Wilder's OUR TOWN is considered a greater play.

The problem with THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE is that it shows the interactions of a set of characters in Nick's Bar. As was pointed out in another comment on this board, O'Neill's THE ICEMAN COMETH also is set in a bar. But the denizens of the bar at Harry Hope's flop house hotel are all failures, who drink to forget their failures and reassure themselves that they can pull themselves out of the failure sooner or later (none of them really can). Hickey, who comes to the hotel, tries to convince them they'll be happier giving up their "pipe dreams" if they admit they are not heroic or brave or capable of reform. You see, there is a theme that is uniting that play's characters. Saroyan is not (as was said) O'Neill. He was more optimistic, and he tried to show that the characters were capable of helping each other. At the end they join together to defeat the evil Blick.

Saroyan, like Wilder, was a master of Americana. In one sequence he has two characters get involved in a contest to see how much gum can be chewed at one time. O'Neill (even in a play like AH WILDERNESS, which is a comedy) never could be so Hamish. Saroyan invents very colorful characters, like his old timer "Kit Carson", who claims to be an old Indian fighter. The central figure in the play, Joe (or Joseph T.) is also colorful - he seems to be a former newspaperman who was successful, but began to regret getting involved in the awful world of the news - he has retreated to the bar where he'll hopefully find more gentle people. He is visited at one point by a woman, probably his former fiancé, and acknowledges her, but won't return to the madness he willingly left. The character is interesting, but none of the other characters reflect his point of view.

So we are left with a well acted, entertaining play - turned into a good movie. Cagney is remarkably subdued - look at the scene when he examines the little wind-up toys he has Wayne Morris buy for him. He maintains our interest until the end, but the lively Cagney does not show up until he confronts Blick.

William Bendix does his usual great job, especially when confronting Blick as a potential blackmailing scum. His Nick runs a respectable bar, and the threat Blick is hinting at is that a prostitute may be using the bar (Jeanne Cagney). Bendix knows nothing of this, but is concerned. Oddly enough, although the bar is a nice neighborhood one, Howard Freeman and Natalie Schaefer go to the bar (they are wealthy people) as though they are slumming.

The current film version does not have all the scenes that Cagney originally had shot. Wayne Morris's growing romance with Jeanne Cagney is cut down in the film (which is regrettable). There is also an interesting change in the conclusion (as in Saroyan's play itself) as to what happens to Blick. But the film is a good one, and a worthy addition to Jimmy Cagney's film record.

Cagney is always worthwhile.

[kong-7 · 13 June 2001]

I have now seen every movie James Cagney has made. For some reason, until recently this film hasn't been on television for years. While Maltin found this film disappointing, I really enjoyed it. It is a cozy sort of movie with about 98% of the film taking place in a barroom. Cagney is terrific as the man who sits at the table observing life as it passes him by. Everyone who comes in talks to him. Cagney's real life sister Jeanne, gives a fine performance as the daydreaming girl from Chicago. William Bendix has to be one of the greatest character actors of all time. His performance as Nick, the owner of the bar, glues the film together. This movie was well worth the wait.

A nice collection of eccentrics

[perfectbond · 8/10 · 2 July 2003]

The plot of this film progresses very slowly especially by modern standards but the linear storyline is not really the reason to watch it. The cast brings to life a nice collection of unique personalities whose interactions are a joy to behold. Cagney is cast against type (he's not in trademark tough guy mode; he even hates to stand!). Fans of his are in for a treat and like I said the entire cast distinguishes itself. All in all a very worthwhile viewing, 8/10.

Cagney's performance

[winner55 · 9/10 · 28 February 2009]

Originally a professional dancer, when Cagney went into acting, his original aspiration was the 'legitimate stage,' i.e. Broadway or off-Broadway, but ended up in Hollywood, where the real money was. Eventually he ran afoul of two institutions of the Hollywood studio system - the almost 'indentured servant' status of acting contracts, and type-casting. The first meant doing whatever the studio said, and the second meant that what the studio told him was to play the racketeer personality that had sold "Public Enemy" in film after film. Cagney rebelled, going long periods not making films, and insisting on casting against type. Finally he formed Cagney productions, which produced this film and a handful of others, most of which were box-office thuds.

To be fair to the studios on the issue of type-casting, they really understood their audiences of the '30s and '40s. By the mid-'50s, a new generation of mature audiences could approach an actor as something other than face for a type, but there's no doubt that earlier audiences expected their stars to be pretty much true to the characters they most usually played. Cagney was a particular victim of this syndrome. Of all his non-tough-guy films, only "Yankee Doodle Dandy" made a lot of money and earned enduring critical respect.

"The Time of Your Life" isn't just a filmed play that Cagney appears in. His character is the whole story. He has a mysterious past, appears to be well-to-do but prefers a shadowy existence in a lower-class dive, has nothing but good-will for the world, with a wry, wizened sense of humor, yet there is a strange underlying sadness or depression in his make-up that is never fully revealed let alone explained. All this is not just the writing at work, but is present in Cagney's powerful, understated performance. In fact, we're so conditioned by actors 'emoting' in dramas or playing stony strongmen in action films, that we have forgotten what 'subtle' really means in an acting style, but here Cagney exhibits it in spades. Unlike the 'method' actors of the same era as this film, who try to 'get inside' their characters as much as possible, Cagney recognizes the need to take the script as a blueprint for the actor's constructing character. This Joseph T. is as much Cagney's creation as it is Saroyan's - really more so. Cagney creates a fully-developed personality that could easily walk off the screen and down the street to the neighborhood bar. And you could walk up to him ad engage a pretty lively conversation.

It is true that the film making here is unexceptional - despite a couple remarkable close-ups, it's really a 'filmed play' in the lesser senses of that term. And the supporting actors are rarely as spot-on as Cagney. As for the story itself, well, let's be fair, it's Saroyan, an amusing bit of 'Americana.'

But the box-office failure of this film was undeserved, and so is its continuing reputation as something of a failure for Cagney's career. If you approach the film with an open mind, you'll realize that Cagney here leaves us a classic example of what pre-'method' acting really was, and what acting ought to be about. If you set aside expectations and pre-conceptions, you may find yourself utterly fascinated - and captivated - by Cagney's performance here.

Come in a be yourself.

[michaelRokeefe · 6/10 · 15 June 2003]

A dramatic comedy adapted by Nathaniel Curtis from a William Saroyan play. Noted by critics, but slow in getting the respect of movie goers and some Saroyan fans. Joe(James Cagney)holds court at Nick's(William Bendix) little neighborhood saloon. Joe manipulates all who share time and space near him. Action gravitates around Joe. No visual signs of support, but all the while Joe is the positive influence in so many lives. Talk about a potluck of characters:Wayne Morse, Broderick Crawford, Ward Bond, Jimmy Lydon and Jeanne Cagney. James Barton is hilarious as the affable old cowboy. And the man playing the piano is Reginald Beane in his one and only movie. Respectable black and white glimpse of life in the neighborhood.

Curious,unsatisfying stage-to-film adaptation

[BJJManchester · 5/10 · 9 November 2007]

William Saroyan's celebrated play THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE is transferred to the big screen here with one of Hollywood's most legendary stars,James Cagney,at the helm.Despite some decent performances (notably from Cagney,William Bendix and James Barton) and careful work all round,it is ultimately defeated by it's all too apparent stage origins,with it's lengthy,philosophical,artificial and metaphorical ramblings and characters.

H.C Potter's direction is uncinematic sometimes to the point of irritation,and while some of the characters involved (Cagney,Bendix,Barton) are mildly engaging,others are profusely annoying (Paul Draper's tap dancer,Jimmy Lydon's lovelorn nerd),and some are merely superficial (Broderick Crawford's cop,Richard Erdman's pinball freak).Wayne Morris is rather dull as Cagney's gopher,but Jeanne Cagney(Jimmy's sister)gives a good performance as an apparent former hooker trying to put the past behind her.Even for a Independent production,it looks very cheap,95% or so being confined,very claustrophobically, to a barroom,and even one of Hollywood's master cameramen,James Wong Howe,can bring virtually none of his usual accomplished visual glow to the proceedings.

As a theatrical piece,this endless slice of Saroyan works fine,but it fails rather dismally as a film,and is only just about saved from total disaster by some of it's cast.Not surprisingly,THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE flopped at the box office,and this Cagney Independent production's failure (which was produced by Jimmy's brother William) persuaded the legend himself to return to WARNER BROS. the following year,where he made the outstanding WHITE HEAT,one of his most celebrated performances,and most definitely a much more notable piece of cinema.THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE is only notable for it's curiosity value,and sadly little else.

RATING:5 out of 10.

Saroyan's infinate joy in the observance of humanity shines throught the film

[Kimmer-5 · 8/10 · 14 January 2002]

Some find this film "schmaltzy" and simple. Saroyan fans will find it aptly relects the beauty found in the human condition. The way Joe relates to the various characters, causing them to easily open the hearts and souls seems contrived today and perhaps seemed that way even in the late 40's, but I suspect Saroyan was not particularly interested in "realism". Like all of his work, this movie is a study of the hopes, dreams, and loves of the "little guy" and his struggle to maintain them against the harsh light of human reality.

Cagney positvely glows throughout the performance and Bendix has never been better cast. Paul Draper as the tap-danciing comedian is absolutley brilliant in an extremley quirky roll. ( Interestlingly someone commented that they were suprised that this movie wasn't blacklisted, Draper ( according tot he IMDB bio) was "was an international star in the 1930's and 1940's" who's "career effectively succumbed to the anti- Communist hysteria that existed in the U.S. after World War II, when he was blacklisted out of the entertainment industry as a Communist sympathizer." It says a lot about James Cagney that this is the first film his production company choose to produce. If you can set aside your cynicism and view these characters in a slightly metaphorical light, Saraoyan's writing will leave your heart with a soft warm glow, and the joy of watching character actors working in a simple setting with no action and lots of dialogue may lead you to suspect that the entire cast was having The Time of Their Lives.

James Cagney is delightful in William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life

[tavm · 7/10 · 3 April 2007]

In this adaptation of William Saroyan's award-winning play The Time of Your Life, James Cagney plays a gentle barfly named Joe who settles in Nick's (William Bendix) Bar with various colorful characters like an imaginative old cowboy or a tap dancing comic who can't get laughs. His sister Jeanne plays Kitty Duval, a woman who claims to once have been in burlesque. She and her brother have some of the most touching scenes in the movie. The pace takes a while to get used to but if you're in the mood for something optimistically offbeat, The Time of Your Life should be up your alley! By the way, future "Gilligan's Island" cast member Natalie Schafer plays a society woman who "slums" by going to Nick's Bar with her husband. Pretty amusing cameo.

Different, but a load of fun

[constancepetersen · 7/10 · 17 December 2005]

From what I'd heard of this film, I was expecting something dull and boring and Eugene O'Neill-ish.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a lot to love in this film. In fact, it left me happy and smiling. James Cagney's character is so off-the-wall in comparison to his other film roles. He just sits quietly, leading a seemingly monotonous life. He listens to a couple of songs over and over; he drinks champagne. Most of all he interferes for good in other people's lives.

I also watched this film because I'm fascinated with Jeanne Cagney and how much she looked like her brother. It's great to see James and Jeanne working together, particularly in this story, where he's playing an Irishman and she's Polish - but she's got his face. Yes, I'm easily amused.

It's a random film. It appears on the surface to be patched together and no, it's not action packed and fast-paced. But look beneath the surface, and you'll see it's about the value of observing, paying attention to things and people around you, and acting on what you see. We all could do with a little more of that - although I don't think we need to do it for hours on end in a bar. It can be done during normal life too.

I felt this film moved along pretty steadily. There was always some new thing popping up as something else was being resolved. And, although on the surface everything is resolved in the end, there are still a lot of questions one asks. I won't go into details here - I'll let you discover for yourself... and I strongly recommend you should do so!!

Everyone should see this movie

[davensue11 · 22 June 2004]

Thanks to Turner Classic Movies I was able to see this movie again. Saroyan has in this essentially one scene play (movie) a series of fascinating characters. Each one an individual , mostly male, characters that are the salt of the earth. Some strong some weak and impressionable. Some with a lifetime of adventure, some in the middle and others that are at the beginning steps of their life. There's story and a theme in this movie somewhere. The viewer must find it for themselves. Wistful dreams search for romance and a craving for adventure are the themes that I've observed. Find a theme and a purpose for this wonderful film. Just watch it.

Cagney is at his best in this movie. Very different from his usual tough guy or song and dance man. All of the characters center around him and directs and guides some of their lives. A true wise and and venerable philosopher.

"Utterly unknown but very famous."

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 12 September 2016]

Comedy-drama from United Artists that's based on a stage play and it shows. James Cagney stars as a guy who hangs around in William Bendix's bar and talks with the various characters who come and go, helping some and observing others. It's alright but nowhere near as interesting or thought-provoking as it thinks it is. "People are people" is the gist of its philosophy. Cagney and Bendix are both fine in unchallenging roles. The rest of the cast includes Wayne Morris, Ward Bond, Broderick Crawford, Tom Powers, and Jeanne Cagney (yes, Jimmy's sister). No one stinks in this but no one impresses, either. See it if you're a die-hard Cagney fan or if you just really like movies that take place almost entirely on one set.

an amazingly dull film

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 16 July 2005]

This is probably my least favorite Cagney film. It looks like it was originally a play, as it is VERY static and stagy--so much so, that it suffers from a severe case of claustrophobia! Also, it makes the unforgivable mistake of being dull--and that takes a lot of work in a Cagney film. Usually, his energy level alone will elevate the movie to at least the average range but here he looks half asleep and the many not very interesting bar patrons act out their little stories for the camera. I saw this movie just a few years ago, but I can't remember ANY of the stories within the movie because they just weren't compelling or memorable. You keep waiting for some sort of payoff, but it just never comes!

Capably made, but utterly hollow, irritating, and simplistic...

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 25 December 2008]

James Cagney plays a permanent patron at a San Francisco honky-tonk, observing the ebb and flow of human traffic and occasionally getting involved in the tangled lives of clichéd characters. There's the tap-dancing comedian, the penniless piano player, the former burlesque dancer, the lovestruck kid, the simple gambler, the hearty bar-owner, etc. It's hard to imagine which of these stock figures is the most annoying (my vote would be the fur-trapper who hails from New Jersey), yet the film, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by William Saroyan, has garnered some good reviews. Personal taste will have to determine the picture's ultimate value, though Cagney's low-keyed self-assurance (some may say smugness) is rather enjoyable--and his presence is certainly odd in these corny circumstances. Saroyan's theatrical material just isn't well-suited for the screen, and the one main set and the clattering dialogue quickly tire both the eye and the ear. ** from ****

unfunny darker Cheers

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 8 July 2015]

It's Nick's Pacific Street Saloon with a sign proclaiming "Come in and be yourself". Joe (James Cagney) is wealthy unemployment man who spends his days in the bar. Tom is his clueless gopher until he falls head over heels for Kitty who claims to be a former vaudeville star. Harry wants to get a job as a tap dancing comedian. Dudley keeps calling his girlfriend Elsie to marry him. Willie plays the pinball machine. Starving Wesley comes in desperate for a job and he starts playing the piano. 'Friendly' Freddie Blick is a suspicious con artist.

It's a personal project for Cagney. Maybe he's too close to the material. The static setting is tired. The characters are not particularly compelling. The dialog is a little clunky at times. This is an unfunny darker Cheers. The jokes are unfunny lower sitcom level. There is limited drama but then it goes too dark. It's a run on sentence of a movie.

does not sustain its length

[rupie · 3/10 · 25 November 2009]

I was attracted to this one by the cast, particularly Jimmy Cagney and William Bendix. I knew from reading the user reviews that there was little or no plot. None the less I watched out of curiosity. Now, I am a fan of the classic old postwar b&w flicks, but this one ultimately falls flat. For about the first half, one is engaged by the variety of characters coming before us, and the "slice of life" ruminations and quasi-philosophical discourses. However, that wears thin, and the second half is a drag. The peculiar old Western gunslinger is a puzzle; he seems to fill no dramatic purpose. The presence of many odd cutaways indicates that a lot of the original shoot wound up on the cutting room floor. Cagney seems to be presented as a sort of resident philosopher/observer, but in the end he dispenses no particular wisdom and one is curious as to exactly what his purpose is as well. Cagney's and Bendix's performances are the best part of the movie, but not enough to make it work. In the end, it's a drag.

A sometimes maddening drama that profiles basic human neediness.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 5 April 2013]

This is a film version of a play that obviously either people praised or despised. There is no real linear plot other than the activities of San Francisco waterfront bartender William Bendix and regular customer James Cagney who seems to enjoy sitting there from the time this dive opens watching people come in and out, helping them with each of their problems, then moving on to the next customer to come in. Cagney's character can be a bit demanding at times, particularly with the young man (Wayne Morris) he sends on errands, but in some senses, he almost seems like an angel. Sometimes it seems like it is exposing man's inhumanities, and at other times, it delightfully moves into a slice of life narrative that is truly entertaining. Each of the characters carry traits that they hide deeply within their souls and are slowly revealed whether they want them revealed or not.

Cagney's real-life sister, Jeanne, plays the most interesting and complex character in the film, a down on her luck party girl who goes out of her way to lie about a supposed previous success as a burlesque queen. The problem is that these characters come in to this one-set play, reveal something dramatic about themselves, and leave. She returns for a bit of a conclusion, but for the most part, the characters come in and go with little hope for any change in their lives. James Barton adds some amusement as a beer-guzzling cowboy with all sorts of ironic wisdoms whom Cagney keeps feeding brewsky's to as if to re-energize his thoughts and move him onto the next philosophy.

As for the others, there's a deliberately unfunny tap dancing comic (Paul Draper) who represents show-biz desperates not talented enough to really make it but determined to be exposed anyway, Reginald Beane the soft-spoken black pianist who comes in simply looking for a job and shocked by being paid for what he loves to do, Richard Erdman the pin-ball wizard, neighborhood beat cop Broderick Crawford, and most recognizably Natalie Schafer ("Mrs. Howell") as a dizzy society dame desperate for some low-down fun. Saroyan plays are a mixed bag, too philosophical for some and enlightening art for others. The film starts off totally promising but by the end of the film, you may be simply glad it is all over.

Everybody comes to Nick's

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 5 July 2016]

"The Time of Your Life" from 1948 is based on the Pulitzer-prize winning play (which Saroyan rejected) by William Saroyan.

This film will remind you of many other productions: Cheers, The Iceman Cometh, Duffy's Tavern. Actually, Iceman and The Time of Your Life were both produced in the same year. All the chaos and people doing their own thing at once reminded me of another play from that era, You Can't Take it With You.

There is no story really - it's a bar in San Francisco, run by Nick (William Bendix) where Joe (James Cagney) spends time observing people and often guiding their lives. Tom (Wayne Morris) runs errands for him, strange errands, like buying toys and chewing gum. This particular day, Tom sees a woman named Kitty (Jeanne Cagney) and he falls hard.

At the phone, a young man (Jimmy Lydon) dials the wrong number and instead of his girlfriend gets an eager older woman. He likes the sound of her voice so he invites her to the bar.

They all come to Nick's - a dancer who wants a job, a newspaper- delivering boy soprano, a pianist, a cowboy, a couple just slumming, and somehow, Joe manages to help some of them along. Nick doesn't know why he gets these characters and muses whether or not it's his personality or something else.

For someone seeing it today, a few things stick out. One is the monologue by the policeman (Broderick Crawford) who complains that while we live in a wonderful world, no one takes time to smell the roses and everyone is greedy. I wonder what he'd think of our society now!

The other is that it's hard to believe it won the Pulitzer Prize. But back then, this was probably seen as very fresh. Saroyan said no to the Pulitzer because he felt businessmen were not qualified to judge art. I can see someone refusing it today - NOT.

The cast is terrific; it's hard to single any one actor out. The pinball wizard (Richard Erdman) who spends the whole movie trying to beat the machine, is actually still alive; as is the ardent young lover, Jimmy Lydon. Then you have people like the boyish Wayne Morris, dead at 45.

This was a different role for James Cagney - he's not a tough guy, not a crook, not a dancer, and somehow, he holds the film together in a subtle performance.

For me the theme is to know who you are and not be ashamed of it, and not be afraid to go after what you want. I think it will be different for different people. Enjoy the delightful characters and some of the crazy, funny, and poignant moments.

Pleasant diversion, but hardly worthy of a major award

[xredgarnetx · 6/10 · 19 March 2006]

LIFE is the filmed version of a 1930s play by William Saroyan, an Armenian-American writer and playwright who never achieved the stardom of Eugene O'Neill. You can feel the play's 1930s roots, and one wonders why it took so long to get this committed to celluloid. Nevertheless, LIFE tells about a day (actually several days) in the life of several characters who wander in and out of a presumably Bowery-based neighborhood bar, including retired newsman James Cagney (whose production company handled this), his gofer Wayne Morris, faux cowboy James Barton, working stiff Ward Bond, beat cop Broderick Crawford, lovesick youngster Jimmy Lydon and former lady of the evening Jeanne Cagney (James' sister). William "Life of Riley" Bendix plays the soft-hearted bartender who hosts a steady stream of eccentric patrons. Nothing much happens until the end, when they gather their courage to face down bad guy Tom Powers who apparently reflected a certain villainous Congressman during the time in which the play was written. The play ends on an optimistic, upbeat note and is lighter in tone than several other dramatic plays of the era. Which makes me wonder how this ever ended up a Pulitzer winner. I guess I don't fully understand how Pulitzers are selected. And me a veteran newsman. Not a must-see, and badly dated today, but OK for Cagney and Bendix fans.

The Time of Your Life

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 5 January 2023]

I reckon that for all but maybe the last five minutes of this, James Cagney spends his time - and his money - sitting at a table in William Bendix' "Nick's" bar watching the customers come and go; each with a tale to tell. It is a very gently paced film; Cagney is almost guru-esque as he dispatches his devoted, if a bit simple, pal "Tom" (Wayne Morris) on various seemingly pointless errands as he listens to a variety of short stories from an aspiring tap-tancer (Paul Draper); a cowboy who has maybe had a touch too much desert sun (James Barton) and the shameless gossip (Ward Bond). It does build, slowly, to a climax of sorts - but that doesn't really matter; it is largely devoid of action - it's an observation of routine daily life with just enough spice to keep it interesting; and an appearance from Cagney's own sister, Jeanne, at the end as the love interest for the doting "Tom".

A peculiar, not very linear, but very interesting movie

[metaphor-2 · 17 July 2003]

A play by William Saroyan, brought to the screen apparently through the strong will of James Cagney. Some might call this a "vanity project" but it reminds me more of Barry Levinson's wonderful "AVALON" an expenditure of Hollywood clout to make a movie of seriousness and quality that is not obvious commercial material, but expresses something close to the filmmaker's heart. (Levinson had just made an enormous hit with RAINMAN, and could probably have made any movie he wanted. He spent that clout to make AVALON, a memoir of his obviously beloved grandfather.)

The Cagneys (James and his brother William) recruited a very unusual cast: a number of the significant characters are played by actors who never or hardly ever appeared in another movie.

The material, based on a major 1939 Broadway play, floats along like the drifting thoughts of a person with a mild fever - not the hallucination of a high fever, just a mild enough fever to prevent the film from being driven by a plot. Plot is incidental here, barely even trying to be an excuse for the observance of life. Life has events, but it's rarely plotted, and usually it's the fact of drama being plotted that distinguishes it from ordinary life. But Saroyan was supremely interested in the nobility of un-extraordinary people.

The liberalism (and I mean the word - at least loosely, in its political sense) of this movie is notable. Cagney was one of Hollywood's outstanding liberals - so much so that he was accused of being a Communist sympathizer in the early 40's - a charge he answered by making YANKEE DOODLE DANDY. The fact that he chose to make this film in the wake of the 1947 rise of the House Un-American Activities Committee is to his everlasting credit.

Cagney is lucky his career survived this turkey

[rooster_davis · 1/10 · 2 November 2007]

I like James Cagney. I like just about all the other actors and actresses in this movie. I just absolutely, positively despise every one of them IN this movie. This apparently was a project by some of Cagney's family members. Honest, this movie is 'grates-on-your-nerves-annoying' just like having to stand in a checkout line while someone nearby talks on their cellphone. The story (or the sub-stories) are trite, annoying, irritating, and aggravating. Not one of the characters is particularly likable in their roles. Even Cagney is annoying but he has no choice other than to play his part in this bad, bad, bad film. Like I said, I like Cagney a lot, I even like some 'bad' movies which are so bad they're good. This movie is so bad, it is simply aggravating. I expected better than this; it was rated two stars and I thought 'well it must be a little quirky' and recorded it on the DVR. I may need to get my DVR fumigated. Have I made the point how appallingly bad this movie is?

Talky, stagy, self-consciously poetic

[gimhoff · 4 June 2004]

Saroyan, like Inge, Sherwood, Odets, Wilder, and others who followed in the footsteps of Eugene O'Neill, wrote serious dramas that were talky, stagy, and self-consciously "poetic" -- not that there's anything wrong with that -- with infusions of social commentary through symbolic characters. That's "The Time of Your Life," and it explains both why some people hold this movie in such high regard and why it was a box office disaster. It has its pleasures, good performances and memorable lines and set pieces, but viewers have to be able to tolerate its heavy overlay of artificiality and exaggerated stage style to get to them.

Cagney is especially good in an uncharacteristic role, and several members of the the large cast have the best roles of their lives.

"Come in and be yourself."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 10 June 2012]

When Cagney Productions contracted with United Artists, the deal was for five films with a budget of six million dollars. "The Time of Your Life" was their third picture released following "Johnny Come Lately" (1943) and "Blood on the Sun" (1945). At the time there was no assurance that the first two films would wind up in the black, so the Cagneys (Jimmy and brother Bill) wanted this picture to be foolproof. Jimmy reviewed dozens of scripts himself before finding this Saroyan play to be the most interesting. Jimmy threw himself into the production, a real labor of love with a goal of staying as true to the original stage play as possible. Although most critics were pleased enough with the result the public never warmed up to it, and it wound up being the only film in Cagney's long career to actually lose money, about a half million dollars by Jimmy's reckoning (Source: James Cagney, The Authorized Biography by Doug Warren).

Fans of James Cagney will notice something decidedly different about the character he portrays here. 'Joe T.' is probably the most sedentary character he ever portrayed in movies, spending almost the entire film seated at a table in William Bendix's Pacific Street Saloon, Restaurant and Entertainment Palace. Don't let that Palace part throw you, it was a neighborhood bar where a number of regulars hung out with occasional drifters appearing throughout the story. About the only animation that ever takes place is when Paul Draper's Harry takes to the floor to tap up a storm, and it happens quite a few times. Oh, and that wild eruption of the pinball machine when Richard Erdman's Willie turns over a high score - did you ever see anything like that?

Most of the picture stays rather somber as Cagney's character philosophizes with the saloon patrons, or sends pal Tom (Wayne Morris) on an array of missions to buy stuff or place bets on the ponies. There's a rather colorful Wild West character played by James Barton who invents his persona on the fly by way of Hackensack, New Jersey, while a street hood named Blick (Tom Powers) attempts extortion on saloon owner Nick (Bendix) over the presence of Kitty Duval (Jeanne Cagney); one needs to read into her past relative to this aspect of the story. At one point, Joe has a conversation with a wistful patron named Mary (a 'woman of quality' in the credits), and the scene blows by too quickly to discern that she might have been Joe's fiancée some half dozen years earlier. This revelation struck me as profoundly sad considering Joe's demeanor for the rest of the film.

It's not until the end of the story that Cagney reverts to type when he uses his fists to take down the villainous Blick, one of the few times that he actually leaves his chair. The name of the actor portraying Blick struck a chord with me. I don't recall having seen him before, as all the while he looked like actor Joe Sawyer to me. The thing is, Tom Powers was the name of James Cagney's gangster character in the film that cast him in his first starring role, 1931's "The Public Enemy".