RIFLE RANGE BOY

An MGM presentation. James . Fitzpatrick's Travel Talk The Voice of the Globe. (the 1930s)

Public Enemy (1931) The first time I watched James Cagney was when RTM screened 1942 'Yankee Doodle Dandy'. It narrated the biography of George M. Cohen, an American musical composer who in his later part of his life remained unknown. I vividly remember a scene where he stood incognito amongst the crowd looking at the band march by to the ecstatic youngsters singing to the tune. Little did the crowd know who was standing among them - the composer of the song, until he tells them his life story! That was another movie... Well, this 1931 action movie is one of the early action movies which talks about the glamorous life of gangland and the downside too. From the outset, the director had warned viewers that the film does not glamorise hoodlums. Even though proclaiming to be of the contrary, the story was supposedly based on lifetimes of many baddies of that era. James Cagney The story starts in 1909 with the tale of two young boys grow up doing pranks and soon graduatin...

Imitation of Life (1934) This is the earlier version of the 1959's offering of the same name, based on a story written by Fannie Hurst in 1933. There were however, certain alterations to the story to pacify the sensitivity of the American public. As we all know, the blacks were lesser beings in US then and this story narrates a friendship between a white and black single lady struggling to stay alive and to tackle the identity crisis that the black lady's fair skinned daughter has who is ashamed of her African roots. Bea Pullman (Claudette Colbert) is a widow who drags her suitcase from door to door trying to sell her pancake syrup, the business her husband used to do before his demise. She has a demanding but loveable 2year old daughter. Delilah Johnson (Louise Beavers) accidentally lands at her house, wrongly, as she was looking for a job. One thing led to another and Delilah is offered to stay at Bea's home, taking care of her daughter while she work in return fo...