Der FBI-Agent (1935)
24KDer FBI-Agent: Directed by William Keighley. With James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Ann Dvorak, Robert Armstrong. James Cagney helped jump-start the gangster genre as The Public Enemy. Outcries against movies that glorified underworld criminals put Cagneyon the side of the law in “G” Men.
“Hereu0026#39;s an old-time (about 75 years old!) gangster movie that is fast-moving as all James Cagney crime films tend to be. In here, Cagney is the good guy, a u0026quot;government manu0026quot; out to get crooks, one of whom turns out to be his old pal. All the characters in here are pretty interesting, particularly Cagneyu0026#39;s boss played by Robert Armstrong.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWatching this film, one discovers an interesting fact: government agents werenu0026#39;t allowed to use guns in the early days. That didnu0026#39;t change until things got totally out of control with too many defenseless lawmen getting killed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMargaret Lindsay also stars in this movie, and thatu0026#39;s a good thing. The more I see of her, the more I like her. It would have been interesting to see what roles sheu0026#39;d play if she was a young actress in todayu0026#39;s films.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFinally, the action scenes in this film reminded me of the old television series, u0026quot;The Untouchablesu0026quot; with the machine guns blazing out of those big, boxy 1930 automobiles.”
