William Cagney

James Cagney plays Joe, a gentle idler who spends his days observing life in Nick's waterfront saloon in San Francisco, sending lackey Tom on eccentric errands and watching the bar's regulars drift through: an old cowboy spinning tall tales, a hoofer who can't get a laugh, and Kitty Duval, played by Cagney's sister Jeanne. William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play comes to the screen under director H.C. Potter, with William Bendix as Nick and Broderick Crawford and Ward Bond among the ensemble. Warm, odd, and unhurried, it is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Drama

William Cagney — James's younger brother, in his only starring role — plays Bob Mason, a carefree socialite who poses as a detective to impress a girl and promptly gets himself suspected of a real murder. With the police on one side and the actual killer on the other, Bob has to solve the case to clear his own name, helped along by Marion Burns as the girl he is trying to win. A poverty-row quickie from Monogram directed by silent-comedy veteran Vin Moore, it coasts on Cagney's easy charm and a plot that never sits still for its sixty-odd minutes. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Mystery

A Monogram aviation melodrama built around the era's fascination with record-breaking balloon ascents. Army pilots Tom "Soapy" Cooper (William Cagney, James's brother) and Richard "Woody" Wood (Edward J. Nugent) are inseparable in the air but rivals on the ground, both courting Evelyn Worthington (June Collyer), daughter of their commanding officer. When a high-altitude balloon mission goes wrong, the feud must give way to survival miles above the earth. Typical of Monogram's brisk B-pictures, it pads its stock footage with pre-Code barracks banter and a genuinely tense stratospheric climax. The film's copyright was not renewed; it is in the public domain in the United States.

Adventure · Drama · Romance