SYNOPSICS
A Lion Is in the Streets (1953) is a English movie. Raoul Walsh has directed this movie. James Cagney,Barbara Hale,Anne Francis,Warner Anderson are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1953. A Lion Is in the Streets (1953) is considered one of the best Drama,Romance,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
Colorful bayou peddler Hank Martin marries pretty teacher Verity, who finds that the rural poor all love Hank. Gradually, she realizes that Hank's popularity is the fruit of his expert manipulation of everyone he knows. She's further taken aback when she meets sexy swamp girl Flamingo, who considered Hank hers and is murderously jealous. Now Hank starts crusading against a crooked cotton buyer, and swiftly rises toward political power. Is there no stopping him?
Same Actors
A Lion Is in the Streets (1953) Reviews
"I've been your wife ever since I knew what the world meant"
Cagney (clever & aggressive) is seen peddling his wares in the back-hills country of a cotton-growing southern state... He falls for beautiful Barbara Hale, a sympathetic grade-school teacher from up North... They wed and honeymoon in a small house supplied by aristocratic Warner Anderson... Watchful to the possibilities of a political career in which he could easily become the governor of the state, Cagney increases his interest in a blonde tramp called Flamingo (Anne Francis), a violent and turbulent woman, who in a fit of jealousy nearly gets rid of her competitor (Barbara Hale) in a premeditated swamp accident... Barbara Hale is sweet, charming and understanding, but she has the least showy role in a film full to the disintegrating point with well-delineated colorful characters performed by a very experienced cast... Raoul Walsh's direction keeps the film moving lively and Harry Stradling's excellent Technicolor photography captures the very atmosphere of the deep South...
Flexing His Demagogic Muscles
It's unfortunate that A Lion Is In the Streets came out after All the King's Men. Both films were based in part on the legend of Huey Long. I think All the King's Men is better, but A Lion Is in the Streets has its moments. For one thing it has the dynamic presence of James Cagney. You would hardly think that the very urban Mr. Cagney could pull off the role of a southern demagogue, but pull it off he does. It's the story of a man who is an itinerant peddler with a good gift of gab. You like him in those first few minutes of the film as the peddler takes shelter in Barbara Hale's one room schoolhouse. But as he discovers his gift for demagoguery he fascinates and repels the viewer as much as he enthralls the crowds in the film. For another since our protagonist doesn't quite get to the heights that Broderick Crawford did in All the King's Men, it instead concentrates more on the man's humble beginnings. Instead of being a farmer who was educated by his wife as Broderick Crawford was in All the King's Men, the real Huey Long in fact was an itinerant peddler who was educated by his wife Rose McConnell Long. In fact Huey, Rose, and Russell are the answer to a trivia question as being the only parents and child who served in the United States Senate. Rose was given a temporary appointment to his seat following Long's assassination and son Russell had a considerable career in the Senate himself. Barbara Hale's role is pretty modest, but that's how Rose McConnell was in real life. In their marriage she put up with quite a lot from Huey. James Cagney produced this one himself with brother William Cagney taking on the administrative responsibilities and both of them giving little sister Jeanne Cagney her career role. She's the wife of luckless sharecropper John McIntire whose death Cagney demagogues for all its worth. The scene with the dying McIntire in court will chill you with fright. Jeanne is a true believer in Cagney the man and it's her disillusionment with him that leads to the shattering climax. Other good performances in the cast are Anne Francis as bayou mantrap Flamingo, Larry Keating as the stuffed shirt that Cagney attacks for his own ends, and Lon Chaney, Jr. who is Francis's stern father. It's not as good as All the King's Men, but A Lion is in the Streets has a lot to recommend it.
Somehow it doesn't satisfy.
I am a massive fan of James Cagney as an actor. I've loved some of the films he starred in, tolerated more. This one falls into the second camp. It is by no means a bad or unworthy film, but it really fails to compel. Cagney is of course, irreproachable and effortlessly walks away with the film, but he just isn't quite as compelling a figure here as in "White Heat", "Angels with Dirty Faces" or that splendid musical, "Yankee Doodle Dandy". Perhaps it is because the character is really more predictable than most of his characters; based on the Huey Long template. There was not the sense that I was rooting for his character in the same odd way that I usually do when he is essaying a villainous part. The film is visually quite opulent, but hardly overpoweringly. Perhaps monochrome would have better suited the film's fairly straight forward moral message. The characters, save Cagney's demagogue, are far from that interesting, and play little part, other than be part of the rural "mob" that Cagney is inciting, or part of the slick, gangster-swayed metropolitan set, who replenish Cagney's corruption. This film just isn't compelling enough; it has a lack of interesting incident, character or dialogue, and while it is morally in a worthy cause (in the era of McCarthy) it is too small a fry in the largely incendiary career of Cagney. Rating:- ***/*****
American political corruption -- well acted & well-told
The knock on this movie is that it isn't All The King's Men -- no this is a different movie, and Barbara Hale's character is much feistier than Anne Seymour's. But, Cagney has the measure of his character and plays the role for everything it is worth. The supporting cast does a good job in an overlooked and insightful slice of our American heritage.
a real lion
I liked this movie, but would prefer in black&white of course. colours movies are not real like b/w. I have seen this movie in 1954 at the time was 30 years old, and always remember the glorious years of Hollywood movies in b/w. even now that I have 87 old, I still prefer B/W movies in the old times. The cast maybe is not the appropriate and the dialogues are not reach enough, but all this is eclipsed with the always fantastic performance of one my favourite actors James Cagney. Raoul Walsh also one of my favourites directors do his best, considering the imposition of the producer always regarding more for the money that for art. nevertheless I have enjoy again very much this OK movie.