— his death scene in The Roaring Twenties – he makes it into a tragic ballet – all in one long take. The way that guy moved!
— the scene where he freaks out in prison about his mother dying in White Heat. (Here’s the trailer for ‘White Heat’)
Michael told me a cool story about the filming of that scene. “Just follow me.”
Oh, I love him. So very, very much.
The part in “Angels”, where he’s returned to the old neighborhood and comes into the church. His old buddy, now the parish priest, is leading choir practice. You can’t see them, but you can hear them. Just for a moment, he sings along with them, under his breath, with the saddest, most wistful expression. He knows it’s too late for him, but still…
Sal – oooh, that’s an excellent moment! I had forgotten about it!
There is nothing geeky about any kind of Cagney appreciation. He was possessed of a screen presence few other actors had ever had. His energy and charisma pulled you into the film while tall, good looking automatons stood around him looking forsaken and bewildered.
I just watched the BBC interview from the early eighties with Pat O’Brien and Cagney and it was wonderful. The way Pat gets choked up talking about what a wonderful guy Jimmy was just makes you want to cry.
re: Cagney being a wonderful guy…
I’ll say. Read his autobiography recently and he spends almost all of the book talking about all the great people he had the privilege of working with over the years.
Kind of amazing that such a sensitive caring fella could play such intense evil characters.