Product Details

• Actors: James Cagney, Barbara Hale, Anne Francis, Warner Anderson, John McIntire
• Directors: Raoul Walsh
• Writers: Adria Locke Langley, Luther Davis
• Producers: William Cagney
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302390370
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #267,955 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

In the South, peddler marries school teacher and then starts on a whirlwind rise politically, using hysteria among cotton pickers and small-town folk as his device. His rise is halted when his crooked goings-on are exposed. Based on the novel by Adria Locke Langley.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Flim, July 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Lion Is in the Streets [VHS] (VHS Tape)

James Cagney shines as a charming but corrupt rural politician trying to deceive the voters. Barbara Hale is great as his sweet wife who is clueless about how dishonest her husband really is. It isn't Cagney's best film, but it is entertaining, and the performances are excellent.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A TRUNCATED TALE, December 17, 2009

By 

Andrew Mangravite - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Lion is in the Streets (DVD)

This Raoul Walsh-James Cagney collaboration has languished in the long shadows of Robert Rossen's "All the King's Men." Like the Rossen film it was based upon a novel by a Southern writer who was "inspired" by the career of Huey Long.

Cagney gives an energetic performance as the peddler-turned-politician, but the film suffers from sense of being rushed along. Cagney gets from Point A to Point B in no time at all and his victories seem a little too pat. (In this regard the film is quite similar to Cagney's earlier gangster noir "Kiss Tommorrow Goodbye," except that his character in that film moves from triumph to triumph like a latter day Tamburlane because he is clearly the baddest and most dangerous man in town. When Cagney's attorney asks him his real name, Cagney jovially responds, "If you knew it, you would die." And we believe him.)

But back to "A Lion Is in the Streets;" just when we are settling in to see how Cagney will react to his rejection by the state's voters, the film is over, and the climax seems mandated more by its running time than by any natural course of events.

Still, the film is worth watching to see Cagney go through his paces, and Anne Francis is excellent, though sadly under-utilized, as his up-from-the-swamplands mistress. In certain ways, her story would have been the more interesting one.)

4.0 out of 5 stars Another great film from Cagney and Walsh, August 31, 2011

By 

Dr. James Gardner (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Lion is in the Streets (DVD)

"A Lion is in the Streets" is a 1953 Technicolor film adaptation of the popular 1945 novel of the same name by Adria Locke Langley. That book was a fictional account of the life of Huey Long, the populist Louisiana politician whose story was told in an academy award winning performance by Broderick Crawford in 1949 in "All the King's Men". But this film was adapted so many times that it bears little resemblance to the life of Huey Long and really shouldn't be compared to "All the King's Men" which was a fairly accurate account of Long's life.

This was Jimmy Cagney's 49th film. Cagney (1899-1986) was one of the biggest stars of the 30s, nominated for an Oscar for "Angels with Dirty Faces" (1938) and won for "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942). While he is best known for his gangster roles (e.g., "Public Enemy", "Roaring Twenties" "White Heat" ), the majority of Cagney's screen appearances were not as a gangster - he played an insurance salesman ("The Millionaire", 1931), an engineer ("Other Men's Women", 1931), a boxer ("Winner Take All", 1932), an auto racer ("The Crowd Roars", 1932), a Broadway producer ("Footlight Parade", 1933), etc. Indeed, Cagney often appeared in comedies (e.g., "Here Comes the Navy", "Hard to Handle", "Jimmy the Gent"), although it was his gangster films that earned the really big bucks.

"Lion in the Streets" was made after Cagney left Warner Bros. and set up his own production company with his brother, but their films ("Johnny Come Lately", "Blood on the Sun", "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye") were not successful and this was their last independent production.

Barbara Hale (1922) plays Cagney's wife. She is best known for her long running role as Della Street on the "Perry Mason" TV series (1957-66) for which she won an Emmy in 1957. Prior to this she made dozens of films in the 40s and early 50s

Beautiful Anne Francis (1930-2011) plays a girl infatuated with Cagney. Francis was the award winning star of "Honey West" on TV (1965-6). She graced us with her beauty in films like "Blackboard Jungle" (1955), "Forbidden Planet" (1956), and "Funny Girl" (1968).

Lon Chaney Jr. (1906-73) plays Francis' father. Chaney was the son of the great silent film star Lon Chaney, and is best known for his horror films in the 40s and 50s, although his best screen performance may have been as the hulking Lenny in "Of Mice and Men" (1939). He made nearly 100 films between 1931 and 1971.

Warner Anderson (1911-76) plays Cagney's friend. Anderson is best known for his appearance in the TV series "Peyton Place" as Matthew Swain, but he performed in dozens of films, usually war films ("Command Decision") and comedies ("Abbott and Costello in Hollywood"). His most memorable role was as a coward in Gregory Peck's "Only the Valiant" (1951).

Frank McHugh (1898-1981) was a close friend of Cagney and part of the "Irish Mafia". This was their 11th and final pairing. McHugh's chubby face appeared in more than 100 films including "The Roaring Twenties" (1939), "Virginia City" (1940), and "Mighty Joe Young" (1949). McHugh plays a villainous cotton mill operator, one of McHugh's rare turns as a bad guy.

Raoul Walsh (1887-1980) directs with his usual panache. Prior to this he and Cagney made "Roaring Twenties" (1939), "Strawberry Blond" (1941), and "White Heat" (1949). This was their last film together. Walsh also directed "Dark Command" (1940) with John Wayne, "They Drive By Night" (1940) and "High Sierra" (1941) with Bogart, and "They Died with Their Boots On" (1941) with Errol Flynn. He declined noticably in the 50s after he left Warner Brothers, but his 50+ year career made him one of Hollywood's most memorable directors.

FWIW - Of the 3 films that Walsh and Cagney made prior to this one, "Lion" bears most resemblance to "Strawberry Blond".

1953 was a good year for film. The top grossing films were "Peter Pan", "The Robe", "From Here to Eternity", "Shane", and "How to Marry a Millionaire". The big Oscar winner was "From Here to Eternity" (Picture, Director, Supporting Actor and Actress). Other notable films that year were "Stalag 17", "The Wild One", "Titanic", the 3-D classic "House of Wax", "Roman Holiday", "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms", "The Desert Rats", and "Niagara".

The NY Times' Bosley Crowther called the film "a headlong and dynamic drama about a back-country champion of the poor who permits his political ambitions to pull him down a perilously crooked road. It offers the aggressive Mr. Cagney in one of his most colorful and meaningful roles. And, what's more, the theme of public weakness to rabble-rousers is as timely as it was eight years ago."

The film is an excellent example of how power corrupts, and it's a marvelous character study of a basically good man who surrenders, one by one, his long held beliefs in service of a greater aim. Cagney has all the nuances to keep us captivated as he slowly transforms from hero to villain. There is a subtext about the dangers in mob rule, and coming off the horrors of WW 2, and ensconced with the HUAC investigations in our own country, we can understand how this was a powerful theme for the time.

Bottom line - Forget about Huey Long and just view this film on its own merits and you won't be disappointed.