Product Details

• Actors: James Cagney, Ralph Bellamy, Patricia Ellis, Alice White, Ralf Harolde
• Directors: Lloyd Bacon
• Writers: Allen Rivkin, Ben Markson, Daniel Ahern, P.J. Wolfson, William Keighley
• Format: Black & White, DVD, Original recording remastered, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: March 25, 2008
• Run Time: 77 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00114XLS2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,340 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Picture Snatcher" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Picture Snatcher is exemplary early Cagney, 77 hard-charging minutes with the favorite son of the Lower East Side as a brash ex-con determined to go straight. How straight is a delicate question, since his job is scoring sensational photos for a raunchy tabloid. Picture Snatcher was made before the Production Code cast its puritanical shadow over Hollywood, and the script features two memorably morbid sequences--Cagney's debut as a literal picture snatcher, and the snapping of a clandestine prison-death-house photo--as well as abundant opportunities for risqué byplay, gallows humor, and freewheeling amorality. Lloyd Bacon (soon to direct Cagney in Footlight Parade) makes yeoman work of it all, even getting away with scenes in the newspaper's restroom, and staging a last-reel shootout ferocious enough to be worthy of a real gangster movie. With Ralph Bellamy as Cagney's newspaper boss (rare for him in those days to get a smart-guy role), Patricia Ellis as Cagney's girl (the daughter of the cop who sent him up), and sex-pixie Alice White stealing just about any scene she's in. --Richard T. Jameson

Product Description

Here’s Cagney as Danny Kean, a former gangster who has decided to go straight after a stretch in the big house. Danny has fallen for Patricia (Patricia Ellis), the daughter of the cop who put him away (Robert Emmett O'Connor). Dad isn't convinced that Danny has left his life of crime behind him, and he isn't too impressed with his new career taking pictures for a sleazy tabloid newspaper. Between getting a lurid photo of a fireman in front of a burning building (where his wife and her lover met their fate) and a daring shot of a woman being executed (based an actual incident when a New York Daily News photographer got a photo of Ruth Snyder in the electric chair), Danny's work is selling papers but hardly making Officer O'Connor think his daughter is in good hands (especially since he was in charge of press security for the execution).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast-paced early Cagney film, December 24, 2007

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Picture Snatcher (DVD)

1933's "Picture Snatcher" is one I've waited to come out on DVD for some time. It's about a gangster (James Cagney) who decides to go straight and become a photographer for a scandal sheet. The complication in the film is that Cagney's character is in love with the daughter of the cop that arrested him and sent him to prison. Dad isn't as convinced as his daughter that the ex-gangster has really changed. In the end, Cagney gets his exclusive photo of an execution - by breaking all of the rules of course - and he gets the girl. You would have figured as much, so I don't really think these are spoilers. The fun is watching how Cagney does these things. The film is fast paced and full of the energy that only Cagney could lend to such a role. Special features are:
Vintage theatrical trailer: I Loved A Woman
Classic WB short: Plane Crazy
WB cartoon: Wake Up The Gypsy In Me

This film is part of the larger volume 3 of the Warner Gangsters Boxed Set that is being released on the same day as this movie.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Picture Snatcher (1933) ... James Cagney ... Lloyd Bacon (Director) (2008)", January 26, 2011

By 

J. Lovins "Mr. Jim" (Missouri-USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Picture Snatcher (DVD)

Warner Bros. Pictures presents "PICTURE SNATCHER" (6 May 1933) (77 min/B&W) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- The film is a typical early '30s entertaining and fast-moving with some wild dialog and plenty of action and humor --- It's vintage Cagney: tough, cocky, funny and endearing --- The cast breaths so much personality into their character that they become individuals --- Though we know Cagney will prevail, we don't know just how he will succeed, and that is where the drama comes from --- Quick paced that you won't leave the room without hitting the stop button first.

Great acting, a good story, a happy ending, some jazzy theme music and those great cars of the 1930s -- What more could you want?

The great James Cagney is a joy to watch in the film --- He was a charismatic actor that left his mark of excellence on each and every film he appeared in.

Under the production staff of:
Lloyd Bacon [Director]
Daniel Ahern [Story]
Allen Rivkin [adaptation]
P.J. Wolfson [adaptation]
Ben Markson [dialogue]
Leo F. Forbstein [Conductor: Vitaphone Orchestra]
Ray Heindorf [Composer: title music]
Cliff Hess [Composer: stock music ]
Sol Polito [Cinematographer]
William Holmes [Film Editor]

BIOS:
1. Lloyd Bacon [aka: Lloyd Francis Bacon]
Date of Birth: 4 December 1889 - San Jose, California
Date of Death: 15 November 1955 - Burbank, California

2. James Cagney [aka: James Francis Cagney]
Date of Birth: 17 July 1899 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 30 March 1986 - Stanfordville, New York

the cast includes:
James Cagney - Danny Kean
Ralph Bellamy - J.R. 'Al' McLean
Patricia Ellis - Patricia 'Pat' Nolan
Alice White - Allison
Ralf Harolde - Jerry the Mug
Robert Emmett O'Connor - Lieutenant Casey Nolan
Robert Barrat - Grover, Graphic News Owner
G. Pat Collins - Hennessy the Fireman
Arthur Vinton - John, the Head Keeper
Tom Wilson - Leo

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 5 Stars
Performance: 5 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 5 Stars
Overall: 5 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 77 min on DVD ~ Warner Bros. Pictures ~ (03/25/2008)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "I track down the saps who have good reason to keep their pictures out of the papers...", October 1, 2010

By 

Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Picture Snatcher (DVD)

PICTURE SNATCHER is a pre-Code Cagney film about an ex-con who goes legit by working as a newspaper fotog. With bang-bang paced dialogue, bob-haired dames, hard-drinking mugs and elegant early '30s styles and autos, this one's a treat for Jimmy's fans and anyone interested in early Depression Era Vitaphone movies.

Cagney's first assignment is to photograph a fireman who came unglued when he answered a call and discovered his own home had burned with an unfaithful wife and her lover as part of the kindling. Jimmy enters the ruined building through a litter-strewn alley and pretends to be an insurance adjuster. While he makes a show of toting up losses, the distraught firefighter holds fast to a shotgun, watches warily and declares he'll shoot any man who tries to take his picture. Jimmy manages to sneak out a wedding portrait of the once happy couple; thus his new employer runs an exclusive photo on the front page.

In a later incident literally based on Ruth Snyder's 1928 Sing Sing electrocution, Cagney uses a miniature camera strapped to his ankle to photograph the event. (The actual image of Snyder at the moment electricity was applied is one of the most famous in journalistic history.)


Extras include commentary, a newsreel segment on 'Machine Gun' Kelly's capture, three movie trailers, a 1933 b&w Merrie Melodies cartoon and a two-reel musical from the same year.


Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll ratings.

(7.1) Picture Snatcher (1933) - Jimmy Cagney/Ralph Bellamy/Patricia Ellis/Alice White/Ralf Harolde (uncredited: Sterling Holloway/Milton Kibbee/Billy West/Hobart Cavanaugh/Gino Corrado/Charles Lane)

(5.4) Plane Crazy (1933) - Dorothy Lee/Arthur Havel/Morton Havel/Brook Allen/Catherine Field.

(6.3) Wake Up the Gypsy in Me (animated-1933) - Billy Bletcher