A truly affecting drama elevated by a remarkable performance. Considering just the screenplay itself, the movie feels like something we’ve encountered countless times—a familiar story about two brothers pursuing different career paths, with one brother striving to help his younger sibling achieve his ambition of becoming a composer. However, the film offers considerably more than that predictable foundation. Th…

I’m a big fan of James Cagney—he’s my top pick among actors (we share some Irish heritage, and he demonstrates greater range than Orson Welles), so I might be inclined to give his movies the benefit of the doubt. Nevertheless, I found this film combining gangster elements with boxing from the early 1940s to be quite good, featuring not only Cagney’s strong performance but also excellent work by Ann Sheridan (I'm draw…