THE ST. LOUIS KID (A PERFECT WEEKEND)

(director: Ray Enright; screenwriters: Warren Duff/Seton I. Miller/from the story “The Perfect Week-End” Frederick Hazlitt Brennan; cinematographer: Sid Hickox; editor: Clarence Kolster; music: M.K. Jerome/Bernhard Kaun; cast: James Cagney (Eddie Kennedy), Patricia Ellis (Ann Reid), Allen Jenkins (Buck ‘Bucky’ Willets), Robert Barrat (John Benson), Hobart Cavanaugh (Mr. Richardson), Spencer Charters (Messeldopp), Addison Richards (Mr. Brown), Arthur Aylesworth (Judge Jeremiah Jones), Charles Wilson (Mr. Harris, trucking mgr.), William B. Davidson (Joe Hunter), Harry Woods (Louie Munn); Runtime: 67; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Samuel Bischoff; Warner Brothers; 1934)
“Snappy but only so-so James Cagney vehicle, whereby he plays a semi-tough hot-headed trucker.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Ray Enright(“Gung Ho!”/”The Spoilers”/”Montana”) directs this snappy but only so-so James Cagney vehicle, whereby he plays a semi-tough hot-headed trucker. If you’re a Cagney fan, this is worth seeing. Others might not be so inclined to agree. Writers Warren Duff and Seton I. Miller adapt it from the story “The Perfect Week-End” by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan.

Eddie Kennedy (James Cagney) and Buck Willetts (Allen Jenkins) are St. Louis truck drivers and best pals, who get into brawls because of their tough guy attitude. The duo get embroiled in a “milk war” between the big milk company that uses their trucking company and the striking dairymen. Things get lively when a dairy worker (Robert Barrat) is murdered and the innocent Eddie is framed for the crime. Before the hour is up Eddie must find the real killer, a thug hired by the milk company to get the milk through no matter what, and must also rescue his feisty diner waitress kidnapped girlfriend (Patricia Ellis).

It’s a modest working-class melodrama, that’s dated but in its day this kind of formulaic WB action pic brought in the crowds and made plenty of coin.

REVIEWED ON 7/9/2013 GRADE: B-