A Lion Is in the Streets (1953)

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

Luther Davis (writer)
Andria Locke Langley (novel)

Release Date:

23 September 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

THE ROARING STORY OF A GIVE-AND-TAKE GUY! He took plenty from the chiselers...the crooks...and the tin-horns...and gave 'em nothing in return!

Plot:

A charismatic peddler from the bayous finds his true calling in politics. Is he a demagogue in the making?

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Political | Based On Novel

Cast

James Cagney	...	Hank Martin
Barbara Hale	...	Verity Wade
Anne Francis	...	Flamingo McManamee
Warner Anderson	...	Jules Bolduc
John McIntire	...	Jeb Brown
Jeanne Cagney	...	Jennie Brown
Lon Chaney Jr.	...	Spurge McManamee (as Lon Chaney)
Frank McHugh	...	Frank Rector
Larry Keating	...	Robert L. Castleberry IV
Onslow Stevens	...	Guy Polli
James Millican	...	Samuel T. Beach
Mickey Simpson	...	Tim Beck, Blacksmith
Sara Haden	...	Lula May McManamee
Ellen Corby	...	Singing Woman

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #16499)

Company:

William Cagney Productions

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the scene attempting to prove that Castleberry's scales were rigged to underpay the cotton farmers, Jeb Brown's load weighed in at twenty two hundred pounds, and he was going to be paid on that. However when Martin's men raid the Castleberry office and come up with the 'right' scale weights, the re-weighing comes out at sixteen hundred pounds. Brown would have benefited from the original weigh-in, and the 'proof' showed that Castleberry wasn't a crook.

Quotes:

Verity Wade: It's these folks. They're all so wonderful.
Hank Martin: Well, all folks is wonderful. You just have to know the right place to kick 'em in.
Verity Wade: What?
Hank Martin: Sure. It's like learnin' to play a musical instrument by ear. All you gotta know is what place to push to get what note. Then pretty soon, everybody's dancin'...to your tune.

"I've been your wife ever since I knew what the world meant"

Cagney (clever & aggressive) is seen peddling his wares in the back-hills country of a cotton-growing southern state... He falls for beautiful Barbara Hale, a sympathetic grade-school teacher from up North... They wed and honeymoon in a small house supplied by aristocratic Warner Anderson...

Watchful to the possibilities of a political career in which he could easily become the governor of the state, Cagney increases his interest in a blonde tramp called Flamingo (Anne Francis), a violent and turbulent woman, who in a fit of jealousy nearly gets rid of her competitor (Barbara Hale) in a premeditated swamp accident...

Barbara Hale is sweet, charming and understanding, but she has the least showy role in a film full to the disintegrating point with well-delineated colorful characters performed by a very experienced cast...

Raoul Walsh's direction keeps the film moving lively and Harry Stradling's excellent Technicolor photography captures the very atmosphere of the deep South...