holly Ignore the haters that didn't appreciate this unpolished gem from the gold digger era. It's Cagney in a romantic comedy as a low-grade con man, against a mother-daughter team in matching outfits looking to bag a rich husband. When his scams profit, mother Ruth Donnelly thinks he's a perfect mate for daughter Mary Brian, but when his fortunes turn as they often do, the ladies switch polarity. Donnelly never misses an opportunity to kick him while he's down, meanwhile Brian's passion for underdogs cools when he's in the black. If you're looking for Cagney as a toughguy gangster this isn't it, although the film takes some timely, self-aware potshots at Cagney's image including grapefruit jokes. Here his schemes are mostly harmless like rigging a dance contest, and he's as likely to be scammed as he is to make a big score. I can see how his fans might be disappointed, but Cagney was also a song-and-dance man and a self-depricating comedian. Gold digger comedies, like crime-genre and noir, are filled with amoral characters and backstabbing frenemies but played for laughs. It's easy to forgive shady motives when the leads are wholesome Dick Powell and sunny Priscilla Lane. James Cagney on the otherhand has electricity and an edge that plays for darker characters. Here he's forced to rely on charm and guile - you may be waiting for him to bust up the joint and rub out his enemies, but gold digger heroes are lovers not fighters. This isn't his best fit, but "date movie" Cagney is the nicer guy who doesn't smash citrus in women's faces.Ruth Donnelly anchors the meandering plot as the most gold digger-y character in a gold digger comedy. What kills the film is the casting of elegant Mary Brian who mostly stands around looking pretty. Her "inverse barometer" reactions to Cagney's ups and downs would have played better with a more sexual screen presence. She represents the female sexual urge, while mother Donnelly represents the brain, conflicted over bad-boy Cagney's tumultuous circumstances. They dress alike because they metaphorically are one woman, but also because it's funny hanging a lampshade on their mother-daughter bear trap. The clever subtext is that Cagney can't win the girl until he figures out how to appeal to both women's sensibilities at the same time.

mark.waltz A half hour segment of the end of a dance marathon (featuring two couples battling until the end) sets up the hilarity for this battle of lovers (the girl with a delightfully domineering mother, the boy with a hysterically cynical sense of life) where the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the marathon prize money leads to more complications and more cons thanks to Cagney's hilarious scheming. A fascinating crisp & fast-moving screenplay keeps the film going at a high speed, and Cagney delivers each line as if he was swallowing a grapefruit whole. Mary Brian is an appealing heroine, but it is Ruth Donnelly as her fast-talking mother who really steals the film from the moment she is introduced watching her daughter in the final moments of the marathon. A fascinating supporting cast features some wonderful character players, among them Allen Jenkins as the marathon announcer and Sterling Holloway ("Winnie the Pooh") as part of the second remaining couple in the marathon.

kidboots Ruth Donnelly had such a barbed way with a stinging comment, she found her niche playing secretaries and battle axe mothers whose dialogue was often made up of wise cracks and witty repartee. To "Blessed Event" and the overbearing aunt who forces her husband (Guy Kibbee) to find jobs for all her free loading and talentless relatives in "Footlight Parade", I would add the $$ signs mother in "Hard to Handle" as one of her most incisive performances. She was only a few years older than James Cagney but in this movie they make a terrific team - he as "Lefty" Merril a fast talking con man who has a million ideas - none of them on the level. He is in love with Ruth (sweet Mary Brian) whose mother (Donnelly) is determined that she marry rich, rich, rich!!! The busy banter between Cagney and Donnelly - he "I just have to find a place to stay", she "what's wrong with the park", he "until I find a proper location" she "where? Sing Sing??" - keeps the movie sparkling!!His schemes always fail - a dodgy dance marathon where his partner runs off with all the money, a treasure hunt on the Sea Breeze pier where the winner is to find $5,000, only there is no prize but the thousands of seekers let loose wreck the pier (a hilarious scene)!! One of his schemes does take - a cold cream that doesn't absorb into the skin becomes Velvet Reducing Cream and Lefty becomes an instant millionaire!! Now Ruth is hesitant - she liked the old "go get 'im" Lefty and feels his head may be turned by his wealthy lifestyle and now wants to wait a few months before accepting his marriage proposal. That is all the time needed for vampy college student beauty Marlene Reeves (gorgeous Claire Dodd who else) to try to get her red nailed fingers into him. If only Claire Dodd could have got her man just once - her smarts and cunning matched his and even though Ruth said to Lefty of New York "this is my town, not yours" Dodd's slinking made Brian look like a country bumpkin. I also couldn't understand those matching mother daughter outfits either - quite odd!!! But Miss Dodd was always destined to be the scintillating other woman and what an "other woman" she was.Cagney didn't like being restricted to "dese, dem and dose" type roles - although even today they are elevated by his emotional honesty and sheer dynamism. He walked out of "Blessed Event" (I'm glad - I don't think Lee Tracy could be bettered) claiming he was doing too many movies for too little pay. "Hard to Handle" was his return movie and even though he played yet another scrapper - similar to his Bert in "Blonde Crazy" - at least he was getting more pay!!!Highly Recommended!!

bkoganbing Hard to Handle has James Cagney dusting off his role as con man that he debuted with in Blonde Crazy. That film was a bit more serious and had the virtue of Joan Blondell.Here the Blondell role is split in two and Cagney deals with a mother/ daughter duo of Ruth Donnelly and Mary Brian. Like Blondell, Donnelly gives as good as she gets from Cagney.Donnelly and Cagney were roughly the same age and Brian was about six years younger than Cagney. Ridiculous now when you think about Donnelly and Brian being mother and daughter. No film maker could get away with that casting now.There's no real story to this film, Cagney moves from one con to another, skirting ever so close to illegality. Donnelly and Brian are alternately for and against him and not at the same time either at certain points.It's a film that relies solely on the charm of Jimmy Cagney which is considerable. And it's the stuff Cagney was disputing with Jack Warner over.His last con involved the marketing of grapefruit, from the man who made grapefruit tossing a national past time at breakfast/