vincentlynch-moonoi The first thing I suggest you do before watching this film is to read the Wikipedia article about Jim Fisk -- the subject of this film. On the one hand, this is a fairly entertaining "biopic". On the other hand, it's highly fictionalized...accurate enough to recognize that it is the story of Jim Fisk, but why they didn't just tell the true story and also make it accurate, I don't know...well, actually I do know, because the character played by Frances Farmer was, in real life, a fat prostitute; after all, this picture was made in 1937. But, nevertheless, it's an interesting film, though hardly one you'll want to watch more than once.Edward Arnold plays Jim Fisk, does it nicely, and actually looks a bit like the real Fisk.Cary Grant gets second billing here as his partner; some of our reviewers seem stunned that Grant didn't get top billing, but the year this was made -- 1937 -- was the year that Grant established himself as a lead actor. The film he made just before this one was the great "Topper", and right after this one the equally entertaining "The Awful Truth". After "The Awful Truth", Grant would never again take second billing. He's interesting here, and somehow his performance reminds me a tad of how he presented himself in "The Howards Of Virginia".I really hadn't noticed Frances Farmer in any films before this one, and I can't say I was particularly impressed. Jack Oakie is along as another of Fisk's confederates; he's mildly entertaining here. Similarly, Donald Meek plays Daniel Drew, an unwilling confederate of Fisk, although in real life, Fisk worked for Drew. Clarence Kolb plays himself as Cornelius Vanderbilt. Billy Gilbert is interesting in a small role as a portrait photographer.In some ways interesting, but this film is no great shakes. It's okay for one viewing, and in reality, Edward Arnold has the most interesting role here.

edwagreen Dreadful 1937 film where three con men played by Cary Grant, Jack Oakie and Edward Arnold con their way to success. For them, the worst thing could have been was that the civil war ended.They wind up with a fortune; that is, a fortune in confederate bonds. While they are worth nothing, the trio manages to parlay this nothing into a fortune. Here is a major flaw in the film. It is never adequately explained how they could get away with this. Sounds more like the junk-bond trade of the 1980s and so.Frances Farmer, as a maid to a chanteuse, is elegantly dressed but does very little else here. Too bad that Miss Farmer spent much of her life combating mental disorders. Starring in this film was a disorder in itself.Arnold has some moments especially when he allows greed to lead to his downfall. However, you didn't have to be a rocket-scientist to see this coming.A very poor script certainly did not help this. Jack Oakie was traditionally a comedian of A-1 quality. How many times was he going to refer to Arnold as Yes Boss, Yes Boss.Slavery ended with the civil war.

bkoganbing If Jim Fisk were alive and operating today, he'd be on television and would run that well known introvert Donald Trump right off the tube with bad ratings. It's how that colorful fellow operated, never did anything in a small way.Though the film has taken a great deal of liberty with the facts as has been pointed out by other reviewers, the essence of the man has been quite accurately captured by Edward Arnold. Also the characters of Uncle Dan'l Drew and Cornelius Vanderbilt are finely etched by Donald Meek and Clarence Kolb respectively.It's quite true that Fisk got the start of his fortune by running contraband cotton out of the South, taking advantage of the fact that the one crop Confederacy couldn't export its crop because of the Union blockade. I'm sure that things were pretty hairy for Fisk as well as for his fictional partners Cary Grant and Jack Oakie.Josie Mansfield as played by Frances Farmer was certainly not the first or last entertainer to take advantage of the attentions of a wealthy man. That was certainly demonstrated more accurately in Love Me or Leave Me by Doris Day as Ruth Etting. She was not as nice as Farmer and the script made her.Frances Farmer in her memoirs said that while the film was not the type of material she was looking to do, she did enjoy working with Cary Grant who was to her as he appears on screen.Though his efforts to control the gold market got him his most notoriety, they were not responsible for Fisk's demise. In fact the film's most glaring factual error was the omission of Fisk's partner in that enterprise, Jay Gould.By the way Gould was in personal habits the exact opposite of Fisk. He was a rather sober, responsible family man who had no real vices of any kind other than greed. The second big factual error was in that in the gold cornering scheme Fisk and Gould sought to gain influence in the Grant White House through hooking Ulysses Grant's brother-in-law, Abel R. Corbin in the move. That part did not work.Nevertheless Edward Arnold in the title role gives a grand portrayal of a most colorful character from The Gilded Age.

dm032 Great film - starts out as a whimsical joyride and ends with a thought-provoking meditation on the evils of greed. Arnold is grand as the larger than life huckster turned Wall Street whiz. Farmer is his temptation (she actually stars in a musical by that name in the movie) and boy does Arnold take the bait. Unusual mix of biblical imagery and slapstick, but it all holds together. One point of interest - Arnold and Farmer play almost exactly the same characters in another movie of that period - "Come and Get it"