'G' Men

'G' Men, directed by William Keighley and starring James Cagney, opened on April 18, 1935, made on a budget of 307,000 dollars and grossing 1,963,000. The film was a deliberate response to the gangster image Cagney had built with The Public Enemy (1931): after civic pressure groups and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover criticized Hollywood for glorifying criminals, Warner Bros. kept the same crime genre thrills but made the hero an FBI agent instead. Hoover welcomed the project and assigned real FBI agents as consultants to boost its authenticity. The film also marks Lloyd Nolan's screen debut. It was reissued in 1949, timed to the FBI's 25th anniversary, with a new introduction aimed at agent recruits. Who it's for: anyone curious about a crime film that flipped an actor's gangster image into an FBI hero, made with direct consultation from the real Bureau. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a neutral, critical account of law enforcement, since the film was deliberately designed to boost the FBI's public image.