Jimmy the Gent

Jimmy Corrigan's business is finding the heirs to unclaimed fortunes. When he cannot find them he invents them. He is coarse, quick and a long way from honest. When his girl Joan leaves him and goes to work for a competitor who looks far more respectable, Jimmy decides to win her back. His method is clear enough: play the gentleman, drink tea, lower his voice when he speaks. Michael Curtiz's sixty seven minute Warner picture is a fast comedy shot before the Hays Code came fully into force. James Cagney plays Jimmy; even his haircut is set up as a joke. Bette Davis is here in the period when Warner still did not know what to do with her, and she was not at all happy with the part. The exchanges between the two performers carry all of the film's energy.