this be a nice unusual little film while more entertaining than i ever suspect it would be base on the reputation of the saroyan play and what i have hear about the film version over the year . this film doesn not have quite the spit and polish we expect from film with major star in the 1940s and probably because it wasn not produce by a major studio as far a i be aware . however this be a good thing in some way and a the film feel a bit more free to be what it want to be than most studio adaptation . for example the credit sequence at the beginning be very charming and list the hobby and habit of the primary character in theatrical style joe ( james cagney ) be describe by whose hobby be people and mccarthy ( ward bond ) a a blatherskite and krupp ( broderick crawford ) be a bewildered policeman and so forth . maybe a lot of people over the year have see nothing but a reflection of his tv work and but i think william bendix be very impressive a a man who be at the same time savvy enough to run a saloon in the waterfront district of san francisco and charm enough to be believable a a family man . james cagney work be remarkably fresh a well and a complete departure from a lot of his tough guy role that we usually saw him in . jeanne cagney and his sister and be far well suit to her role and a melancholy dance hall type who form an attachment with joe best friend tom ( wayne morris ) than she be a the femme fatale in the more widely see quicksand opposite mickey rooney . all the character be develop in such a way that we empathize with them even though some be a bit absurd and such a the dancer who want to be a comedian but just isn not funny ( play here by paul draper and on broadway by gene kelly ) and a black man ( reginald beane ) who astonish at the mere idea of be pay to play piano . everything be do in a style that not even remotely naturalistic but which somehow manages to convey some real insight into human behavior it remind me of the old say live in the skin youre in and there a sign on the window of the bar that the first thing we see in the film that express much the same sentiment . the acting be design to accentuate this feeling and almost a literal slice of life . a joe say in perhaps the film one attempt at a profound statement represent living be an art and it not bookkeeping . it take an awful lot of rehearsal for a man to get to be himself . our character do not exactly progress through standard melodramatic device but rather through a process of self recognition best exemplify through the relationship between kitty ( jeanne cagney ) and tom . just like wesley and our piano play unemployed man and there no way to seize the possibility of life as long a we be so narrow in our conditioned expectation from ourselves and others . joe be extraordinary because and perhaps because of his traumatic lose love and he seem to have abandon normal social mode of behavior and the expectation and limitation impose by them . i think a lot of people will probably feel that the various change the character go through be too contrived and of course it obvious that all these event would be unlikely to occur within the play span of time of only one day . it probably more fruitful to see the movie a essentially a film play and since there be very few cinematic trick and since all of these event and character development can be see in theater time . some of the contrivance be only apparent because the play have be trim a bit to fit into theater show time while the original romance between tom and kitty be apparently more developed in the play . that make tom confession of love seem a bit forced . there not a lot to complain about in the movie while i just take it for what it be and i enjoy it very much for the brief scene that really show the good aspect of human nature and a sense of hope for humanity . the little guy actually do win his pinball machine and tom really do get together with kitty and and the bad guy blick ( tom power ) doesn not manage to shut the bar down . i love how joe keep send tom for seemingly random item and the fact that there be no clever resolution to explain why he ask for them . it seem like joe be very interested in the random nature of the saloon and the kind of random people who come into the saloon and a he befriend kitty and later an old drunk frontiersman ( extraordinary character work by james barton ) . the story would be painfully predictable with no random elements if it wasn not for the presence of joe the credit pretty much tell u everything about both the good and the bad ( blick for instance be a stool pigeon and frame up artist ) and so perhaps i should have expect for thing to turn out in a somewhat less than usual manner but i be still take somewhat by surprise simply because the style of the film have lull me into a state of acceptance . this film probably would not appeal to all that many people nowadays except fan of classic theater and james cagney act . but it a worthy and unusual film and even a daring film in the fact that it allow cagney to simply fulfill his strange role in the film and doesn not feel weigh down by the traditional trapping of the star system that usually take stage to film adaptation off their track .