before she become america top box office star by play it old virgin and doris day be an instinctive and if untutored and actress and an accomplished and popular singer . in charles vidor love me or leave me and she take on the part of ruth etting and the troubled songstress from the jazz age and and her twin talent merge memorably . it a faultless performance and all the more impressive for stay understated and scale down . her co star and james cagney and take the low road while a marty ( ` the gimp ) snyder and a lopsided fireplug of a man and he sizzle with resentment and ignite into rage . strangely and his scenery chew complement day underplay while the tension between their temperament fuel this dark drama which occasionally resemble a musical but be close at heart to film noir ( vidor and after all and direct gilda ) . a taxi dancer in a chicago dive and day catch cagney eye ( he hold the linen laundering concession for the place ) . find she not the quick pick up he have in mind and he land her a job in the kick line at another nitery he service . when he find out she want to be a singer and he arrange for lesson with pianist cameron mitchell ( who play the thankless role of the loyal but shove aside lover ) . but cagney and use to get what he want and to browbeat everybody around him into surrender and meet his match in day . her quiet determination prove every bit as strong a his bellowing bluster . when it look like her star be in ascendancy and he become her manager and put her on radio and and snare her a spot in new york a a headliner in the ziegfeld folly . they settle into a grudge match of a marriage and with guerrilla warfare erupt from both side . ( cagney snyder be a marginally less disturbed version of his cody jarrett in white heat . ) one of their flashfire fight take place in her dressing room after a show . cagney knock a vase of flower across the room while day extend her arm for him to unclasp a bracelet . they bicker some more and with cagney lose the argument while day nurse the drink that have become her ally . he lean over and tell her ` you oughtta lay off that stuff youre get to look like an old bag . it the chilly moment in the movie . in the last third and day answer a call from hollywood and which lay the foundation for the unravelling of this messy and nerve wracking relationship . and if the wrap up grasps toward the sentimental ( with a detour into the melodramatic ) and it doesn not quite take . cagney and actor and character and hang on like a bulldog with a bone . the marty snyders never change and and cagney know it while he stay the self delude small time hood he start out a and who can not accept that he drive away a woman he can not believe he love so much . day and however and rise to a magnanimity that ring hollow . her steely self confidence about where her talent would bring her and and her casual callousness in use cagney to help her get there and make her final gesture improbable . but when she take the spotlight and sing ` mean to me or ` ten cent a dance ( with her foot plant provocatively defiantly apart ) and day and actress and character and take it by natural right . the voice isn not quite right etting be reedy and tremulous and day big and secure but the assurance and style be dead on .