The Oklahoma Kid (1939)

Directed by Lloyd Bacon. Starring James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane, Harvey Stephens, Donald Crisp, Hugh Sothern. Edward Pawley, Charles Middleton, Ward Bond, Lew Harvey, John Miljan.

Following two gangster movie pairings, Cagney is once more pitted against baddie Bogart, this time in a Western…but it ain’t exactly Angels with Dirty Saddles. Cagney is the Oklahoma Kid, a “lesser” bandit who defies Bogart’s corrupt and sinister “entrepreneur” who holds a monopoly on all the liquor and gambling in newly-settled Tulsa in the aftermath of the Oklahoma land rush (don’t check the details on that one in history books…). There’s a girl, too, of course—upstanding Lane, a judge’s daughter, fit to be married and fit to change a fella’s wild ways—and the usual grab-bag of pistol pulls, jailhouse raids, and showdowns. Fleet-footed and intermittently entertaining, it doesn’t add up to much and often taxes credulity, but the energetic star and craftsmen get the job done. Have fun picking out the stunt doubles in the climactic brawl (it sure isn’t hard to spot ‘em).

64/100