The tough guys - Jimmy Cagney

 "Waddya hear? Waddya say?" 

Rocky Sullivan, Angels With Dirty Faces

Depending on who you believe, Jimmy Cagney was only 5ft 5ins (1m 65)... or maybe 5ft 6in (1m 68). Cagney himself once claimed to be 5ft 8in (but that wasn't fooling anybody).

As the saying goes, 'a good little 'un will always beat a bad big 'un' and the young James had a reputation as a fearsome 'street fighter' and amateur boxer.

Whilst his screen reputation these days stands on his roles as a gangster, it should not be forgotten that Jimmy was also a fine tap dancer. Not only did he begin his stage career in vaudeville, he went on to be a dance teacher and choreographer.

Jimmy with Joan Blondell in Blonde Crazy (1931) - -Hays Code anybody?

Jimmy's appearance in 1933's Footlight Parade was billed in the trailer as 'the surprise sensation of the year'. These two extracts show why but, be warned - the first clip is very much 'of its time', making utterly shameless use of just about every racial stereotype going:

It's interesting to speculate what part Jimmy's boxing and dancing training might have played in giving him that peculiarly menacing, always-on-his-toes, always-teetering-on-the-brink screen gangster presence.  Whatever it was, early movies like The Public Enemy (1931), and Angels with Dirty Faces (1937), are amongst the most-enduring images of Hollywood cinema.

And, okay, I know White Heat was a 1949 production, so way outside the "legitimate" bounds of this blog but, hey, aren't gangster movies all about breaking the rules? So let's end with the James Cagney gangster moment - as Arthur "Cody" Jarrett: