In which Pyat watches movies

[pyat]

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City for Conquest is almost a pastiche of all Cagney's previous films to date. It has a plucky working-class hero from the tenements, dancing, singing, prize-fighting gangsters, a gun fight and Cagney being bouncy and edgy. All it lacks is a scene where he is thrown into prison. The framework is a symphony of New York written by Cagney's screen brother, and it's all narrated by an immortal all-seeing hobo who breaks the fourth wall in the trailer. All this, with a sweeping, luxuriant Max Steiner score and James Wong Howe's camera work.

And I watched it while eating herring salad on the couch. I could get used to idleness.