Popular reviews

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  Review by Anna Imhof 🌸 ★★★½

  Pretty much worth it just for Cagney sitting in a bathtub after a stint in prison and flipping out over the lovely scent. "That gets it! That little touch of lavender!"

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  Review by sakana1 ★★½ 2

  This is the sort of Cagney film that gets the bulk of its value from his mere presence — we have the pleasure of watching him for 70-odd minutes. The story, about an ex-con with a passion for newspaper work, isn’t much, and it gets interrupted regularly by the requisite aggressive blonde on the make, but it allows Cagney to run around a lot (literally) and, eventually, become bros with Ralph Bellamy, which is pretty cute.

  It’s worth noting that this is yet another of the pre-Code films that ends up pushing traditional morality, in this case with the Cagney character not only going straight, but also eventually abandoning his former gangster associate when the chips are down.

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  Review by Robert Hayes ★★★★★

  'Journalists as gangsters' is hardly subtle, but it doesn't really need to be. This was a saucy, cynical piece of entertainment and James Cagney played his role to a tee. It's also one of horniest (and kinkiest) Pre-Code films I've seen to date. ("James Cagney's got vitality, Alice White's got vitality, all God's chillen got vitality...")

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  Review by Tylot Lantern ★★★

  James Cagney plays an ex-convict who decides to go legit as a newspaper photographer. Alice White’s performance is this is phenomenal which makes me wish she got more screen time, honestly one of my favourite performances of all-time.

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  Review by 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗬𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟱𝗠𝗖𝗙𝗟𝗬 🎬 ★★★½

  Picture Snatcher is a pre-code film that hit at a time when the gangster genre was beginning to come under scrutiny by William Hayes. This meant that studios had to think outside the box to deliver movies with all the gangster movie trappings, but set in a world outside the realm of outright criminality.

  Picture Snatcher takes a gangster (Cagney) and makes him a photographer for a rag newspaper. It’s a clever conceit that allows Cagney to play tough in a comedy picture. Cagney is fantastic as always. In my estimation, the best actor of the 1930s.

  It’s curious that a film like this could pass the censorship of Hayes. Whilst a comedy, there’s a dark underbelly of sex, violence…

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  Review by Rick Burin ★★★½

  *SOME SPOILERS*

  This Cagney film is like many of the ones he made in the early '30s, going great guns at first, before getting a bit bogged down in censor-soothing melodrama, as he falls in love and seeks to atone for his sins.

  Here he's an ex-con who becomes a star reporter at a yellow tabloid, the story based - very, very loosely - on the photographer who snapped the notorious 1929 photo of murderess Ruth Snyder in the electric chair. (Trivia fans: that chap's grandson is Norm from Cheers, and his greatgrandson is Jason Sudeikis.)

  There's a rich vein of sex jokes being mined throughout, and Cagney is as he usually was during this period: dynamic, fun, sometimes a…

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  Review by Zoë 🐝 ★★½ 1

  TW: mentions of abuse

  Cagney is turned up to 11...but at what cost?

  "Picture Snatcher" is bananas. I'm glad I've seen it because it really is the pre-code era at its most unrestrained and unapologetic, and while that's interesting to watch, it doesn't necessarily make for a good movie. For example, domestic violence is often used as a joke, making for a lot of distasteful scenes.

  "Picture Snatcher" also suffers from a boring plot and characters. Things happen, but I never really cared about what was happening. Cagney is doing a lot, but I never cared about Danny as a person. It's like a recipe for a Cagney pre-code flick where the end product isn't inedible, but it's no 5…

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  Review by hayley ★★★★

  The thing I adore and love about James Cagney is just how energetic and exciting he was to watch. Every film he is in his character practically leaps off the screen and is just so full of life you have no choice but to watch him. I loved how he was let loose in this one and made for a real good time especially how he would weasel his way into everything.

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  Review by PUNQ ★★★

  Not a major James Cagney picture as he is a paper picture snatcher trying to go straight after spending time in jail. Except he gets work at a dirt sheet and still gets into trouble. But Cagney can get something special out of anything and he makes this lesser story more then watchable. The main reason for that is that he loves his work and that joy comes across so clearly on screen. It's like his own little playground where he can go all crazy slapping women around and be as playful as he likes. And the directors and actors/actresses have to put up with it 'cause it's THE James Cagney they got to deal with. He's just awesome!

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  Review by Adam L ★★★

  James Cagney is fresh out of the joint and in need of steady income. With the help of his old friend Ralph Bellamy he goes to work for The Graphic News, which a priggish journalism student refers to as "a filthy blot on the escutcheon of American writing."

  Cagney's street smarts and criminal acumen work hand-in-glove with yellow journalism, and he quickly makes his bones with a series of incredible scoops. He impersonates an insurance investigator to steal a picture of the cheating wife who burned to death in an apartment fire. He steals an invitation to an execution at Sing Sing to snap a photograph of a woman in the electric chair.

  The melodrama here is standard stuff. Cagney…

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  Review by Katie Carter ★★★★

  This movie has everything you could ever want in a Pre-Code film! Sex! Violence! Uninhibited drinking! Journalists with a loose code of ethics! Cagney in the bathtub! Ralph Bellamy not getting any! EVERYTHING!

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  Review by AnonymousAndy ★★★

  James Cagney makes it quick and snappy in The Picture Snatcher.

  Danny Kean (Cagney) is a reformed gangster recently released from a stint in prison. Upon his re-entry into decent society, he decides to enter an even sleazier business than before: tabloid journalism! Using his natural street-smarts and various connections from his past life, he rises to the top almost instantly, but it's not long before he finds himself on the wrong side of the law yet again.

  This pre-code quickie finds Cagney in fine form, smart-assing and bitch-slapping his way across town. As always, he brings a boatload of natural presence and charisma, carrying the entire production on his back in the process. Direction from Lloyd Bacon is solid…