James Cagney

"Although James Cagney was branded 'tough guy' almost from the moment he asserted his claim to stardom over half a century ago in Public Enemy, Richard Schickel argues in this analysis of the actor's screen characters and career that this label could not be more misleading.". "This book shows how he began his Hollywood career as the movies' first symbol of the aspirations of America's urban second generation. But after the apotheosis that was Yankee Doodle Dandy, both Cagney and the world began to age and change.". "Richard Schickel's study of Cagney's screen personality is far more than a profile of a great and beloved star. It is a meditation on over a half century's social history, a reflection not merely on a screen character, but on the changing national character which Cagney refracted. This book is both for admirers of Cagney's artistry and for anyone seriously interested in the history of film."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.