WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.299 Welcome back to The Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:03.299 --> 00:00:05.860 pulling apart a moment in Hollywood history that 00:00:05.860 --> 00:00:08.759 feels, honestly, it feels almost like a magic 00:00:08.759 --> 00:00:11.240 trick. That is probably the best way to describe 00:00:11.240 --> 00:00:13.160 it, yeah. Because if you look at it one way, 00:00:13.179 --> 00:00:17.160 it's just a classic 1930s action movie. You know, 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:20.559 loud, fast, incredibly violent, lots of machine 00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:23.780 guns rattling. Right. But if you shift your perspective 00:00:23.780 --> 00:00:26.339 just a little bit, you realize you are looking 00:00:26.339 --> 00:00:31.050 at perhaps the single most successful high -stakes 00:00:31.050 --> 00:00:33.850 PR stunt of the 20th century. It really is. It's 00:00:33.850 --> 00:00:36.490 a rebranding exercise so effective that people 00:00:36.490 --> 00:00:39.109 are still buying into it nearly 100 years later. 00:00:39.570 --> 00:00:42.210 I mean, it is the exact moment Hollywood decided 00:00:42.210 --> 00:00:45.969 to stop fighting the government and, well, start 00:00:45.969 --> 00:00:48.710 marketing it. We are talking about the 1935 film 00:00:48.710 --> 00:00:51.500 G -Men. And to really understand the weight of 00:00:51.500 --> 00:00:53.700 this deep dive, you have to conjure up an image 00:00:53.700 --> 00:00:56.079 of James Cagney. Oh, absolutely. Cagney is the 00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:57.700 whole key to this. Right, because before this 00:00:57.700 --> 00:00:59.939 movie, Cagney was essentially the face of the 00:00:59.939 --> 00:01:02.539 American criminal. He was the guy who, you know, 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:04.900 he smashed a grapefruit into a woman's face and 00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:07.239 the public enemy. Which was shocking at the time. 00:01:07.500 --> 00:01:10.500 Totally shocking. He made being bad look dangerous, 00:01:10.859 --> 00:01:13.579 exciting, and frankly, incredibly cool. That's 00:01:13.579 --> 00:01:15.519 the core issue they were dealing with. He had 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:18.560 this electric energy on screen. And then, almost 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:21.650 overnight, Warner Brothers decides to take that 00:01:21.650 --> 00:01:24.349 specific energy, the sneer, the aggression, the 00:01:24.349 --> 00:01:27.010 street smarts, and just put a federal badge on 00:01:27.010 --> 00:01:29.769 it. G -Men isn't just a movie where Cagney happens 00:01:29.769 --> 00:01:32.549 to play a cop. It's a movie where Hollywood tries 00:01:32.549 --> 00:01:35.629 to save its own skin by turning their absolute 00:01:35.629 --> 00:01:38.590 biggest villain into the ultimate federal agent. 00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:41.140 So our mission today is to walk through exactly 00:01:41.140 --> 00:01:43.280 how this pivot happened. We're going to look 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:45.719 at the plot, the production context, and the 00:01:45.719 --> 00:01:48.239 massive reception of G -Men to understand how 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:50.459 Warner Brothers managed to flip the script on 00:01:50.459 --> 00:01:52.780 the gangster film genre. And do it without actually 00:01:52.780 --> 00:01:54.439 changing the formula that made them rich in the 00:01:54.439 --> 00:01:56.959 first place. Exactly. And just so you know, we 00:01:56.959 --> 00:01:59.340 are basing our deep dive today on the Wikipedia 00:01:59.340 --> 00:02:01.939 article for the film G -Men, which covers all 00:02:01.939 --> 00:02:04.000 the production notes, the historical context, 00:02:04.040 --> 00:02:06.659 and the plot summaries. It's a really fascinating 00:02:06.659 --> 00:02:09.080 source to dig into. Let's start with the why. 00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:12.180 Because studios don't usually mess with a winning 00:02:12.180 --> 00:02:14.719 formula unless they are absolutely forced to. 00:02:15.080 --> 00:02:17.560 And the gangster formula in their early 30s was 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:20.199 definitely winning. Oh, it was printing money. 00:02:20.819 --> 00:02:22.539 But you really have to contextualize the year. 00:02:22.759 --> 00:02:26.240 We're in the early 1930s. The Great Depression 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:29.659 is in full swing. Things are bleak. Incredibly 00:02:29.659 --> 00:02:31.840 bleak. Yeah. The national mood is at rock bottom. 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:34.939 Unemployment is sky high. And into that void, 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:37.860 Warner Brothers is releasing these gritty, hard 00:02:37.860 --> 00:02:40.259 -hitting films like Little Caesar, the original 00:02:40.259 --> 00:02:43.180 Scarface, and the big one, The Public Enemy. 00:02:43.379 --> 00:02:45.419 Which brings us back to Cagney. Right. In The 00:02:45.419 --> 00:02:48.360 Public Enemy, he plays Tom Powers. He's a street 00:02:48.360 --> 00:02:51.419 tough who rises to the top. Now, here is the 00:02:51.419 --> 00:02:53.419 nuance that political and business leaders at 00:02:53.419 --> 00:02:56.020 the time were screaming about. In these movies, 00:02:56.379 --> 00:02:59.000 the bad guy almost always died at the end. So 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:00.560 the moral of the story was technically there, 00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:03.259 crime doesn't pay. Technically, yes. The crime 00:03:03.259 --> 00:03:05.319 doesn't pay moral was tacked on. But for the 00:03:05.319 --> 00:03:07.919 first 89 minutes? The guy is living the dream. 00:03:08.360 --> 00:03:10.900 Exactly. For the entire runtime leading up to 00:03:10.900 --> 00:03:13.439 that death, the gangster is living like a king. 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:16.639 He has the best suits, the fastest cars, the 00:03:16.639 --> 00:03:19.879 prettiest girls, total Freedom. Which is quite 00:03:19.879 --> 00:03:23.060 the contrast. It's a massive contrast. If you 00:03:23.060 --> 00:03:26.120 are a guy standing in a bread line, unable to 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:27.840 feed your family because the system has failed 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:30.759 you, looking up at the silver screen and seeing 00:03:30.759 --> 00:03:34.520 a guy who just takes what he wants. That is incredibly 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:36.680 seductive. So the criticism wasn't just that 00:03:36.680 --> 00:03:38.759 the movies were violent. It was that they were 00:03:38.759 --> 00:03:41.000 making the depression -era audience root for 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:43.520 the wrong side. Precisely. You had political 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:45.680 leaders, religious groups, and business leaders 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:48.620 basically attacking Hollywood. They claimed the 00:03:48.620 --> 00:03:50.699 studios were actively glorifying criminals. But 00:03:50.699 --> 00:03:52.620 there was a second part to this complaint in 00:03:52.620 --> 00:03:54.240 the source material, which I think is even more 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:56.219 interesting. It wasn't just that the criminals 00:03:56.219 --> 00:03:58.719 looked cool. It was that the government looked 00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:01.080 pathetic. Right. The police were depicted as 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:03.560 totally impotent. The critics actually describe 00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:06.560 the cinematic police forces as derelict and largely 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:10.419 absentee fathers. That's a great quote. And it's 00:04:10.419 --> 00:04:14.159 true. They were either too slow, too dumb or 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:18.220 too corrupt to stop the bad guys. So Warner Brothers 00:04:18.220 --> 00:04:20.699 is painted into a corner. They were being told 00:04:20.699 --> 00:04:23.420 by very powerful people to stop making the movies 00:04:23.420 --> 00:04:25.759 that keep the lights on. But they can't just 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:27.819 start making, you know, romantic comedies. They 00:04:27.819 --> 00:04:29.639 have James Cagney under contract. He's not going 00:04:29.639 --> 00:04:31.639 to do a tap dance routine. Well, actually, he 00:04:31.639 --> 00:04:33.319 was a great dancer, but that's not what the audience 00:04:33.319 --> 00:04:34.980 wanted from him. No, they wanted the tough guy. 00:04:35.060 --> 00:04:38.139 They wanted the guy with the gun. So the studio 00:04:38.139 --> 00:04:39.980 executives, and we really have to give credit 00:04:39.980 --> 00:04:43.160 to the sheer strategic brilliance here, decide 00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:47.000 to execute a massive bait and switch. They said, 00:04:47.019 --> 00:04:50.300 OK. We will stop glorifying the criminal protagonist. 00:04:50.980 --> 00:04:53.620 Instead, we will glorify the heroic federal police 00:04:53.620 --> 00:04:55.980 officer. They kept the violence. They kept the 00:04:55.980 --> 00:04:58.779 speed. They kept the big star. They just changed 00:04:58.779 --> 00:05:01.759 who he was shooting at. That is G -Men in a nutshell. 00:05:02.339 --> 00:05:04.339 It was the studio's direct answer to the critics. 00:05:04.860 --> 00:05:07.040 And the way they constructed the narrative to 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:09.360 bridge that gap is what's so fascinating. Because 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:11.920 they didn't just make Cagney a squeaky clean 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:14.120 do -gooder from the very first frame. That would 00:05:14.120 --> 00:05:15.819 have been too jarring. The audience wouldn't 00:05:15.819 --> 00:05:17.660 have bought it at all. Right. So let's get into 00:05:17.660 --> 00:05:20.860 the character of James Davis. They call him Brick. 00:05:21.620 --> 00:05:24.180 When we meet Brick Davis, he isn't a cop. He 00:05:24.180 --> 00:05:27.060 isn't a criminal either. He's a lawyer. He is. 00:05:27.420 --> 00:05:30.819 But he's a very specific type of lawyer. He has 00:05:30.819 --> 00:05:33.560 absolutely no clients. Which is usually a pretty 00:05:33.560 --> 00:05:36.160 bad sign for a lawyer. In real life, yes. Yeah. 00:05:36.379 --> 00:05:38.240 But in the logic of the movie, it's a sign of 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:40.980 virtue. He refuses to compromise his ideals. 00:05:41.379 --> 00:05:43.259 He won't defend guilty people. He won't play 00:05:43.259 --> 00:05:45.939 the dirty games of the legal system. He's just 00:05:45.939 --> 00:05:48.379 sitting in his office with nothing to do because 00:05:48.379 --> 00:05:50.379 he has too much integrity. However, and this 00:05:50.379 --> 00:05:52.160 is the hook that really drags the audience in 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:55.699 there, is a shadow over him. We find out pretty 00:05:55.699 --> 00:05:58.240 early on that his education, his law degree, 00:05:58.459 --> 00:06:00.879 literally everything he has, was paid for by 00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:04.240 a man named McKay. Mack McKay. who just happens 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:07.740 to be a very powerful, very wealthy mob boss. 00:06:07.939 --> 00:06:10.339 This dynamic is so interesting to me. You have 00:06:10.339 --> 00:06:13.160 the ultimate lawman to be, and his primary father 00:06:13.160 --> 00:06:16.060 figure is a major criminal. It creates this immediate 00:06:16.060 --> 00:06:18.519 moral gray area. It's not just black and white. 00:06:18.740 --> 00:06:21.579 It's the engine of the whole first act. And McKay 00:06:21.579 --> 00:06:23.839 isn't portrayed as a monster either. He's a benevolent 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:27.100 mentor. He saw potential in Davis and wanted 00:06:27.100 --> 00:06:29.540 him to have a life away from the streets. He 00:06:29.540 --> 00:06:31.540 essentially groomed Davis to be better than him. 00:06:31.579 --> 00:06:34.160 He wanted him on the right side of the law. Exactly. 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:36.720 So Davis is trying to live up to that. He's trying 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:41.279 to be a legitimate, clean lawyer. But then his 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:44.800 friend enters the picture, Eddie Buchanan. Right. 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:47.579 Eddie is played by Regis Toomey, and Eddie is 00:06:47.579 --> 00:06:49.480 the recruiter. He's already a federal agent, 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:52.379 a G -man. He comes to Davis and says, look, you're 00:06:52.379 --> 00:06:54.399 starving as a lawyer. Come join the Department 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:56.879 of Justice. We need guys like you. And Davis 00:06:56.879 --> 00:06:59.579 says no. Flat out rejects him. He does. He has 00:06:59.579 --> 00:07:02.120 zero interest in being a cop. Yeah. And this 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:04.079 is crucial for the audience's identification 00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:06.879 with Cagney. If he had just wanted to be a cop 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:09.079 from scene one, he would have seemed like a square. 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:12.399 By rejecting it initially, he maintains that 00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:15.060 independence, that edge. Until the catalyst rips. 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:18.120 Right. The classic tragedy. Eddie Buchanan, the 00:07:18.120 --> 00:07:20.360 well -meaning friend, tries to arrest a gangster 00:07:20.360 --> 00:07:23.420 and is killed. And that is the exact moment the 00:07:23.420 --> 00:07:26.319 switch flips for Davis. It's not about abstract 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:28.759 justice anymore. It's not about upholding the 00:07:28.759 --> 00:07:31.220 law for the sake of the law. It's about revenge. 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:34.600 Exactly. Davis joins the Department of Justice 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:38.339 not to serve the country, but to catch the specific 00:07:38.339 --> 00:07:41.319 man who killed his friend. It grounds the motivation 00:07:41.319 --> 00:07:44.180 in something very primal, which fits Cagney's 00:07:44.180 --> 00:07:46.759 acting style perfectly. But this decision forces 00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:49.560 a really heartbreaking scene. He has to go tell 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:52.040 McKay, his mobster patron, that he is joining 00:07:52.040 --> 00:07:53.759 the federal government. He's joining the other 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:56.180 side. Right. And the source material mentions 00:07:56.180 --> 00:07:59.019 a woman in the scene too, Jean Morgan. Yes, played 00:07:59.019 --> 00:08:01.959 by Anne Dvorak. She's the star of McKay's nightclub, 00:08:02.040 --> 00:08:04.600 and it's very clear she has deep feelings for 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:07.319 Davis. So Davis is walking away from his father 00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:10.449 figure and a potential love interest. He's severing 00:08:10.449 --> 00:08:12.470 his ties with the criminal world to enter the 00:08:12.470 --> 00:08:14.629 legal world. But the movie makes it clear the 00:08:14.629 --> 00:08:16.949 personal connection is still there. He loves 00:08:16.949 --> 00:08:19.069 these people even if he hates what they represent. 00:08:19.329 --> 00:08:22.230 It's a great conflict. So he packs his bags and 00:08:22.230 --> 00:08:24.709 heads to Washington DC for training. In this 00:08:24.709 --> 00:08:27.610 part of the movie... Honestly, if you've seen 00:08:27.610 --> 00:08:30.250 any cop movie from the last 40 years, this sequence 00:08:30.250 --> 00:08:32.669 will feel incredibly familiar. It totally set 00:08:32.669 --> 00:08:34.389 the template. You have the whole boot camp sequence. 00:08:34.470 --> 00:08:36.309 And you have the hardened instructor who rides 00:08:36.309 --> 00:08:39.009 him relentlessly. Jeff McCord, played by Robert 00:08:39.009 --> 00:08:41.769 Armstrong. The dynamic is just instant fiction. 00:08:42.490 --> 00:08:44.690 McCord looks at Davis and sees a soft lawyer. 00:08:45.129 --> 00:08:48.049 He sees a city boy who had his tuition paid for 00:08:48.049 --> 00:08:51.389 by a mobster. He doesn't think Davis has the 00:08:51.389 --> 00:08:54.110 grit to be a federal agent. So he mocks him? 00:08:54.450 --> 00:08:56.779 He rides him? He tries to get him to quit. But 00:08:56.779 --> 00:08:59.340 Davis takes it, which is interesting for a Cagney 00:08:59.340 --> 00:09:01.460 character. Usually he'd just punch the guy in 00:09:01.460 --> 00:09:04.039 the nose and walk out. He swallows his pride, 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:06.500 partly because he is so determined to get his 00:09:06.500 --> 00:09:09.799 friends killer, but also because in true Hollywood 00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:12.500 fashion, he meets McCord's sister. Of course 00:09:12.500 --> 00:09:15.679 he does. Kay, played by Margaret Lindsay. Right. 00:09:15.860 --> 00:09:18.259 So now the stakes are tripled. He wants the job 00:09:18.259 --> 00:09:21.000 for revenge. He wants the girl for romance. But 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:23.740 the girl's brother is the one man standing in 00:09:23.740 --> 00:09:27.169 his way. It creates this intense pressure cooker 00:09:27.169 --> 00:09:30.309 environment during all the training scenes. Now 00:09:30.309 --> 00:09:32.289 while they are doing calisthenics and learning 00:09:32.289 --> 00:09:34.870 to dust for fingerprints, there is a historical 00:09:34.870 --> 00:09:37.409 detail in the plot that I found genuinely shocking. 00:09:37.750 --> 00:09:40.389 I had to double check the context on this. At 00:09:40.389 --> 00:09:42.470 the beginning of G -Men, these federal agents, 00:09:42.570 --> 00:09:45.149 they aren't allowed to carry guns. It sounds 00:09:45.149 --> 00:09:47.450 completely insane to a modern audience considering 00:09:47.450 --> 00:09:51.190 how we view the FBI today, but that is historically 00:09:51.190 --> 00:09:54.240 accurate. The movie makes a huge plot point out 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:57.419 of this. When G -Men starts, the agents are basically 00:09:57.419 --> 00:09:59.679 just investigators. They are accountants and 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:02.159 lawyers. Exactly. If they wanted to arrest a 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:04.000 violent criminal, they had to get a warrant, 00:10:04.559 --> 00:10:07.019 go to the local police, and ask the local cops 00:10:07.019 --> 00:10:09.019 to make the arrest for them. Which perfectly 00:10:09.019 --> 00:10:11.620 explains why the critics were calling them impotent. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.179 You're chasing guys with Tommy guns and you have 00:10:14.179 --> 00:10:16.259 to ask a local sheriff for permission to stop 00:10:16.259 --> 00:10:19.230 them? It was a massive handicap. And the film 00:10:19.230 --> 00:10:22.269 dramatizes this brilliantly. It shows the agents 00:10:22.269 --> 00:10:25.490 being humiliated, outgunned, and just unable 00:10:25.490 --> 00:10:28.990 to do their jobs. It builds this incredible frustration 00:10:28.990 --> 00:10:31.029 in the audience. You're watching and thinking, 00:10:31.110 --> 00:10:33.309 give these guys a break. Give them some firepower. 00:10:33.730 --> 00:10:35.789 And the movie ramps up the threat to justify 00:10:35.789 --> 00:10:38.580 exactly that. We find out that McKay, the good 00:10:38.580 --> 00:10:40.899 mobster, if we can call him that, retires. He 00:10:40.899 --> 00:10:43.240 buys a lodge in Wisconsin to get out of the game. 00:10:43.740 --> 00:10:46.440 But without him in charge, his old gang goes 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:49.259 completely off the rails. They're entirely off 00:10:49.259 --> 00:10:52.120 the leash. No code, no restraint, just pure violence. 00:10:52.899 --> 00:10:55.059 And the G -Men are powerless to stop it because 00:10:55.059 --> 00:10:57.320 of these restrictive laws. So we get a scene 00:10:57.320 --> 00:10:59.639 where the head of the G -Men is literally... 00:10:59.370 --> 00:11:01.809 pleading with the government for new legislation. 00:11:02.029 --> 00:11:04.690 And in the movie universe, Congress moves remarkably 00:11:04.690 --> 00:11:07.370 fast. Very fast. The laws are enacted with great 00:11:07.370 --> 00:11:09.990 speed. And suddenly, the dynamic shifts. The 00:11:09.990 --> 00:11:11.809 agents are armed. They have federal power. They 00:11:11.809 --> 00:11:14.049 don't need local cops anymore. It marks the transition 00:11:14.049 --> 00:11:16.889 from that weak, absentee father figure the critics 00:11:16.889 --> 00:11:19.549 hated to the powerhouse FBI image we know today. 00:11:19.830 --> 00:11:22.090 It's almost like a superhero origin story. They 00:11:22.090 --> 00:11:25.009 finally get their powers. It really is. So now 00:11:25.009 --> 00:11:27.710 Davis is armed, he has his badge, and he is on 00:11:27.710 --> 00:11:29.990 the hunt. He identifies one of the bad guys, 00:11:30.169 --> 00:11:32.710 a perpetrator named Danny Leggett. And I really 00:11:32.710 --> 00:11:34.929 love the detective work here. It's not high -tech 00:11:34.929 --> 00:11:37.570 surveillance, it's a character quirk. The gardenia. 00:11:37.789 --> 00:11:41.299 Yes. Leggett has the superstition. He always 00:11:41.299 --> 00:11:44.440 wears a Gardini flower. It's a great visual shorthand. 00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:47.240 It allows Davis to track him down through florists 00:11:47.240 --> 00:11:49.480 and sightings. It shows the audience that these 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:52.059 guys are smart detectives, not just thugs with 00:11:52.059 --> 00:11:55.000 badges. They actually use their brains. But eventually, 00:11:55.080 --> 00:11:57.960 they do use the guns. The investigation leads 00:11:57.960 --> 00:12:00.720 them to Wisconsin, to that exact lodge McKay 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:03.379 bought. And this is where all the plot threads, 00:12:03.519 --> 00:12:05.240 the personal, the professional, the revenge, 00:12:05.460 --> 00:12:07.559 just smash together. The gang is hiding out at 00:12:07.559 --> 00:12:10.019 McKay's lodge. And it's important to note, they 00:12:10.019 --> 00:12:12.360 are there against McKay's will. He's retired. 00:12:12.460 --> 00:12:14.480 He doesn't want them there. But they've taken 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:17.000 over his place. Davis and the G -Men surround 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:19.620 the lodge and we get the big shootout. This is 00:12:19.620 --> 00:12:22.200 the climax of the second act. And it ends in 00:12:22.200 --> 00:12:24.539 a tragedy that I think gives the movie its real 00:12:24.539 --> 00:12:28.019 moral weight. It does. In the chaos of the raid, 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:31.779 the villains use McKay as a human shield. And 00:12:31.779 --> 00:12:34.899 Davis, in the heat of the battle, he shoots and 00:12:34.899 --> 00:12:37.299 he hits McKay. He kills the man who paid for 00:12:37.299 --> 00:12:39.879 his law school. The man who is practically a 00:12:39.879 --> 00:12:43.559 father to him. It is devastating. Davis is absolutely 00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:46.120 distraught, but the movie needs to absolve him 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:49.519 so we get a deathbed scene. McKay, as he's dying, 00:12:49.940 --> 00:12:52.419 forgives Davis. He tells him it's OK. That feels 00:12:52.419 --> 00:12:54.980 like a very symbolic moment. The old way the 00:12:54.980 --> 00:12:57.600 benevolent criminal has to die for the new way 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:00.000 the federal agent to fully emerge. That's a really 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:02.399 great reading of it. He clears the board. Davis 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:04.480 is no longer beholden to the criminal world in 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:07.289 any way, but the guilt is heavy. He actually 00:13:07.289 --> 00:13:09.289 tries to quit the force right there. He's done. 00:13:09.370 --> 00:13:11.610 He feels he can't take it. But then we get the 00:13:11.610 --> 00:13:14.110 turn from McCord, the instructor who hated him. 00:13:14.269 --> 00:13:16.470 This is the big bonding moment. McCord steps 00:13:16.470 --> 00:13:18.669 up. He tells Davis it wasn't his fault. He talks 00:13:18.669 --> 00:13:20.730 him out of quitting. They move from being enemies 00:13:20.730 --> 00:13:23.370 to being brothers in arms. The shared tragedy 00:13:23.370 --> 00:13:25.210 solidifies their partnership. Which they're going 00:13:25.210 --> 00:13:27.230 to need because one bad guy got away from the 00:13:27.230 --> 00:13:30.399 lodge. Collins. And Collins is the worst of the 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:34.340 bunch. He is the purely evil antagonist. And 00:13:34.340 --> 00:13:36.779 now that his crew has decimated, he makes it 00:13:36.779 --> 00:13:39.379 intensely personal. He goes after the women in 00:13:39.379 --> 00:13:41.320 Davis's life. First, he goes to the nightclub. 00:13:41.399 --> 00:13:43.659 Right. He finds Jean, the singer who was in love 00:13:43.659 --> 00:13:46.799 with Davis, and he shoots her. Then he goes for 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:50.620 Kay, the love interest, and kidnaps her. Meanwhile, 00:13:50.820 --> 00:13:53.139 Davis is actually in the hospital. He took a 00:13:53.139 --> 00:13:55.100 bullet earlier in the action, and specifically, 00:13:55.220 --> 00:13:56.879 he took a bullet that was meant from a cord. 00:13:57.039 --> 00:14:00.019 Which cements the bromance even further. He saved 00:14:00.019 --> 00:14:02.679 his former enemy's life. Exactly. So he's lying 00:14:02.679 --> 00:14:05.580 in a hospital bed, wounded, bandaged up. But 00:14:05.580 --> 00:14:07.320 then the news comes in that Kay has been taken. 00:14:07.529 --> 00:14:10.250 I love the cinematic trope, the ripping out the 00:14:10.250 --> 00:14:12.929 IVs scene. It's classic. He doesn't care what 00:14:12.929 --> 00:14:15.190 the doctors say. He bolts. He runs out of the 00:14:15.190 --> 00:14:17.269 hospital bandage and all. He actually manages 00:14:17.269 --> 00:14:20.509 to have a final scene with the dying gene, which 00:14:20.509 --> 00:14:22.590 gives us closure on that relationship before 00:14:22.590 --> 00:14:24.350 heading to the garage where Collins is hiding. 00:14:24.549 --> 00:14:27.929 It's the final showdown. Davis rescues Kay from 00:14:27.929 --> 00:14:29.850 the garage. Collins is trying to get away in 00:14:29.850 --> 00:14:32.809 a car. And who takes the final shot? It isn't 00:14:32.809 --> 00:14:35.950 Davis. It's McCord. The instructor shoots the 00:14:35.950 --> 00:14:38.330 villain as he tries to drive off. It brings the 00:14:38.330 --> 00:14:40.769 whole narrative arc full circle. The rookie and 00:14:40.769 --> 00:14:43.309 the veteran, the lawyer and the cop working together 00:14:43.309 --> 00:14:45.450 to end the threat. And we get the neat Hollywood 00:14:45.450 --> 00:14:48.269 wrap -up. The bad guys are dead, the girl is 00:14:48.269 --> 00:14:51.070 safe, and Kay is driving the wounded Davis back 00:14:51.070 --> 00:14:53.269 to the hospital. And she drops that great line. 00:14:53.549 --> 00:14:55.769 I'll handle your case personally. Very smooth. 00:14:56.649 --> 00:15:00.289 So the credits roll, the lights come up, and 00:15:00.289 --> 00:15:03.769 Warner Brothers holds its breath. Did the gamble 00:15:03.769 --> 00:15:06.389 work? Did the audience buy James Cagney as a 00:15:06.389 --> 00:15:08.669 federal cop? The numbers speak for themselves. 00:15:09.149 --> 00:15:11.649 GMN wasn't just a hit. It was a phenomenon. It 00:15:11.649 --> 00:15:14.870 was one of the top grossing films of 1935. It 00:15:14.870 --> 00:15:16.889 brought in nearly two million dollars globally. 00:15:17.309 --> 00:15:20.230 Two million dollars in 1935. That's hard to even 00:15:20.230 --> 00:15:22.149 calculate in today's money. But for a budget 00:15:22.149 --> 00:15:24.529 of what was it? The budget was around three hundred 00:15:24.529 --> 00:15:26.590 and seven thousand dollars. So the return on 00:15:26.590 --> 00:15:28.830 investment was massive. Warner Brothers proved 00:15:28.830 --> 00:15:31.080 their point. They satisfied the audiences who 00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:33.480 wanted action and violence, but they also completely 00:15:33.480 --> 00:15:35.720 satisfied the censors and the politicians who 00:15:35.720 --> 00:15:37.919 wanted law and order. They essentially legitimized 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:39.820 the action movie. They wrapped the violence in 00:15:39.820 --> 00:15:42.879 the flag. And by doing that, they secured the 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:45.639 genre's future. Now, we mentioned the PR stun 00:15:45.639 --> 00:15:47.559 aspect at the very beginning of the deep dive, 00:15:47.779 --> 00:15:50.019 but there is a detail in the reception history 00:15:50.019 --> 00:15:52.259 from the source that takes this to a whole new 00:15:52.259 --> 00:15:55.419 level. It involves the FBI itself. This is where 00:15:55.419 --> 00:15:57.799 the line between Hollywood and history gets really 00:15:57.799 --> 00:16:00.460 blurry. So the movie comes out in 1935. It's 00:16:00.460 --> 00:16:04.879 a huge hit. Fast forward to 1949. The FBI is 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:07.460 celebrating its 25th anniversary. To mark the 00:16:07.460 --> 00:16:09.899 occasion, G -Men is re -released in theaters. 00:16:10.139 --> 00:16:12.299 OK, a re -release. That's standard practice. 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:14.620 But it's not just a re -release. They altered 00:16:14.620 --> 00:16:16.480 the film. They added a prologue. They filmed 00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:19.159 a brand new scene depicting a senior FBI agent 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:22.129 showing the movie G -Men. to a group of recruits. 00:16:22.250 --> 00:16:25.029 Wait, so they framed the Hollywood movie as a 00:16:25.029 --> 00:16:27.649 literal training video? Essentially, yes. The 00:16:27.649 --> 00:16:30.490 framing was sit down rookies, watch this film 00:16:30.490 --> 00:16:32.870 to learn the history of how our bureau was formed. 00:16:33.590 --> 00:16:36.669 The PR stunt became official lore. The FBI embraced 00:16:36.669 --> 00:16:40.049 the myth making completely. That is wild. It 00:16:40.049 --> 00:16:43.110 shows how much the Bureau valued this specific 00:16:43.110 --> 00:16:44.909 portrayal. They didn't say, oh, that's just a 00:16:44.909 --> 00:16:47.570 movie. They said, that's our story. It definitely 00:16:47.570 --> 00:16:49.830 helped that the screenplay had some heavy hitters 00:16:49.830 --> 00:16:52.269 behind it. It was partially written by Daryl 00:16:52.269 --> 00:16:54.830 F. Zanuck. though he went uncredited. And it 00:16:54.830 --> 00:16:56.850 was based on a story called Public Enemy Number 00:16:56.850 --> 00:16:58.990 One. It was crafted from the ground up to be 00:16:58.990 --> 00:17:01.009 this mythic narrative. We should also give a 00:17:01.009 --> 00:17:03.169 quick nod to the supporting cast, because it 00:17:03.169 --> 00:17:04.910 wasn't just Cagney doing all the heavy lifting. 00:17:05.009 --> 00:17:07.230 Oh, absolutely. We mentioned Regis Toomey as 00:17:07.230 --> 00:17:09.569 the doomed friend Eddie, but we also have Lloyd 00:17:09.569 --> 00:17:12.539 Nolan making his film debut here. The casting 00:17:12.539 --> 00:17:15.779 was top -notch. It gave the film a gravitas that 00:17:15.779 --> 00:17:18.759 elevated it far above a cheap B -movie. And clearly 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:20.920 the quality held up over time. Because I saw 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:23.599 in the notes that in 2008 the American Film Institute 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:26.480 gave it a nod. They nominated G -Men for their 00:17:26.480 --> 00:17:30.220 top 10 gangster films list. Which is deeply ironic 00:17:30.220 --> 00:17:32.140 if you think about it. Because it was explicitly 00:17:32.140 --> 00:17:34.960 made to counter the gangster film. Exactly. It 00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:37.880 was the anti -gangster movie. But it used the 00:17:37.880 --> 00:17:40.740 language of those films, the slang, the pacing, 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:44.160 the violence, so effectively that history has 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:46.299 essentially grouped it in with the very movies 00:17:46.299 --> 00:17:48.740 it was trying to destroy. So when we look back 00:17:48.740 --> 00:17:51.660 at G -Men, what is the big takeaway here? We 00:17:51.660 --> 00:17:54.619 have a studio under immense pressure, a star 00:17:54.619 --> 00:17:57.180 known for playing criminals, and a government 00:17:57.180 --> 00:18:00.140 agency that desperately needed a win. It's a 00:18:00.140 --> 00:18:03.339 master class in adaptation. Warner Brothers realized 00:18:03.339 --> 00:18:05.140 they couldn't fight the tide of public opinion, 00:18:05.319 --> 00:18:07.579 so they surfed it. They proved that you didn't 00:18:07.579 --> 00:18:09.619 have to stop showing violence to appease the 00:18:09.619 --> 00:18:11.460 moral guardians. You just had to make sure the 00:18:11.460 --> 00:18:13.240 violence was being committed by the right people. 00:18:13.579 --> 00:18:16.119 It's all about the target. It is. And in doing 00:18:16.119 --> 00:18:18.480 so, they likely did more for the public image 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:21.420 of the FBI than any actual news report, press 00:18:21.420 --> 00:18:23.500 release, or recruitment drive ever could. They 00:18:23.500 --> 00:18:25.720 made the G -Man cool. Which brings us to the 00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:27.940 end of our deep dive. But before we let you go, 00:18:28.119 --> 00:18:30.660 here is something I want you to mull over. This 00:18:30.660 --> 00:18:33.079 movie ends with the good guys winning, but only 00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:34.940 after the laws are changed to give them more 00:18:34.940 --> 00:18:38.059 power, more weapons, and less oversight. Right. 00:18:38.259 --> 00:18:40.480 The handcuffs are taking off the agents. Considering 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:43.380 G -Men was essentially a blockbuster PR campaign 00:18:43.380 --> 00:18:46.339 for the FBI, it makes you wonder how much of 00:18:46.339 --> 00:18:48.839 our actual perception of government authority, 00:18:49.380 --> 00:18:52.539 what we think they can do, And more importantly, 00:18:52.740 --> 00:18:55.099 what we think they should do was shaped not by 00:18:55.099 --> 00:18:58.099 a civics textbook, but by a movie studio just 00:18:58.099 --> 00:19:00.660 trying to protect its bottom line. It's a powerful 00:19:00.660 --> 00:19:03.259 question. Cinema doesn't just reflect history. 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:05.380 Sometimes it helps write it. Thanks for listening. 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:06.920 We'll catch you on the next Deep Dive.