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Winner Take All is a typical example of the roles James Cagney was so trying to get away from in those early years at Warner Brothers. In this programmer he's a lightweight prizefighter whose fans have to take up a collection in Madison Square Garden to send him away for a rest cure. Seems that Cagney liked the night life just a little too much and its put his health at risk.

While in New Mexico he meets and falls for good girl Marian Nixon and her son Dickie Moore. She's there with Moore for his health problems. An out of condition Cagney takes a local fight there to help pay for their expenses on a winner take all basis and barely survives the bout.

Then when he gets back to New York he starts hanging around with bad society girl Virginia Bruce and her crowd. She makes a chump out of street smart Jimmy.

I don't think I have to say too much more. Guy Kibbee as Cagney's manager and Clarence Muse as his corner man fill their roles very well.

The only two things that Winner Take All became noted for was that this was the first time Cagney did a boxing film. He got into the ring later on in The Irish in Us and City for Conquest. But also footage from this film was used in that last Cagney made for TV film Terrible Joe Moran.

That film was a mistake whereas this one is strictly routine.

If it wasn't for the presence of cocky James Cagney, I'd probably say skip this one. It has a very mediocre plot line involving pride coming before a fall, with Cagney playing the boxer whose story is the object lesson. Cagney plays Jimmy Kane, a boxer who has a heart condition who, for some reason, needs a rest cure out West in the desert for a few months. His trainer is played by Guy Kibbee, who says things that lead you to believe that Kane loved the nightlife and that he is glad he is going somewhere that there isn't any.

But that doesn't mean Kane doesn't find a woman out at the rest cure ranch where he is staying. He runs into widow Peggy Harmon (Marian Nixon) who is at the ranch for her little son's sake (Dickie Moore) and they hit it off. When she can't raise the money to stay the extra three months that her son needs, Kane risks his health for a 2000 dollar fight to help her out. He winds up with a messed up nose and a cauliflower ear as a result.

Kane gets the medical OK to leave before Peggy can, and he pledges fidelity to her. The newly healthy Kane rises to the top of his profession again. And then he meets a society gal - Joan (Virginia Bruce). Joan is fascinated by Kane, but not sexually attracted to him and is also extremely embarrassed by his ignorance whenever they are out with "her set". The thing is, Kane doesn't see this and thinks Joan is as gaga over him like he is over the moon for her. His postcards to Peggy get increasingly infrequent and terse. Complications ensue.

This one does have a few things to recommend it. For one, this is one of Virginia Bruce's earliest credited roles and she does a a good job of playing a bad girl. And she isn't obvious either. You never know EXACTLY where she is taking this thing with Cagney's character. There is also a rather odd conversation when Joan's set is discussing Russia and "the great social experiment going on" over there and "the five year plan".

This film doesn't give the normally colorful and hilarious Guy Kibbee much to do, and that was a bit of a disappointment as was the bland part Marian Nixon got stuck with as Peggy. But, hey, how often do you get to see a plastic surgery angle dragged into a precode boxing film where it is the man trying to pretty up for the woman? Mildly recommended, and mainly for Cagney who never disappoints.

Definitely one of the oddest boxing movies ever made, and the first time in James Cagney's early career where his performance is obvious: As punchy Jimmy Kane, he speaks in a forced, dumb-guy dialect that shouldn't have gotten past the rehearsal stage...

Introduced as a total has-been, with crowds throwing money in the ring before a newer, more relevant fighter's bout, he's sent to a strange and remote New Mexico health farm (taking up the first act in a lonesome, flickering black & white that feels like another movie altogether) where he meets the good girl with a sick son, whose hopeful/helpful input pales to the gorgeous but shallow, conceited and suffocating dame who, back in New York, owns poor Jimmy right down to his flat nose and cauliflower ear: hence surgically altered to fit with her stuffy, pseudo-intellectual crowd...

So to protect his facial investment, he dances around the ring instead of fighting, turning off fans and especially Virginia Bruce's sexy society gal Joan Gibson as the entire second half's ruled by her impatient, fickle attitude...

But then, finally aware of the deplorable situation known to everyone but his hypnotized, duped self, Cagney's limited performance expands into a familiar street savvy edge. Along with fists flying in the right direction (with a jumping-bean style only Cagney could or would pull off), it's a comeback/turnaround that's long overdue.

Resting in the country, lightweight boxer James Cagney (as Jim "Jimmy" Kane) meets sweet widow Marian Nixon (as Peggy Harmon) and her adorable six-year-old son Dickie Moore (as Dickie). You can almost hear the wedding bells warming up when Mr. Cagney gives Ms. Nixon his winnings to save the ranch. But, when manager Guy Kibbee (as Pop Slavin) helps Cagney to the top of the boxing circuit, the champ is lured away from his new sweetheart by shapely New York socialite Virginia Bruce (as Joan Gibson)...

Cagney tries to fit in with the upscale crowd by getting his broken nose and cauliflower ear fixed, but learns looks aren't everything. This variation on the routine boxing picture was unofficially re-made as "Kid Monk Baroni" (1952), an unintentionally amusing drama starring Leonard Nimoy. "Winner Take All" owes its limited success to Cagney's deliberate comedy, although it recalled as his first appearance in a boxing movie. For some reason, Cagney is always funny with a "dresser" and his timing is perfect herein.

****** Winner Take All (7/16/32) Roy Del Ruth ~ James Cagney, Marian Nixon, Virginia Bruce, Guy Kibbee

Winner Take All is an early Cagney punch and rudie, in which he plays Jimmy Kane, a fighter with an ambiguous relationship to the ring. Although a top contender, he's taking off for a rest to a dude spa out west. He says his goodbyes at the Garden and even allows the fight fans to throw money into the ring to speed him on his way. A pre-Gabby George Hayes welcomes him to the Rancho. He meets s single mother with a small child, the always terrific Dickie Moore. Cagney is sporting a bulbous nose and puffy ears and talks through lower eastside mush, but he's always the man. Soon he's back in the ring in a grueling bout in Mexico to raise money for his new sweetheart. The character of Kane is interesting because he seems to have no ties to anyone and is a loner of an extreme even Cagney didn't play much. Cagney, of course excels. There is a nifty little scene with Ralfe Harold who sells hot jewelry, and Virginia Bruce, who should have been a much bigger star, scorches the furniture in every scene she's in. I'll take V.B. any day over most of the other '30s fire-eaters . This picture was new to me and deserves a place in the pantheon of Warner Bros. fast and snappys, if only for the scene where Cagney delays Bruce's ship sailing.

James Cagney plays a dim-witted boxer who falls for a widow with a sick kid, then for a sexy socialite (Virginia Bruce). This is notable for being Cagney's first boxing movie but, beyond that, there isn't a lot to recommend here. The script's kind of all over the place, with the early scenes seeming out of sync with the rest of the picture. Cagney's performance is fine, even if he doesn't have a lot to work with. A nice supporting cast including Guy Kibbee, Alan Mowbray, and Clarence Muse helps. George Raft has a bit part as a bandleader in a night club. Blink and you'll miss him. Clips from this were used in Cagney's final movie, the made-for-TV "Terrible Joe Moran". If you're a Cagney completist, give it a shot. Everybody else go watch City for Conquest.

Pretty new to the hollywood scene, James Cagney is Jimmy Kane, pro boxer, on a break at health ranch. He meets up with singer Peggy (Marion Nixon), who really needs money for her ill son. co-stars Virginia Bruce and Guy Kibbee, who were in so many films in the 1930s and 1940s. the usual boy-meets-girl story, and just before the film code was too strong. Kibbee is his manager "Pop", but when he lines up a big time fight, Kane isn't sure he wants to do it, because it might ruin his body even more. a really funny scene when Kane and his helper are practicing meeting various people in new york city. gotta pay attention, or you'll miss it. but now the girlfriend is running cold... she and her best friend are total idiots, and Kane is better off without them! but that's just me. watch the adventure unfold. Directed by Roy DelRuth; he didn't win any oscars, but he got his star on the the hollywood walk of fame, and made some biggies in the 1940s !

This begins slowly: James Cagney is boxer who needs some rest. He gets sent to a rural area by his manager, Guy Kibbee. There he meets Marian Nixon and her son, the (ostensibly) adorable Dickie Moore. He falls for her.

He goes back to New York and falls for high-class Virginia Bruce. And here it picks up. The early scenes are a little soppy. Back on familiar turf, Cagney can strut his stuff.

Without giving anything away, Bruce humiliates him. He makes himself over for her. There's lots more to come; so I have not given away the plot.

The cast is excellent, including the great actor Clarence Muse as a trainer named Rosebud. Nixon's role calls for her to be a little saccharine. But Bruce is excellent.

This is a change from the early Cagney movies in which he is a cocksure guy who knows the score. He knows the score, but loses track of it for a while.

There are some effeminate stereotypes, including a character played by the always entertaining Alan Mowbry. I can't hold these against the movie, though. They were of its time.

It's not Cagney at his best but it's by no means his worst, either.

Winner Take All (1932)

*** (out of 4)

A hotshot New York prizefighter (James Cagney) leaves the city for the country so he can get some rest. While in the country he falls for a sweet single mother (Marian Nixon) but once he's back in the city he falls for a rich girl (Virginia Bruce) just using him. A subplot dealing with Cagney getting plastic surgery is rather weird as we get a different looking Cagney as well as one sounding a lot different. That aside, the story is actually pretty good and the moments at the start with Cagney and Nixon are very warm and touching. The film offers a lot of nice laughs and the boxing scenes are really, really good. There's one fight that has an ending, which appears to have been lifted in Rocky 2.

Breezy, Lighthearted James Cagney Movie with the Versatile Star doing quite a bit of Dancing in the Ring. Sporting some Impressive Pugilistic Makeup so Striking that it becomes an Important Plot Point.

Virginia Bruce is Stunning in some Pre-Code Dress and the Movie has a Family Friendly Story of a Dim-Witted but Savvy Fighter Caught in a Clinch with the Society Slut while Wooing Single Mom Marian Nixon.

The Boxing Arena Scenes are Impressive as are the Actual Matches with a lot of Punches being Thrown and Caught. Cagney Carries the Picture but does get some Pretty Good Support from the Other Players On Hand. Not the Best Boxing Movie ever made but Certainly not the Worst.

Overall, Worth a Watch because what is On Screen in Well Done and Conveys the Swells and the Pugs with Enough Pizazz and Pre-Code Shine that it makes the Movie an Entertaining Hour Plus.

No wonder Cagney got tired of the routine programmers Warner Bros. was putting him in during the early '30s which led to his contract dispute and losing roles that went to Errol Flynn.

JAMES CAGNEY is a fighter with a crush on two women, one being a high society gal and the other a lovely young housewife with a little boy (DICKIE MOORE). VIRGINIA BRUCE is the society gal and she's very lovely in her pre-code costumes including sheer nightgowns.

Cagney plays most of his scenes like an even more dim-witted version of Biff Grimes in THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE, but the film is clearly a minor effort lacking the wit and clever script of his later films, with stock roles for Warner players like GUY KIBBE.

Cagney gives it his all, but it's not enough to make the film any more than a minor blip on the radar screen of his career.

This pre code, Cagney, boxing flic is kind of like a lightweight match between standardization in one corner versus originality in the opposite, with the former winning by a decision. In other words, the fight scenes are merely ok, one tires of Cagney's ersatz Joe Palooka accent, the great Guy Kibbee is wasted, and Marian Nixon and that too adorable kid of hers are insufferably dull. But then, almost saving the picture, you've got some nice, cynical, edgy pre code dialogue courtesy of Wilson Mizener and Robert Lord, and Virginia Bruce's Daisy to Cagney's pug Gatsby is almost worth the price of admission. Give it a C plus.

PS...Bad call on the fighting abilities of the Japanese, wouldn't you say?

Definitely one of the oddest boxing movies ever made, and the first time in James Cagney's early career where the performance is obvious: As punchy Jimmy Kane, he speaks in a forced, dumb-guy dialect that shouldn't have gotten past the rehearsal stage...

Introduced as a total has-been, with crowds throwing money in the ring before a newer, more relevant fighter's bout, he's sent to a strange and remote New Mexico health farm (taking up the first act in a lonesome, flickering black & white that feels like another movie altogether) where he meets the good girl with a sick son...

Whose hopeful/helpful input pales to the gorgeous but shallow, conceited and suffocating dame who, back in New York, owns poor Jimmy right down to his flat nose and cauliflower ear, hence surgically altered to fit with her stuffy, pseudo-intellectual crowd (crazy about the Russians and wary about the Japanese)...

So to protect his facial investment, he dances around the ring instead of fighting, turning off fans and especially Virginia Bruce's sexy society gal Joan Gibson as the entire second half's ruled by her impatient, fickle attitude...

But then, finally aware of the deplorable situation known to everyone but his hypnotized, duped self, Cagney's limited performance expands into a familiar street savvy edge...

Along with fists flying in the right direction (with a jumping-bean style only Cagney could or would pull off), it's a comeback/turnaround that's far too long overdue.

Jimmy Cagney goes Gorgeous George in the ring for a two timing society dame in this mostly comic melodrama carried along by Cagney's buoyant energy. The film's improbable slapstick finale however awards Winner a draw at best.

Popular prizefighter Jimmy Kane endures the humiliation of having to climb in the ring and plead for cash to go out West to re-hab and avoid big city temptations that put him there. Out at the spa he meets Marian Nixon (Peggy Harmon) and her son whose also convalescing. When Marian is faced with eviction Kane gets a quick match in Tijuana to pay the rent. He returns to the ring back in New York as well as his vices. This time he falls for a society dame who plays him along. He quickly drops Marian for Joan (Virginia Bruce) and in an attempt to win her love has plastic surgery. In the ring he adopts a new defensive style much to the dismay of the bloodthirsty crowd.

The touch punchy Kane is excellently nuanced by Cagney who pauses to register and gets lost in translation with the swells but never loses his cocky confidence. Harmon has a sweet Glenda Farrell way about her while Virginia Bruce slinks around seductively in revealing costume and Guy Kibbee as his manager gives his usual solid turn of righteous bluster.

Director Del Ruth moves things along at a rapid an economical pace most of the time and you can go either way with the Marxist finale which I'm in disagreement with. Maybe I should lighten up.

"Winner Take All" from 1932, was one of many films where the presence of James Cagney was enough to sustain interest. The plot and script are nothing special and Cagney quickly tired of making the same kind of film for "Warner Bros" until 1938. He plays a talented boxer who needs to be sent to a Mexican health farm as he has been enjoying a hedonistic lifestyle a bit too much. Whilst there, Cagney meets a single mother and her young son who face being made homeless. He promises to do the right thing by them when he returns to the ring. Complications develop when Cagney attempts to mix with the so-called upper class types and he falls for a wealthy female socialite. This was the first film where James Cagney played a boxer. "City for Conquest" is the best out of all of them but "Winner Take All" includes a few effective boxing scenes. Other than Cagney, no one else is worth seeing and it is to the actor's credit that he could carry a film.

Boxer Jim Kane (James Cagney) takes a break from New York city for a desert hot springs. Peggy Harmon is a fellow guest with her young son Dickie. She loses her late husband's insurance and needs $600 to stay for her son's treatment. Jim takes a tough fight in Tijuana to raise the money. Back in New York, he is successful in his fights and is introduced to socialite Joan Gibson. Cagney is good. His relationship with Peggy is good. His journey is good. It's all pretty good but it's not completely great. I never buy his relationship with Joan. She's too snobby right at the beginning. It should be built over time.

"Winner Take All" (1932) is Jimmy Cagney in the Pre-Code mode par excellence. He's a professional fighter who sees too many women, smokes, and drinks to excess. Too much of everything for the good of himself in the ring - or any concentration about such. He's sent off to what amounts to a sanitorium in New Mexico to calm down, concentrate, and get back into mental shape to be able to fight again. No women, no smoking, no drinking, no... But...he meets Marian Nixon, a widow with a small child (Dickie Moore). He falls for her, and she falls for him. Eventually, he needs to go back to New York and Madison Square Garden and get back into the ring. He does. Meanwhile, while he's on a huge winning streak, he meets Virginia Bruce. Now, Ginny Bruce in this 1932 drama/romance is about as alluring as I've ever seen her. She's stunningly beautiful, and she's a diamond hard, glistening piece of tease ice. Cagney falls for this high-class, wealthy, spoiled society Arctic winter, and she says that she's fallen for him, too. Only, to her, he's only a plaything. Cagney doesn't realize this. He comes from the earth; she's from somewhere in the ether. He discovers a little too late that he can't make the ethersphere his sphere. Meanwhile, Nixon's discovered his two-timing and is heart-broken. I won't mention the ending because I shouldn't. However, the way it ends makes this in toto the definition of Pre-Code. It may end on the right note, but getting there wouldn't have been allowed for a 1934 release after June...

Fun film, but Cagney's not the nicest guy here. But...what an actor! He just didn't make a bad one in those early days. Moves like there's steam coming out of the vents. Also has Guy Kibbee, Clarence Muse, Alan Mowbray, John Roche, and others. What's really fascinating is an insert scene from Texas Guinan's night club - a genuine scene - and guess who's conducting the night club orchestra? George Raft. He looks to be about twenty! Actually, this snippet is from another movie (!), Raft's first, and now a lost film, "Queen of the Night Clubs" (1929).

Jimmy Cagney is a pug and a mug. Sent to Arizona to recover his health, he falls for former Broadway show girl Marian Nixon and her son, Dickie Moore. She's about to be thrown out for not paying her bills, so he breaks his regimen to win the money in a pick-up fight in Tijuana. Feeling better, he heads back to the fight racket under manager Guy Kibbee, and does very well. He's pick up by bored socialite Virginia Bruce, whom he thinks is in love with him.

Cagney spends a lot more time back on his heels than usual in his movies in this period, as his atitutde is pretty funny as he gets his nose bobbed, cauliflower ears trimmed, and takes lessons in polite behavior from Alan Mowbray in a vain effort to fit in. DP Robert Kurrie fits the fight scenes -- mostly against Harvey Parry -- very nicely. With Esther Howard, Clarence Muse, and Ralf Harolde.

This sounds like the perfect pairing: James Cagney directed by Roy del Ruth together again doing their follow up to their fantastic Blonde Crazy a few months earlier. This must have been monumentally disappointing back then, especially as this was made during Cagney's golden era.

Inexplicably, this film is a complete non-entity or as my spell checker suggested 'non entity' could be 'non entertainment!' The story is dull, Cagney's character is annoying and not very nice, both the women are especially unlikeable ....and the boxing scenes are so much better in Raging Bull and Rocky.

And yes it can be compared with these newer movies because this doesn't deserve special consideration, it's done nothing earn it and should be better. Even at the height of his fame, this film wasn't considered one of his best back then so why we would want to watch it these days is beyond reason!

But what's wrong with this is the plot. Acting, direction, set design: everything looks good and professional but because you can't engage with any of these people, you can't be interested in them.