{"id":43955,"date":"2019-07-06T14:43:33","date_gmt":"2019-07-06T21:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=43955"},"modified":"2022-02-21T22:59:09","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T05:59:09","slug":"city-for-conquest-1940","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=43955","title":{"rendered":"City for Conquest (1940)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Call it applause, call it ambition, call it whatever you&#8217;d like &#8212; but it&#8217;d take a lot more than a man to come between you two.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Poster-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-43959\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Poster-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Poster-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Poster.jpg 504w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAn aspiring dancer (Ann Sheridan) chooses a performing career over marriage with a truck driver (James Cagney) whose decision to fight for a boxing title leaves him with devastating consequences.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Anatole Litvak Films<\/li>\n<li>Ann Sheridan Films<\/li>\n<li>Anthony Quinn Films<\/li>\n<li>Aspiring Stars<\/li>\n<li>Boxing<\/li>\n<li>Career Versus Marriage<\/li>\n<li>Dancers<\/li>\n<li>Donald Crisp Films<\/li>\n<li>James Cagney Films<<\/li>\n<li>New York City<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s2052city.html\">DVD Savant<\/a> nicely summarizes this Anatole Litvak-directed flick as follows: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>City for Conquest<\/em> is an ambitious James Cagney movie given the full Warner treatment. Although it doesn&#8217;t quite hit the mark on any of its four or five themes it gives them all a college try&#8230; It is a gangster picture, a boxing picture, a &#8220;poetic&#8221; symphony-of-the-city epic, a starstruck show-biz career picture &#8212; and for a finale it even tries to graft on the end of Charlie Chaplin&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=43035\"><em>City Lights<\/em><\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Indeed, there&#8217;s a heck of a lot packed into this &#8220;ambitious&#8221; film, which purportedly disappointed Cagney enough to prompt him to write a letter of apology to the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Aben_Kandel\">source novel&#8217;s author<\/a>. With that said, it&#8217;s atmospherically shot by James Wong Howe, and never boring to watch, even if one wishes for a little less going on. Perhaps least successful is the framing use of &#8220;Old Timer&#8221; Frank Craven (narrator of <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=32826\"><em>Our Town<\/em><\/a>) for opening, closing, and intermittent commentary as a hobo who&#8217;s seen all sorts of misadventures occurring in the Big City of New York. This footage was excised for many years and suddenly reappeared &#8212; though it arguably should have been left aside. Watch for Arthur Kennedy in his film debut, and Elia Kazan in a supporting role. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ann Sheridan as Peggy<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Sheridan.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Sheridan.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-43956\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Sheridan.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Sheridan-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Sheridan-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>James Wong Howe&#8217;s cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-43957\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Cinematography.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Cinematography-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Cinematography-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Cinematography2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Cinematography2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-43958\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Cinematography2.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Cinematography2-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/City-for-Conquest-Cinematography2-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s worth a look by Cagney or Sheridan fans. Listed as a Sleeper and a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0032342\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/612\/city-for-conquest#articles-reviews?articleId=135968\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s2052city.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1940\/09\/28\/archives\/the-screen-cagney-and-sheridan-in-city-for-conquest-at-the.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Call it applause, call it ambition, call it whatever you&#8217;d like &#8212; but it&#8217;d take a lot more than a man to come between you two.&#8221; Synopsis: An aspiring dancer (Ann Sheridan) chooses a performing career over marriage with a truck driver (James Cagney) whose decision to fight for a boxing title leaves him with devastating consequences. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Anatole Litvak Films Ann Sheridan Films Anthony Quinn Films Aspiring Stars Boxing Career Versus Marriage Dancers Donald Crisp&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=43955\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43955"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81583,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43955\/revisions\/81583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}