City for Conquest

The rise and fall of a prizefighter, played by James Cagney., This filmization of Aben Kandel’s novel City for Conquest stars James Cagney as a truck driver-turned-boxer. As Cagney rises to the top in the ring, his ex-girlfriend Ann Sheridan forms a dance act with Anthony Quinn. Blinded during a fight by acid-tinged boxing gloves, Cagney tries to exact revenge on the gangster who arranged the “accident,” but is wounded in the melee. Now physically handicapped as well as visually challenged, Cagney becomes the manager of a New York newsstand through the kindness of his former manager Donald Crisp. Cagney uses his earnings to finance the musical education of his violinist brother Arthur Kennedy. Years later, a jilted Sheridan is reunited with Cagney at his newsstand, as both of them listen to the radio debut of Kennedy’s first symphony. Upon its reissue in 1948, the film then ends abruptly (as do several preceding scenes) in order to fit a 98 minute running time; the original 1940 release ran 106 minutes.