Reviews (1)

Interesting character study. Not the best movie though.
Just watched The Time of Your Life on DVD. I give it ** out of five stars.

Things I'd never seen before:

-The opening credits as a dramatis personae, listing a description of the
character each actor plays.

-Pinball called the marble game.

What I liked about it:

-Jeanne Cagney - Did Jimmy force them to give her a contract? I had her in
the not like column, but she grew on me as the film went on.

-The tap dancer - Loved the political speech dance

-Kit Carson - Especially when he called Blick totally unreliable

-The marble player - loved the way you forget all about him until he wins
the game. Cool marble game

-The ritsy couple

-William Bendix - perfect as the bar owner

-Tough guy Blick. Very intimidating.

What I didn't like about it:

-At times it drug and made me think of a slow episode of Cheers or a tv
movie of Billy Joel's "Piano Man." Some good scenes, but not a very good
movie.

-Jimmy Cagney - Not at his best in a slow moving film. He's better in fast
talking, action sequences. ... Read more

Amazon.com

When James Cagney starred in the 1948 movie adaptation of The Time of Your Life, it was hotly debated whether William Saroyan's stage play was really filmable at all. Because of its small cast, because all the action takes place on a single claustrophobic set, because the "plot" consists entirely of sub-plots, and because Saroyan's "dirty sentimentality" isn't to everyone's taste, such doubts are still understandable today.

However, accept the movie for what it is--a play in a box--and you'll be captivated. The story revolves around a down-at-heel bar-restaurant, where a group of disparate characters come and go as their stories gradually unfold.They include an ex-prostitute desperately seeking a new life, a dancer looking for a break into show business, a down-and-out who discovers a vocation as a pianist, and a beer-sodden cowboy. This gaggle of misfits is presided over by an enigmatic, champagne-drinking philanthropist (brilliantly played by Cagney) who gently nudges them towards their goals while indulging his own fascination with the minutiae of daily life.--Roger Thomas ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A bar where everybody knows you name, circa 1948
"The Time of Your Life," based on the play by William Saroyan, shows us a group of eccentrics who hang out in a San Francisco waterfront bar and philosophize about life. James Cagney plays Joe, a barfly who believes in encouraging everybody to fulfill their dreams. Whether this means encouraging an old man named "Kit Carson" (James Barton) to spin his fanciful tales about the old west or conning Nick (William Bendix), the bartender, into giving Harry (Paul Draper), the vagabond dancer, a part-time job. The film is filled with fine character actors, such as Ward Bond and Broderick Crawford, and including Cagney's sister Jeanne as Kitty Duval and Natalie Schafer, the future Mrs. Howell on "Gilligan's Island," as the Society Lady. Admittedly, this film is not everybody's cup of tea, although Saroyan was particularly pleased with how his play translated to the film, even though the original ending was reshot. This story takes place in a bar that is obviously more reminiscent of "Cheers" than it is a Eugene O'Neill play like "The Iceman Cometh." I would even argue that Cagney's character is one of the least interesting people in the story, although he is certainly an amiable enough fellow. The important thing is that this bar is a nice place to visit for a while. This 1948 film directed by H. C. Potter features photography by James Wong Howe. Oh, and the piano player is really good too.

Come in and Be Yourself.
THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE was based upon William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play and was brought about, in part, by a collaboration of the Cagney siblings (James, Jeanne, and William). Except for one brief shot of the Salvation Army singing outside the establishment, the entire movie takes place inside Nick's, a saloon, restaurant, and entertainment palace on the waterfront in San Francisco. James Cagney plays Joe, a man who has a lot of cash and spends his time observing, listening, and helping people and fulfilling his every whim. Wayne Morris plays Tom, Joe's gopher man; Jeanne Cagney plays Kitty, a former "burlesque queen" who falls for Tom; and William Bendix plays Nick. The floating characters at Nick's also include, among others, a lovesick young man, an out of work fellow, a drunk, a cowboy who calls himself "Kit Carson", a pinball wizard, a dancer who is a comedian that has no funny jokes, a police officer, and a couple of socialites.

There really isn't much plot in THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE. However, neither the movie nor the play it was based upon are about "plot". There may not seem to be a lot going on, but actually there is. The plot of the story is it's characters. Each person that comes into Nick's has a story and some of them we learn, some of them we don't. However, while listening to each person (just as Joe does) we learn something about them and in the process we discover things about ourselves. THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE is art in it's highest form because it entertains, yet also enlightens.

The quality of this DVD isn't all that bad, especially considering how inexpensive it is to purchase a copy (the Laserlight edition can be purchased for less than $5). The sound is good through most of the film except for the occasional scratch and the picture is great (the one scene where you can't read what is on the piece of paper was filmed that way intentionally because you are not supposed to see what's written on the paper because it's too small).

Overall a good movie well worth the time to watch it.

James Cagney knows your name
(Please note that the DVD version I am reviewing is the Laserlight edition of THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE. This budget release pretty much defines the concept of "no-frills".)

Other reviewers have pointed out the fact that this movie skimps on plot and I cannot help but completely agree with that sentiment. But for what the movie lacks in action, it more than makes up for in the presentation of fascinating characters. Each person's story is interesting and unique. And the movie manages to give us enough detail so that we can find these people intriguing, but leaves enough unsaid so that no one overstays their welcome. We're left liking these people and wanting to hear more about them.

Since the characters are at the forefront of this movie, it's certainly a relief to have such splendid actors playing them. The Cagney siblings are wonderful. Jeanne Cagney does a wonderful job at becoming the streetwise blonde who stands up to gangsters and James Cagney is a compelling, gentle enigma. While so many of the roles could have easily fallen into stereotypes, the actors are strong enough to keep them as individuals.

Although I haven't experienced the original play that this film is based upon, I can only imagine that there weren't too many script changes between the stage and the screen. The movie is heavily performance-based, with the interesting material coming from the conversations and the soliloquies. The action is completely centered on a single barroom, as during the entire length of the movie only one short sequence takes place outside the bar's swing doors. Even a fight scene inside the same building occurs off-camera so that all we view are people in one room hollering at the unseen people in another. As some characters leave the action, they are immediately replaced by other people beginning conversations of their own. In fact, if you pay close attention, you'll probably notice that the amount of real time that people spend off-camera isn't nearly long enough to do all the things that they claim to have done in that span.

Fortunately, none of this affects one's enjoyment of the film at all. In fact, it gives the entire production a great sense of the theatrical nature of the performances. Unlike some other translations from play to movie, this one never feels as though it's being limited by the theatre. It retains the trappings and atmosphere of a stage production, while never feeling claustrophobic. What makes for good theatre doesn't always make for a good film (and vice versa), yet it's a testament to the skills of the director and the cast that they manage to make the transition here without a hitch.

The image quality on this Laserlight DVD is perfectly watchable. It's scratchy in a few places, but never so much that it becomes distracting. The picture is a bit bright and slightly washed out, but this is really only a problem in one scene where the audience is expected to read something that's a character has written on a piece of paper. The sound quality is variable, but mostly falls on the good side of variable. As the DVD itself is absolutely dirt cheap, it's well worth putting up with these slight imperfections.

Thin plot, not very interesting, always expecting more!
The other review subject lines hit it on the head: Thin plot, a bar where everyone knows your name.

This movie does not have a very good subject. Is just about a rich man in post WWII era hanging out in a bar and throwing around small amounts of money. Not much of a climax either.

A bar where everybody knows you name, circa 1948
"The Time of Your Life," based on the play by William Saroyan, shows us a group of eccentrics who hang out in a San Francisco waterfront bar and philosophize about life. James Cagney plays Joe, a barfly who believes in encouraging everybody to fulfill their dreams. Whether this means encouraging an old man named "Kit Carson" (James Barton) to spin his fanciful tales about the old west or conning Nick (William Bendix), the bartender, into giving Harry (Paul Draper), the vagabond dancer, a part-time job. The film is filled with fine character actors, such as Ward Bond and Broderick Crawford, and including Cagney's sister Jeanne as Kitty Duval and Natalie Schafer, the future Mrs. Howell on "Gilligan's Island," as the Society Lady. Admittedly, this film is not everybody's cup of tea, although Saroyan was particularly pleased with how his play translated to the film, even though the original ending was reshot. This story takes place in a bar that is obviously more reminiscent of "Cheers" than it is a Eugene O'Neill play like "The Iceman Cometh." I would even argue that Cagney's character is one of the least interesting people in the story, although he is certainly an amiable enough fellow. The important thing is that this bar is a nice place to visit for a while. This 1948 film directed by H. C. Potter features photography by James Wong Howe. Oh, and the piano player is really good too. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

For Cagney fans only
(Please note that of the eight DVD versions of BLOOD ON THE SUN that are currently listed on Amazon.com, I am reviewing the Laserlight "Special Edition" release. That's the one that comes with a documentary on the film career of James Cagney and a goofier-than-thou introduction by Tony Curtis.)

To be honest, I didn't find the feature film on this DVD to be all that exciting. The plot is coherent and without any obvious flaws, and the characters have a lot of promise. It just isn't terribly enthralling. There's a fairly good fight sequence near the end, if that sort of thing interests you. Unfortunately, that sort of thing doesn't usually interest me, and nothing leading up to that had given me any emotional investment in either of the factions. James Cagney's acting is quite good, and, as always, he commands quite a presence on the screen. It's unfortunate that he's one of the only interesting things to watch in this film.

The picture quality is actually fairly good which is a bonus when you consider how cheap the disc is. The picture is the tiniest bit fuzzy at points, but for the most part it's ahead of many other budget DVDs. The sound quality is certainly acceptable, if not the clearest thing you'll ever hear. If you've already seen and enjoyed this movie and are wondering which DVD version you should buy, know that you could do a lot worse than the Laserlight edition.

The included documentary JAMES CAGNEY ON FILM runs 36 minutes long and is a fairly formulaic piece, very similar to the other such programs that Laserlight has included on their DVDs. It's a fairly tame short piece, made up primarily of an uninspired voice-over speaking while the camera pans over numerous black and white publicity shots of Cagney. A few film trailers make up the rest of the action. I didn't know much of anything about James Cagney before, so I found the information to be interesting, albeit a bit dry. I speculate that any real Cagney fans would probably know much, if not everything that this documentary covers.

Tony Curtis' introduction here sees the man in one of his most bizarre spots yet. The short, black, leather gloves from his other Laserlight DVD comments are back with a vengeance here, and they help turn what would otherwise be a short, forgettable James Cagney impersonation into good old-fashioned nightmare fuel. He gives a brief history of James Cagney's career that manages to be utterly divergent from the story that the documentary gave. I can only assume that someone held the wrong cue-cards that day.

All in all, I didn't care much for this DVD. If you're a huge fan of James Cagney's work, then it might be worth your while to pick up, but if not, I'd recommend trying something else. The documentary isn't bad, but it's not something that makes the disc attractive by itself.

Overlooked Cagney Gem
Blood on the Sun is a rousing post war film, a true product of its time. One minor fault with the movie is that it takes place in the 1930's, and everyone is wearing post war fashions. The supporting cast has a few surprises, Hugh Beaumont(Ward Cleaver) and Robert Armstrong (King Kong) as Col. Tojo. Sylvia Sydney is very alluring as Ms. Hilliard, she brings a sophistication to the movie that is usually absent in a Cagney thriller. The climactic battle with Oshima has been described in other reviews here as corny and outdated, but I think they have missed the mark. Judo is a sport, and is not Jujitsu, Judo is mostly throws and locks which the combatants in this movie do quite well. It may not be flashy like todays martial arts, but that is the stuff that I think is corny, defying gravity, impossible moves, and so on. when the battles seem believable, then it is more exciting, Bruce Lee for instance, I think there is no doubt that he could have executed all the moves in his movies in a street fight. That is one of the reasons he will always be the remembered as the best. Another interesting point, the actor who plays Oshima (Jack Halloran) was a LA cop and a master of Judo, Cagney was his student and became a black belt, hollywood's first! Cagney would go on to showcase more martial arts in the movies 13 Rue Madelaine, and White Heat, where he uses a forward choke on Virginia Mayo.

America will be crushed, never to rise again
Based on a true story, BLOOD ON THE SUN is an entertaining little stewpot of a movie.
James Cagney plays Nick Condon, managing editor of the Tokyo Chronicle. It's 1920-something and the United States and Japan share an uneasy peace. That peace threatens to be broken violently when the "Tanaka Plan," a Japanese government document outlining a blueprint for world domination, falls into Condon's possession. Condon has to get the document out of Japan and announce its contents to the world, the Japanese have to stop him.
When I first saw BLOOD ON THE SUN I shrugged it off as a piece of late-war propaganda. There ARE a lot of stereotypical portrayals and attitudes coursing through this one- the Japanese are portrayed for the most part as buck toothed, diabolical schemers. Cagney is attacked from behind twice in this movie. The officials present trumped up charges in their attempt to stop his muck-raking ways. The outrageousness of a foreign correspondent stealing and threatening to publish a secret state paper seems lost on this movie. Then I did a computer search of "Tanaka Memorial" and had a chance to read the document in question. If it's not a forgery (the Japanese government claimed it was), it dwarfs the movie's presumptions. As a side note, the web site I visited informs us that the Chinese, and not a crusading American editor, originally released the document.
As usual, Cagney is a bundle of energy and is great fun to watch. I've read that he took judo classes in preparation for this part, and it seems he's doing a lot of his own stunt work. Sylvia Sydney plays Iris Hilliard, Cagney's love interest and someone interested in the document as well. Soon after her character is introduced we learn she is half-Chinese, which should alert us to the fact that she isn't quite as sinister as she appears. The Chinese were our allies during to the war. They were the good Asians. Another fun character in this one is Capt. Oshima (John Halloran), one of many Caucasian actors partially hidden behind false teeth and taped eyelids. Oshima is a menacing, murderous, towering brute of a cop. Symbolically he's the first to attack the American Cagney with a karate chop from behind, a blow that knocks Cagney out. Later, when the gloves are off and the two square off against each other in a fair fight the results are decidedly different.
Wiard Ihnen & A. Roland Fields won a little statuette for Best Art Direction for their work on BLOOD ON THE SUN. The sets do look pretty good.
BLOOD ON THE SUN is in the public domain, so anyone can copy and sell it. If you get the Delta version be warned that their logo will appear periodically in the lower-right hand corner. They've included a short documentary (still photos with a voice over narration- yawn) and an intro and outro by Tony Curtis. Unforgivably, Curtis tells us in the intro that Cagney plays a newspaperman "right after World War Two." It may seem a minor point, but couldn't somebody on the set have reminded him that the movie took place after World War One?

Cagney Elevates Formulaic 'Yellow Peril' Film
By 1945, the war in the Pacific was rapidly drawing to a close, and one would think that Hollywood would have presented a then contemporary view of America's relation with Japan. Surprisingly enough, director Frank LLoyd harkens back to a pre-Pearl Harbor take on Japanese, which is to say that as far as Orientals were concerned, Charley Chan was mainstream America's image of the Asian. It took the events of 12/7 to awaken America to a newer, more lethal yellow peril. What is remarkable about LLoyd's BLOOD ON THE SUN is that nearly every one of the Asian characters is played by an American wearing some really bad makeup. Since political correctness was non-existant then, no one seemed to mind the incongruous accents and eye makeup. Into this mess of a national antipathy towards anything Japanese comes James Cagney, a Tokyo-based American news editor who somehow comes into possession of a secret Japanese document that outlines nothing less than a domination of the world by the Japanese emperor. The plot revolves around efforts by the Japanese to regain custody of this document before Cagney has a chance to publicize it. From a purely dramatic point of view, the interest of the film lies less in the race for possession of the document and more in a not so subtle expose of what passed for an anger towards all things Japanese. Most of the Japanese were of the buck-toothed, slanty-eyed, grinning widely school of acting. The only true oriental who radiated any genuine emotion was the Chinese veteran character actor Philip Ahn, who has made a career of playing rogues and coolies with an impressive depth of dignity. Here Ahn has a bit part as a sadistic Kampetai (Japanese secret police) official who nevertheless gives a chilling performance as a officer who exudes menace with each soft-spoken word. Most of the action revolves around Cagney who must navigate his way through a series of political roadblocks put there by those who may or may not be on his side. Sylvia Sidney is a half-oriental woman with whom Cagney has an unlikely romance and is on screen mostly to give Cagney something to do when he is not being pursued by the local cops. Early on, a hulking Japanese officer suggests that he would like a Judo match with Cagney. Such subtle foreshadowing sets up a climactic grappling bout that is far more realistic than what is found in most chop-socky kung fu films. The ending, of course, is sheer nonsense and bears as much resemblance to real world intrigue as, say, this movie. Still, BLOOD ON THE SUN has its charm as long as one can plow through mounds of cinematic and ethnic implausibilities.

Genuine Cagney
If you're a Cagney fan (especially a female one) I think you'll love this film. Cagney lays down some classic lines and is invloved in a number of romantic moments which will make the ladies swoon (well, I did anyway). Despite the fact that this is one of his later films, Cagney still bring to the film a certain sexiness and assertiveness that I have come to love him for. Not to mention that he gets to throw a few punches! If you are truly a diehard Cagney fan, this is a must see. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

For Cagney fans only
(Please note that of the eight DVD versions of BLOOD ON THE SUN that are currently listed on Amazon.com, I am reviewing the Laserlight "Special Edition" release. That's the one that comes with a documentary on the film career of James Cagney and a goofier-than-thou introduction by Tony Curtis.)

To be honest, I didn't find the feature film on this DVD to be all that exciting. The plot is coherent and without any obvious flaws, and the characters have a lot of promise. It just isn't terribly enthralling. There's a fairly good fight sequence near the end, if that sort of thing interests you. Unfortunately, that sort of thing doesn't usually interest me, and nothing leading up to that had given me any emotional investment in either of the factions. James Cagney's acting is quite good, and, as always, he commands quite a presence on the screen. It's unfortunate that he's one of the only interesting things to watch in this film.

The picture quality is actually fairly good which is a bonus when you consider how cheap the disc is. The picture is the tiniest bit fuzzy at points, but for the most part it's ahead of many other budget DVDs. The sound quality is certainly acceptable, if not the clearest thing you'll ever hear. If you've already seen and enjoyed this movie and are wondering which DVD version you should buy, know that you could do a lot worse than the Laserlight edition.

The included documentary JAMES CAGNEY ON FILM runs 36 minutes long and is a fairly formulaic piece, very similar to the other such programs that Laserlight has included on their DVDs. It's a fairly tame short piece, made up primarily of an uninspired voice-over speaking while the camera pans over numerous black and white publicity shots of Cagney. A few film trailers make up the rest of the action. I didn't know much of anything about James Cagney before, so I found the information to be interesting, albeit a bit dry. I speculate that any real Cagney fans would probably know much, if not everything that this documentary covers.

Tony Curtis' introduction here sees the man in one of his most bizarre spots yet. The short, black, leather gloves from his other Laserlight DVD comments are back with a vengeance here, and they help turn what would otherwise be a short, forgettable James Cagney impersonation into good old-fashioned nightmare fuel. He gives a brief history of James Cagney's career that manages to be utterly divergent from the story that the documentary gave. I can only assume that someone held the wrong cue-cards that day.

All in all, I didn't care much for this DVD. If you're a huge fan of James Cagney's work, then it might be worth your while to pick up, but if not, I'd recommend trying something else. The documentary isn't bad, but it's not something that makes the disc attractive by itself.

Overlooked Cagney Gem
Blood on the Sun is a rousing post war film, a true product of its time. One minor fault with the movie is that it takes place in the 1930's, and everyone is wearing post war fashions. The supporting cast has a few surprises, Hugh Beaumont(Ward Cleaver) and Robert Armstrong (King Kong) as Col. Tojo. Sylvia Sydney is very alluring as Ms. Hilliard, she brings a sophistication to the movie that is usually absent in a Cagney thriller. The climactic battle with Oshima has been described in other reviews here as corny and outdated, but I think they have missed the mark. Judo is a sport, and is not Jujitsu, Judo is mostly throws and locks which the combatants in this movie do quite well. It may not be flashy like todays martial arts, but that is the stuff that I think is corny, defying gravity, impossible moves, and so on. when the battles seem believable, then it is more exciting, Bruce Lee for instance, I think there is no doubt that he could have executed all the moves in his movies in a street fight. That is one of the reasons he will always be the remembered as the best. Another interesting point, the actor who plays Oshima (Jack Halloran) was a LA cop and a master of Judo, Cagney was his student and became a black belt, hollywood's first! Cagney would go on to showcase more martial arts in the movies 13 Rue Madelaine, and White Heat, where he uses a forward choke on Virginia Mayo.

America will be crushed, never to rise again
Based on a true story, BLOOD ON THE SUN is an entertaining little stewpot of a movie.
James Cagney plays Nick Condon, managing editor of the Tokyo Chronicle. It's 1920-something and the United States and Japan share an uneasy peace. That peace threatens to be broken violently when the "Tanaka Plan," a Japanese government document outlining a blueprint for world domination, falls into Condon's possession. Condon has to get the document out of Japan and announce its contents to the world, the Japanese have to stop him.
When I first saw BLOOD ON THE SUN I shrugged it off as a piece of late-war propaganda. There ARE a lot of stereotypical portrayals and attitudes coursing through this one- the Japanese are portrayed for the most part as buck toothed, diabolical schemers. Cagney is attacked from behind twice in this movie. The officials present trumped up charges in their attempt to stop his muck-raking ways. The outrageousness of a foreign correspondent stealing and threatening to publish a secret state paper seems lost on this movie. Then I did a computer search of "Tanaka Memorial" and had a chance to read the document in question. If it's not a forgery (the Japanese government claimed it was), it dwarfs the movie's presumptions. As a side note, the web site I visited informs us that the Chinese, and not a crusading American editor, originally released the document.
As usual, Cagney is a bundle of energy and is great fun to watch. I've read that he took judo classes in preparation for this part, and it seems he's doing a lot of his own stunt work. Sylvia Sydney plays Iris Hilliard, Cagney's love interest and someone interested in the document as well. Soon after her character is introduced we learn she is half-Chinese, which should alert us to the fact that she isn't quite as sinister as she appears. The Chinese were our allies during to the war. They were the good Asians. Another fun character in this one is Capt. Oshima (John Halloran), one of many Caucasian actors partially hidden behind false teeth and taped eyelids. Oshima is a menacing, murderous, towering brute of a cop. Symbolically he's the first to attack the American Cagney with a karate chop from behind, a blow that knocks Cagney out. Later, when the gloves are off and the two square off against each other in a fair fight the results are decidedly different.
Wiard Ihnen & A. Roland Fields won a little statuette for Best Art Direction for their work on BLOOD ON THE SUN. The sets do look pretty good.
BLOOD ON THE SUN is in the public domain, so anyone can copy and sell it. If you get the Delta version be warned that their logo will appear periodically in the lower-right hand corner. They've included a short documentary (still photos with a voice over narration- yawn) and an intro and outro by Tony Curtis. Unforgivably, Curtis tells us in the intro that Cagney plays a newspaperman "right after World War Two." It may seem a minor point, but couldn't somebody on the set have reminded him that the movie took place after World War One?

Cagney Elevates Formulaic 'Yellow Peril' Film
By 1945, the war in the Pacific was rapidly drawing to a close, and one would think that Hollywood would have presented a then contemporary view of America's relation with Japan. Surprisingly enough, director Frank LLoyd harkens back to a pre-Pearl Harbor take on Japanese, which is to say that as far as Orientals were concerned, Charley Chan was mainstream America's image of the Asian. It took the events of 12/7 to awaken America to a newer, more lethal yellow peril. What is remarkable about LLoyd's BLOOD ON THE SUN is that nearly every one of the Asian characters is played by an American wearing some really bad makeup. Since political correctness was non-existant then, no one seemed to mind the incongruous accents and eye makeup. Into this mess of a national antipathy towards anything Japanese comes James Cagney, a Tokyo-based American news editor who somehow comes into possession of a secret Japanese document that outlines nothing less than a domination of the world by the Japanese emperor. The plot revolves around efforts by the Japanese to regain custody of this document before Cagney has a chance to publicize it. From a purely dramatic point of view, the interest of the film lies less in the race for possession of the document and more in a not so subtle expose of what passed for an anger towards all things Japanese. Most of the Japanese were of the buck-toothed, slanty-eyed, grinning widely school of acting. The only true oriental who radiated any genuine emotion was the Chinese veteran character actor Philip Ahn, who has made a career of playing rogues and coolies with an impressive depth of dignity. Here Ahn has a bit part as a sadistic Kampetai (Japanese secret police) official who nevertheless gives a chilling performance as a officer who exudes menace with each soft-spoken word. Most of the action revolves around Cagney who must navigate his way through a series of political roadblocks put there by those who may or may not be on his side. Sylvia Sidney is a half-oriental woman with whom Cagney has an unlikely romance and is on screen mostly to give Cagney something to do when he is not being pursued by the local cops. Early on, a hulking Japanese officer suggests that he would like a Judo match with Cagney. Such subtle foreshadowing sets up a climactic grappling bout that is far more realistic than what is found in most chop-socky kung fu films. The ending, of course, is sheer nonsense and bears as much resemblance to real world intrigue as, say, this movie. Still, BLOOD ON THE SUN has its charm as long as one can plow through mounds of cinematic and ethnic implausibilities.

Genuine Cagney
If you're a Cagney fan (especially a female one) I think you'll love this film. Cagney lays down some classic lines and is invloved in a number of romantic moments which will make the ladies swoon (well, I did anyway). Despite the fact that this is one of his later films, Cagney still bring to the film a certain sexiness and assertiveness that I have come to love him for. Not to mention that he gets to throw a few punches! If you are truly a diehard Cagney fan, this is a must see. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

For Cagney fans only
(Please note that of the eight DVD versions of BLOOD ON THE SUN that are currently listed on Amazon.com, I am reviewing the Laserlight "Special Edition" release. That's the one that comes with a documentary on the film career of James Cagney and a goofier-than-thou introduction by Tony Curtis.)

To be honest, I didn't find the feature film on this DVD to be all that exciting. The plot is coherent and without any obvious flaws, and the characters have a lot of promise. It just isn't terribly enthralling. There's a fairly good fight sequence near the end, if that sort of thing interests you. Unfortunately, that sort of thing doesn't usually interest me, and nothing leading up to that had given me any emotional investment in either of the factions. James Cagney's acting is quite good, and, as always, he commands quite a presence on the screen. It's unfortunate that he's one of the only interesting things to watch in this film.

The picture quality is actually fairly good which is a bonus when you consider how cheap the disc is. The picture is the tiniest bit fuzzy at points, but for the most part it's ahead of many other budget DVDs. The sound quality is certainly acceptable, if not the clearest thing you'll ever hear. If you've already seen and enjoyed this movie and are wondering which DVD version you should buy, know that you could do a lot worse than the Laserlight edition.

The included documentary JAMES CAGNEY ON FILM runs 36 minutes long and is a fairly formulaic piece, very similar to the other such programs that Laserlight has included on their DVDs. It's a fairly tame short piece, made up primarily of an uninspired voice-over speaking while the camera pans over numerous black and white publicity shots of Cagney. A few film trailers make up the rest of the action. I didn't know much of anything about James Cagney before, so I found the information to be interesting, albeit a bit dry. I speculate that any real Cagney fans would probably know much, if not everything that this documentary covers.

Tony Curtis' introduction here sees the man in one of his most bizarre spots yet. The short, black, leather gloves from his other Laserlight DVD comments are back with a vengeance here, and they help turn what would otherwise be a short, forgettable James Cagney impersonation into good old-fashioned nightmare fuel. He gives a brief history of James Cagney's career that manages to be utterly divergent from the story that the documentary gave. I can only assume that someone held the wrong cue-cards that day.

All in all, I didn't care much for this DVD. If you're a huge fan of James Cagney's work, then it might be worth your while to pick up, but if not, I'd recommend trying something else. The documentary isn't bad, but it's not something that makes the disc attractive by itself.

Overlooked Cagney Gem
Blood on the Sun is a rousing post war film, a true product of its time. One minor fault with the movie is that it takes place in the 1930's, and everyone is wearing post war fashions. The supporting cast has a few surprises, Hugh Beaumont(Ward Cleaver) and Robert Armstrong (King Kong) as Col. Tojo. Sylvia Sydney is very alluring as Ms. Hilliard, she brings a sophistication to the movie that is usually absent in a Cagney thriller. The climactic battle with Oshima has been described in other reviews here as corny and outdated, but I think they have missed the mark. Judo is a sport, and is not Jujitsu, Judo is mostly throws and locks which the combatants in this movie do quite well. It may not be flashy like todays martial arts, but that is the stuff that I think is corny, defying gravity, impossible moves, and so on. when the battles seem believable, then it is more exciting, Bruce Lee for instance, I think there is no doubt that he could have executed all the moves in his movies in a street fight. That is one of the reasons he will always be the remembered as the best. Another interesting point, the actor who plays Oshima (Jack Halloran) was a LA cop and a master of Judo, Cagney was his student and became a black belt, hollywood's first! Cagney would go on to showcase more martial arts in the movies 13 Rue Madelaine, and White Heat, where he uses a forward choke on Virginia Mayo.

America will be crushed, never to rise again
Based on a true story, BLOOD ON THE SUN is an entertaining little stewpot of a movie.
James Cagney plays Nick Condon, managing editor of the Tokyo Chronicle. It's 1920-something and the United States and Japan share an uneasy peace. That peace threatens to be broken violently when the "Tanaka Plan," a Japanese government document outlining a blueprint for world domination, falls into Condon's possession. Condon has to get the document out of Japan and announce its contents to the world, the Japanese have to stop him.
When I first saw BLOOD ON THE SUN I shrugged it off as a piece of late-war propaganda. There ARE a lot of stereotypical portrayals and attitudes coursing through this one- the Japanese are portrayed for the most part as buck toothed, diabolical schemers. Cagney is attacked from behind twice in this movie. The officials present trumped up charges in their attempt to stop his muck-raking ways. The outrageousness of a foreign correspondent stealing and threatening to publish a secret state paper seems lost on this movie. Then I did a computer search of "Tanaka Memorial" and had a chance to read the document in question. If it's not a forgery (the Japanese government claimed it was), it dwarfs the movie's presumptions. As a side note, the web site I visited informs us that the Chinese, and not a crusading American editor, originally released the document.
As usual, Cagney is a bundle of energy and is great fun to watch. I've read that he took judo classes in preparation for this part, and it seems he's doing a lot of his own stunt work. Sylvia Sydney plays Iris Hilliard, Cagney's love interest and someone interested in the document as well. Soon after her character is introduced we learn she is half-Chinese, which should alert us to the fact that she isn't quite as sinister as she appears. The Chinese were our allies during to the war. They were the good Asians. Another fun character in this one is Capt. Oshima (John Halloran), one of many Caucasian actors partially hidden behind false teeth and taped eyelids. Oshima is a menacing, murderous, towering brute of a cop. Symbolically he's the first to attack the American Cagney with a karate chop from behind, a blow that knocks Cagney out. Later, when the gloves are off and the two square off against each other in a fair fight the results are decidedly different.
Wiard Ihnen & A. Roland Fields won a little statuette for Best Art Direction for their work on BLOOD ON THE SUN. The sets do look pretty good.
BLOOD ON THE SUN is in the public domain, so anyone can copy and sell it. If you get the Delta version be warned that their logo will appear periodically in the lower-right hand corner. They've included a short documentary (still photos with a voice over narration- yawn) and an intro and outro by Tony Curtis. Unforgivably, Curtis tells us in the intro that Cagney plays a newspaperman "right after World War Two." It may seem a minor point, but couldn't somebody on the set have reminded him that the movie took place after World War One?

Cagney Elevates Formulaic 'Yellow Peril' Film
By 1945, the war in the Pacific was rapidly drawing to a close, and one would think that Hollywood would have presented a then contemporary view of America's relation with Japan. Surprisingly enough, director Frank LLoyd harkens back to a pre-Pearl Harbor take on Japanese, which is to say that as far as Orientals were concerned, Charley Chan was mainstream America's image of the Asian. It took the events of 12/7 to awaken America to a newer, more lethal yellow peril. What is remarkable about LLoyd's BLOOD ON THE SUN is that nearly every one of the Asian characters is played by an American wearing some really bad makeup. Since political correctness was non-existant then, no one seemed to mind the incongruous accents and eye makeup. Into this mess of a national antipathy towards anything Japanese comes James Cagney, a Tokyo-based American news editor who somehow comes into possession of a secret Japanese document that outlines nothing less than a domination of the world by the Japanese emperor. The plot revolves around efforts by the Japanese to regain custody of this document before Cagney has a chance to publicize it. From a purely dramatic point of view, the interest of the film lies less in the race for possession of the document and more in a not so subtle expose of what passed for an anger towards all things Japanese. Most of the Japanese were of the buck-toothed, slanty-eyed, grinning widely school of acting. The only true oriental who radiated any genuine emotion was the Chinese veteran character actor Philip Ahn, who has made a career of playing rogues and coolies with an impressive depth of dignity. Here Ahn has a bit part as a sadistic Kampetai (Japanese secret police) official who nevertheless gives a chilling performance as a officer who exudes menace with each soft-spoken word. Most of the action revolves around Cagney who must navigate his way through a series of political roadblocks put there by those who may or may not be on his side. Sylvia Sidney is a half-oriental woman with whom Cagney has an unlikely romance and is on screen mostly to give Cagney something to do when he is not being pursued by the local cops. Early on, a hulking Japanese officer suggests that he would like a Judo match with Cagney. Such subtle foreshadowing sets up a climactic grappling bout that is far more realistic than what is found in most chop-socky kung fu films. The ending, of course, is sheer nonsense and bears as much resemblance to real world intrigue as, say, this movie. Still, BLOOD ON THE SUN has its charm as long as one can plow through mounds of cinematic and ethnic implausibilities.

Genuine Cagney
If you're a Cagney fan (especially a female one) I think you'll love this film. Cagney lays down some classic lines and is invloved in a number of romantic moments which will make the ladies swoon (well, I did anyway). Despite the fact that this is one of his later films, Cagney still bring to the film a certain sexiness and assertiveness that I have come to love him for. Not to mention that he gets to throw a few punches! If you are truly a diehard Cagney fan, this is a must see. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

For Cagney fans only
(Please note that of the eight DVD versions of BLOOD ON THE SUN that are currently listed on Amazon.com, I am reviewing the Laserlight "Special Edition" release. That's the one that comes with a documentary on the film career of James Cagney and a goofier-than-thou introduction by Tony Curtis.)

To be honest, I didn't find the feature film on this DVD to be all that exciting. The plot is coherent and without any obvious flaws, and the characters have a lot of promise. It just isn't terribly enthralling. There's a fairly good fight sequence near the end, if that sort of thing interests you. Unfortunately, that sort of thing doesn't usually interest me, and nothing leading up to that had given me any emotional investment in either of the factions. James Cagney's acting is quite good, and, as always, he commands quite a presence on the screen. It's unfortunate that he's one of the only interesting things to watch in this film.

The picture quality is actually fairly good which is a bonus when you consider how cheap the disc is. The picture is the tiniest bit fuzzy at points, but for the most part it's ahead of many other budget DVDs. The sound quality is certainly acceptable, if not the clearest thing you'll ever hear. If you've already seen and enjoyed this movie and are wondering which DVD version you should buy, know that you could do a lot worse than the Laserlight edition.

The included documentary JAMES CAGNEY ON FILM runs 36 minutes long and is a fairly formulaic piece, very similar to the other such programs that Laserlight has included on their DVDs. It's a fairly tame short piece, made up primarily of an uninspired voice-over speaking while the camera pans over numerous black and white publicity shots of Cagney. A few film trailers make up the rest of the action. I didn't know much of anything about James Cagney before, so I found the information to be interesting, albeit a bit dry. I speculate that any real Cagney fans would probably know much, if not everything that this documentary covers.

Tony Curtis' introduction here sees the man in one of his most bizarre spots yet. The short, black, leather gloves from his other Laserlight DVD comments are back with a vengeance here, and they help turn what would otherwise be a short, forgettable James Cagney impersonation into good old-fashioned nightmare fuel. He gives a brief history of James Cagney's career that manages to be utterly divergent from the story that the documentary gave. I can only assume that someone held the wrong cue-cards that day.

All in all, I didn't care much for this DVD. If you're a huge fan of James Cagney's work, then it might be worth your while to pick up, but if not, I'd recommend trying something else. The documentary isn't bad, but it's not something that makes the disc attractive by itself.

Overlooked Cagney Gem
Blood on the Sun is a rousing post war film, a true product of its time. One minor fault with the movie is that it takes place in the 1930's, and everyone is wearing post war fashions. The supporting cast has a few surprises, Hugh Beaumont(Ward Cleaver) and Robert Armstrong (King Kong) as Col. Tojo. Sylvia Sydney is very alluring as Ms. Hilliard, she brings a sophistication to the movie that is usually absent in a Cagney thriller. The climactic battle with Oshima has been described in other reviews here as corny and outdated, but I think they have missed the mark. Judo is a sport, and is not Jujitsu, Judo is mostly throws and locks which the combatants in this movie do quite well. It may not be flashy like todays martial arts, but that is the stuff that I think is corny, defying gravity, impossible moves, and so on. when the battles seem believable, then it is more exciting, Bruce Lee for instance, I think there is no doubt that he could have executed all the moves in his movies in a street fight. That is one of the reasons he will always be the remembered as the best. Another interesting point, the actor who plays Oshima (Jack Halloran) was a LA cop and a master of Judo, Cagney was his student and became a black belt, hollywood's first! Cagney would go on to showcase more martial arts in the movies 13 Rue Madelaine, and White Heat, where he uses a forward choke on Virginia Mayo.

America will be crushed, never to rise again
Based on a true story, BLOOD ON THE SUN is an entertaining little stewpot of a movie.
James Cagney plays Nick Condon, managing editor of the Tokyo Chronicle. It's 1920-something and the United States and Japan share an uneasy peace. That peace threatens to be broken violently when the "Tanaka Plan," a Japanese government document outlining a blueprint for world domination, falls into Condon's possession. Condon has to get the document out of Japan and announce its contents to the world, the Japanese have to stop him.
When I first saw BLOOD ON THE SUN I shrugged it off as a piece of late-war propaganda. There ARE a lot of stereotypical portrayals and attitudes coursing through this one- the Japanese are portrayed for the most part as buck toothed, diabolical schemers. Cagney is attacked from behind twice in this movie. The officials present trumped up charges in their attempt to stop his muck-raking ways. The outrageousness of a foreign correspondent stealing and threatening to publish a secret state paper seems lost on this movie. Then I did a computer search of "Tanaka Memorial" and had a chance to read the document in question. If it's not a forgery (the Japanese government claimed it was), it dwarfs the movie's presumptions. As a side note, the web site I visited informs us that the Chinese, and not a crusading American editor, originally released the document.
As usual, Cagney is a bundle of energy and is great fun to watch. I've read that he took judo classes in preparation for this part, and it seems he's doing a lot of his own stunt work. Sylvia Sydney plays Iris Hilliard, Cagney's love interest and someone interested in the document as well. Soon after her character is introduced we learn she is half-Chinese, which should alert us to the fact that she isn't quite as sinister as she appears. The Chinese were our allies during to the war. They were the good Asians. Another fun character in this one is Capt. Oshima (John Halloran), one of many Caucasian actors partially hidden behind false teeth and taped eyelids. Oshima is a menacing, murderous, towering brute of a cop. Symbolically he's the first to attack the American Cagney with a karate chop from behind, a blow that knocks Cagney out. Later, when the gloves are off and the two square off against each other in a fair fight the results are decidedly different.
Wiard Ihnen & A. Roland Fields won a little statuette for Best Art Direction for their work on BLOOD ON THE SUN. The sets do look pretty good.
BLOOD ON THE SUN is in the public domain, so anyone can copy and sell it. If you get the Delta version be warned that their logo will appear periodically in the lower-right hand corner. They've included a short documentary (still photos with a voice over narration- yawn) and an intro and outro by Tony Curtis. Unforgivably, Curtis tells us in the intro that Cagney plays a newspaperman "right after World War Two." It may seem a minor point, but couldn't somebody on the set have reminded him that the movie took place after World War One?

Cagney Elevates Formulaic 'Yellow Peril' Film
By 1945, the war in the Pacific was rapidly drawing to a close, and one would think that Hollywood would have presented a then contemporary view of America's relation with Japan. Surprisingly enough, director Frank LLoyd harkens back to a pre-Pearl Harbor take on Japanese, which is to say that as far as Orientals were concerned, Charley Chan was mainstream America's image of the Asian. It took the events of 12/7 to awaken America to a newer, more lethal yellow peril. What is remarkable about LLoyd's BLOOD ON THE SUN is that nearly every one of the Asian characters is played by an American wearing some really bad makeup. Since political correctness was non-existant then, no one seemed to mind the incongruous accents and eye makeup. Into this mess of a national antipathy towards anything Japanese comes James Cagney, a Tokyo-based American news editor who somehow comes into possession of a secret Japanese document that outlines nothing less than a domination of the world by the Japanese emperor. The plot revolves around efforts by the Japanese to regain custody of this document before Cagney has a chance to publicize it. From a purely dramatic point of view, the interest of the film lies less in the race for possession of the document and more in a not so subtle expose of what passed for an anger towards all things Japanese. Most of the Japanese were of the buck-toothed, slanty-eyed, grinning widely school of acting. The only true oriental who radiated any genuine emotion was the Chinese veteran character actor Philip Ahn, who has made a career of playing rogues and coolies with an impressive depth of dignity. Here Ahn has a bit part as a sadistic Kampetai (Japanese secret police) official who nevertheless gives a chilling performance as a officer who exudes menace with each soft-spoken word. Most of the action revolves around Cagney who must navigate his way through a series of political roadblocks put there by those who may or may not be on his side. Sylvia Sidney is a half-oriental woman with whom Cagney has an unlikely romance and is on screen mostly to give Cagney something to do when he is not being pursued by the local cops. Early on, a hulking Japanese officer suggests that he would like a Judo match with Cagney. Such subtle foreshadowing sets up a climactic grappling bout that is far more realistic than what is found in most chop-socky kung fu films. The ending, of course, is sheer nonsense and bears as much resemblance to real world intrigue as, say, this movie. Still, BLOOD ON THE SUN has its charm as long as one can plow through mounds of cinematic and ethnic implausibilities.

Genuine Cagney
If you're a Cagney fan (especially a female one) I think you'll love this film. Cagney lays down some classic lines and is invloved in a number of romantic moments which will make the ladies swoon (well, I did anyway). Despite the fact that this is one of his later films, Cagney still bring to the film a certain sexiness and assertiveness that I have come to love him for. Not to mention that he gets to throw a few punches! If you are truly a diehard Cagney fan, this is a must see. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Corny premise, but worth the time
I am NOT a fan of Bob Hope's movies. I really never watch him as a comic but this movie was very enjoyable! Great musical numbers and the kids are dolls. Rags to riches. With the combination of music, kids, Hope not playing Hope...you will spend an delightful evening renting or buying this movie.

That's Entertainment!
A rarely seen Bob Hope gem, "The Seven Little Foys" is well worth seeking out. The film is based on the true story of Eddie Foy, a vaudvillian who, after the unexpected death of his wife, decides to make his seven children into a stage act in order to keep on eye on them while on the road. That his children are one and all completely deviod of any talent whatsoever doesn't faze him much. After all, famous for being dreadfully untalented is still famous.

The first half of the movie drags a bit while detailing the courtship of Eddie Foy and his long-suffering wife, but the second half has Bob playing off of seven terrific child actors and the results are very entertaining. (For example, racking his brain on how to get his kids on stage, Bob asks them what they can do. His littlest replies cheerfully, "I can dance!" and proceeds to careen around the room in a drunken manner. "Keep your opinions to yourself", Bob observes.)

To Eddie's surprise, the kids are so bad they're a huge hit, and though dysfunctional, the Foys are ultimately a loving and tightknit bunch. Bob and the kids have a great chemistry, and he also has a great foil in the Italian actress that plays the children's aunt. (At one point she grouses that the house Eddie has bought is "falling apart", "Nobody complains about you", Bob shoots back. )

And of course, there is the famous scene when Bob and Jimmy Cagney do a wondeful softshoe atop a banquet table; this scene alone is worth the price of the DVD.

If you're a fan of Bob Hope or like turn of the century period films , be sure not to miss "The Seven Little Foys".

Beautiful Brentwood DVD color musical
This Brentwood Bob Hope DVD has beautiful color and a razor sharp image. The movie is aimed more at music than comedy, and comedy fans may be a little disappointed. But Bob Hope fans and musical fans will be amused.

Great costumes, wonderful dancing, and a few laughs
I'd read the previous reviews of this movies and saw it this weekend. While it was entertaining, it wasn't as funny as I'd anticipated. The story line was pretty weak too.

On the other hand... The costumes were spectacular, and it was worth seeing the movie just for that!

I was amazed as how great a dancer Bob Hope was! The table top dance duet with James Cagney was absolutely brilliant!

This isn't really a musical in the sense that people don't suddenly burst into song. But, there is a lot of music, dance, and vaudvillian routines.

Great costumes, sonderful dancing, and a few laughs
I'd read the previous reviews of this movies and saw it this weekend. While it was entertaining, it wasn't as funny as I'd anticipated. The story line was pretty weak too.

On the other hand... The costumes were spectacular, and it was worth seeing the movie just for that!

I was amazed as how great a dancer Bob Hope was! The table top dance duet with James Cagney was absolutely brilliant!

This isn't really a musical in the sense that people don't suddenly burst into song. But, there is a lot of music, dance, and vaudvillian routines. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A bar where everybody knows you name, circa 1948
"The Time of Your Life," based on the play by William Saroyan, shows us a group of eccentrics who hang out in a San Francisco waterfront bar and philosophize about life. James Cagney plays Joe, a barfly who believes in encouraging everybody to fulfill their dreams. Whether this means encouraging an old man named "Kit Carson" (James Barton) to spin his fanciful tales about the old west or conning Nick (William Bendix), the bartender, into giving Harry (Paul Draper), the vagabond dancer, a part-time job. The film is filled with fine character actors, such as Ward Bond and Broderick Crawford, and including Cagney's sister Jeanne as Kitty Duval and Natalie Schafer, the future Mrs. Howell on "Gilligan's Island," as the Society Lady. Admittedly, this film is not everybody's cup of tea, although Saroyan was particularly pleased with how his play translated to the film, even though the original ending was reshot. This story takes place in a bar that is obviously more reminiscent of "Cheers" than it is a Eugene O'Neill play like "The Iceman Cometh." I would even argue that Cagney's character is one of the least interesting people in the story, although he is certainly an amiable enough fellow. The important thing is that this bar is a nice place to visit for a while. This 1948 film directed by H. C. Potter features photography by James Wong Howe. Oh, and the piano player is really good too.

Come in and Be Yourself.
THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE was based upon William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play and was brought about, in part, by a collaboration of the Cagney siblings (James, Jeanne, and William). Except for one brief shot of the Salvation Army singing outside the establishment, the entire movie takes place inside Nick's, a saloon, restaurant, and entertainment palace on the waterfront in San Francisco. James Cagney plays Joe, a man who has a lot of cash and spends his time observing, listening, and helping people and fulfilling his every whim. Wayne Morris plays Tom, Joe's gopher man; Jeanne Cagney plays Kitty, a former "burlesque queen" who falls for Tom; and William Bendix plays Nick. The floating characters at Nick's also include, among others, a lovesick young man, an out of work fellow, a drunk, a cowboy who calls himself "Kit Carson", a pinball wizard, a dancer who is a comedian that has no funny jokes, a police officer, and a couple of socialites.

There really isn't much plot in THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE. However, neither the movie nor the play it was based upon are about "plot". There may not seem to be a lot going on, but actually there is. The plot of the story is it's characters. Each person that comes into Nick's has a story and some of them we learn, some of them we don't. However, while listening to each person (just as Joe does) we learn something about them and in the process we discover things about ourselves. THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE is art in it's highest form because it entertains, yet also enlightens.

The quality of this DVD isn't all that bad, especially considering how inexpensive it is to purchase a copy (the Laserlight edition can be purchased for less than $5). The sound is good through most of the film except for the occasional scratch and the picture is great (the one scene where you can't read what is on the piece of paper was filmed that way intentionally because you are not supposed to see what's written on the paper because it's too small).

Overall a good movie well worth the time to watch it.

James Cagney knows your name
(Please note that the DVD version I am reviewing is the Laserlight edition of THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE. This budget release pretty much defines the concept of "no-frills".)

Other reviewers have pointed out the fact that this movie skimps on plot and I cannot help but completely agree with that sentiment. But for what the movie lacks in action, it more than makes up for in the presentation of fascinating characters. Each person's story is interesting and unique. And the movie manages to give us enough detail so that we can find these people intriguing, but leaves enough unsaid so that no one overstays their welcome. We're left liking these people and wanting to hear more about them.

Since the characters are at the forefront of this movie, it's certainly a relief to have such splendid actors playing them. The Cagney siblings are wonderful. Jeanne Cagney does a wonderful job at becoming the streetwise blonde who stands up to gangsters and James Cagney is a compelling, gentle enigma. While so many of the roles could have easily fallen into stereotypes, the actors are strong enough to keep them as individuals.

Although I haven't experienced the original play that this film is based upon, I can only imagine that there weren't too many script changes between the stage and the screen. The movie is heavily performance-based, with the interesting material coming from the conversations and the soliloquies. The action is completely centered on a single barroom, as during the entire length of the movie only one short sequence takes place outside the bar's swing doors. Even a fight scene inside the same building occurs off-camera so that all we view are people in one room hollering at the unseen people in another. As some characters leave the action, they are immediately replaced by other people beginning conversations of their own. In fact, if you pay close attention, you'll probably notice that the amount of real time that people spend off-camera isn't nearly long enough to do all the things that they claim to have done in that span.

Fortunately, none of this affects one's enjoyment of the film at all. In fact, it gives the entire production a great sense of the theatrical nature of the performances. Unlike some other translations from play to movie, this one never feels as though it's being limited by the theatre. It retains the trappings and atmosphere of a stage production, while never feeling claustrophobic. What makes for good theatre doesn't always make for a good film (and vice versa), yet it's a testament to the skills of the director and the cast that they manage to make the transition here without a hitch.

The image quality on this Laserlight DVD is perfectly watchable. It's scratchy in a few places, but never so much that it becomes distracting. The picture is a bit bright and slightly washed out, but this is really only a problem in one scene where the audience is expected to read something that's a character has written on a piece of paper. The sound quality is variable, but mostly falls on the good side of variable. As the DVD itself is absolutely dirt cheap, it's well worth putting up with these slight imperfections.

Thin plot, not very interesting, always expecting more!
The other review subject lines hit it on the head: Thin plot, a bar where everyone knows your name.

This movie does not have a very good subject. Is just about a rich man in post WWII era hanging out in a bar and throwing around small amounts of money. Not much of a climax either.

A bar where everybody knows you name, circa 1948
"The Time of Your Life," based on the play by William Saroyan, shows us a group of eccentrics who hang out in a San Francisco waterfront bar and philosophize about life. James Cagney plays Joe, a barfly who believes in encouraging everybody to fulfill their dreams. Whether this means encouraging an old man named "Kit Carson" (James Barton) to spin his fanciful tales about the old west or conning Nick (William Bendix), the bartender, into giving Harry (Paul Draper), the vagabond dancer, a part-time job. The film is filled with fine character actors, such as Ward Bond and Broderick Crawford, and including Cagney's sister Jeanne as Kitty Duval and Natalie Schafer, the future Mrs. Howell on "Gilligan's Island," as the Society Lady. Admittedly, this film is not everybody's cup of tea, although Saroyan was particularly pleased with how his play translated to the film, even though the original ending was reshot. This story takes place in a bar that is obviously more reminiscent of "Cheers" than it is a Eugene O'Neill play like "The Iceman Cometh." I would even argue that Cagney's character is one of the least interesting people in the story, although he is certainly an amiable enough fellow. The important thing is that this bar is a nice place to visit for a while. This 1948 film directed by H. C. Potter features photography by James Wong Howe. Oh, and the piano player is really good too. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Cagney is a crusading newspaper editor in 1930s Japan who's come into possession of the "Tanaka Plan" for world domination.Amidst political intrigue and crossed loyalties, Cagney must now find a way to warn the outside world. A fine, entertaining melodrama that's based in fact, with Cagney as good as ever, but this time with judo chops. If only the Japanese knew some kind of hand-to-hand combat, they might be able to stand a chance against Cagney.Dated only by its condescension towards the Japanese, Blood on the Sun never slacks its pace, providing quick-witted patter all along in the mark of the classic Hollywood style.It seems peculiarly American (in an inadvertent way, of course) that in the film's final moments the day should be saved by none other than Ward Cleaver (Hugh Beaumont). Unfortunately, this disc by Madacy has very poor visual quality, having been apparently tranferred from tape, thus subverting the benefits possible with DVD's higher definition format. --Jim Gay ... Read more

Reviews (12)

For Cagney fans only
(Please note that of the eight DVD versions of BLOOD ON THE SUN that are currently listed on Amazon.com, I am reviewing the Laserlight "Special Edition" release. That's the one that comes with a documentary on the film career of James Cagney and a goofier-than-thou introduction by Tony Curtis.)

To be honest, I didn't find the feature film on this DVD to be all that exciting. The plot is coherent and without any obvious flaws, and the characters have a lot of promise. It just isn't terribly enthralling. There's a fairly good fight sequence near the end, if that sort of thing interests you. Unfortunately, that sort of thing doesn't usually interest me, and nothing leading up to that had given me any emotional investment in either of the factions. James Cagney's acting is quite good, and, as always, he commands quite a presence on the screen. It's unfortunate that he's one of the only interesting things to watch in this film.

The picture quality is actually fairly good which is a bonus when you consider how cheap the disc is. The picture is the tiniest bit fuzzy at points, but for the most part it's ahead of many other budget DVDs. The sound quality is certainly acceptable, if not the clearest thing you'll ever hear. If you've already seen and enjoyed this movie and are wondering which DVD version you should buy, know that you could do a lot worse than the Laserlight edition.

The included documentary JAMES CAGNEY ON FILM runs 36 minutes long and is a fairly formulaic piece, very similar to the other such programs that Laserlight has included on their DVDs. It's a fairly tame short piece, made up primarily of an uninspired voice-over speaking while the camera pans over numerous black and white publicity shots of Cagney. A few film trailers make up the rest of the action. I didn't know much of anything about James Cagney before, so I found the information to be interesting, albeit a bit dry. I speculate that any real Cagney fans would probably know much, if not everything that this documentary covers.

Tony Curtis' introduction here sees the man in one of his most bizarre spots yet. The short, black, leather gloves from his other Laserlight DVD comments are back with a vengeance here, and they help turn what would otherwise be a short, forgettable James Cagney impersonation into good old-fashioned nightmare fuel. He gives a brief history of James Cagney's career that manages to be utterly divergent from the story that the documentary gave. I can only assume that someone held the wrong cue-cards that day.

All in all, I didn't care much for this DVD. If you're a huge fan of James Cagney's work, then it might be worth your while to pick up, but if not, I'd recommend trying something else. The documentary isn't bad, but it's not something that makes the disc attractive by itself.

Overlooked Cagney Gem
Blood on the Sun is a rousing post war film, a true product of its time. One minor fault with the movie is that it takes place in the 1930's, and everyone is wearing post war fashions. The supporting cast has a few surprises, Hugh Beaumont(Ward Cleaver) and Robert Armstrong (King Kong) as Col. Tojo. Sylvia Sydney is very alluring as Ms. Hilliard, she brings a sophistication to the movie that is usually absent in a Cagney thriller. The climactic battle with Oshima has been described in other reviews here as corny and outdated, but I think they have missed the mark. Judo is a sport, and is not Jujitsu, Judo is mostly throws and locks which the combatants in this movie do quite well. It may not be flashy like todays martial arts, but that is the stuff that I think is corny, defying gravity, impossible moves, and so on. when the battles seem believable, then it is more exciting, Bruce Lee for instance, I think there is no doubt that he could have executed all the moves in his movies in a street fight. That is one of the reasons he will always be the remembered as the best. Another interesting point, the actor who plays Oshima (Jack Halloran) was a LA cop and a master of Judo, Cagney was his student and became a black belt, hollywood's first! Cagney would go on to showcase more martial arts in the movies 13 Rue Madelaine, and White Heat, where he uses a forward choke on Virginia Mayo.

America will be crushed, never to rise again
Based on a true story, BLOOD ON THE SUN is an entertaining little stewpot of a movie.
James Cagney plays Nick Condon, managing editor of the Tokyo Chronicle. It's 1920-something and the United States and Japan share an uneasy peace. That peace threatens to be broken violently when the "Tanaka Plan," a Japanese government document outlining a blueprint for world domination, falls into Condon's possession. Condon has to get the document out of Japan and announce its contents to the world, the Japanese have to stop him.
When I first saw BLOOD ON THE SUN I shrugged it off as a piece of late-war propaganda. There ARE a lot of stereotypical portrayals and attitudes coursing through this one- the Japanese are portrayed for the most part as buck toothed, diabolical schemers. Cagney is attacked from behind twice in this movie. The officials present trumped up charges in their attempt to stop his muck-raking ways. The outrageousness of a foreign correspondent stealing and threatening to publish a secret state paper seems lost on this movie. Then I did a computer search of "Tanaka Memorial" and had a chance to read the document in question. If it's not a forgery (the Japanese government claimed it was), it dwarfs the movie's presumptions. As a side note, the web site I visited informs us that the Chinese, and not a crusading American editor, originally released the document.
As usual, Cagney is a bundle of energy and is great fun to watch. I've read that he took judo classes in preparation for this part, and it seems he's doing a lot of his own stunt work. Sylvia Sydney plays Iris Hilliard, Cagney's love interest and someone interested in the document as well. Soon after her character is introduced we learn she is half-Chinese, which should alert us to the fact that she isn't quite as sinister as she appears. The Chinese were our allies during to the war. They were the good Asians. Another fun character in this one is Capt. Oshima (John Halloran), one of many Caucasian actors partially hidden behind false teeth and taped eyelids. Oshima is a menacing, murderous, towering brute of a cop. Symbolically he's the first to attack the American Cagney with a karate chop from behind, a blow that knocks Cagney out. Later, when the gloves are off and the two square off against each other in a fair fight the results are decidedly different.
Wiard Ihnen & A. Roland Fields won a little statuette for Best Art Direction for their work on BLOOD ON THE SUN. The sets do look pretty good.
BLOOD ON THE SUN is in the public domain, so anyone can copy and sell it. If you get the Delta version be warned that their logo will appear periodically in the lower-right hand corner. They've included a short documentary (still photos with a voice over narration- yawn) and an intro and outro by Tony Curtis. Unforgivably, Curtis tells us in the intro that Cagney plays a newspaperman "right after World War Two." It may seem a minor point, but couldn't somebody on the set have reminded him that the movie took place after World War One?

Cagney Elevates Formulaic 'Yellow Peril' Film
By 1945, the war in the Pacific was rapidly drawing to a close, and one would think that Hollywood would have presented a then contemporary view of America's relation with Japan. Surprisingly enough, director Frank LLoyd harkens back to a pre-Pearl Harbor take on Japanese, which is to say that as far as Orientals were concerned, Charley Chan was mainstream America's image of the Asian. It took the events of 12/7 to awaken America to a newer, more lethal yellow peril. What is remarkable about LLoyd's BLOOD ON THE SUN is that nearly every one of the Asian characters is played by an American wearing some really bad makeup. Since political correctness was non-existant then, no one seemed to mind the incongruous accents and eye makeup. Into this mess of a national antipathy towards anything Japanese comes James Cagney, a Tokyo-based American news editor who somehow comes into possession of a secret Japanese document that outlines nothing less than a domination of the world by the Japanese emperor. The plot revolves around efforts by the Japanese to regain custody of this document before Cagney has a chance to publicize it. From a purely dramatic point of view, the interest of the film lies less in the race for possession of the document and more in a not so subtle expose of what passed for an anger towards all things Japanese. Most of the Japanese were of the buck-toothed, slanty-eyed, grinning widely school of acting. The only true oriental who radiated any genuine emotion was the Chinese veteran character actor Philip Ahn, who has made a career of playing rogues and coolies with an impressive depth of dignity. Here Ahn has a bit part as a sadistic Kampetai (Japanese secret police) official who nevertheless gives a chilling performance as a officer who exudes menace with each soft-spoken word. Most of the action revolves around Cagney who must navigate his way through a series of political roadblocks put there by those who may or may not be on his side. Sylvia Sidney is a half-oriental woman with whom Cagney has an unlikely romance and is on screen mostly to give Cagney something to do when he is not being pursued by the local cops. Early on, a hulking Japanese officer suggests that he would like a Judo match with Cagney. Such subtle foreshadowing sets up a climactic grappling bout that is far more realistic than what is found in most chop-socky kung fu films. The ending, of course, is sheer nonsense and bears as much resemblance to real world intrigue as, say, this movie. Still, BLOOD ON THE SUN has its charm as long as one can plow through mounds of cinematic and ethnic implausibilities.

Genuine Cagney
If you're a Cagney fan (especially a female one) I think you'll love this film. Cagney lays down some classic lines and is invloved in a number of romantic moments which will make the ladies swoon (well, I did anyway). Despite the fact that this is one of his later films, Cagney still bring to the film a certain sexiness and assertiveness that I have come to love him for. Not to mention that he gets to throw a few punches! If you are truly a diehard Cagney fan, this is a must see. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

'Zactly
The Strawberry Blonde has elements of comedy, drama, music, and romance all tossed into one entertaining film. Set at the turn of the century, James Cagney stars as a man studying to be a dentist who falls in love with a strawberry blonde stunner that every man is after, Rita Hayworth. Although she finds him attractive, she is more attracted to the prospects of his ambitious pal, Jack Carson. Caught up in the mix is Hayworth's friend, the forward thinking Olivia de Havilland. Cagney finds himself getting stuck with de Havilland, and it takes him a while to figure out what the audience already knows ... he really got the winner. Although Hayworth and the supporting cast of character actor veterans (Alan Hale, George Tobias, Una O'Connor, and Carson) are all fine, as a fan of Cagney and de Havilland I have to say the film belongs to them. Cagney gets to play his tough guy with a lighter touch here, getting knocked down more often than the other way around, and he displays a humorous romantic side that should have been used more often by Warner Bros. de Havilland has some of the film's best moments as