His next film, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, was another gangster movie, which was the first by Cagney Productions since its acquisition by Warners.

While compared unfavorably to White Heat by critics, it was fairly successful at the box office, with $ 500, 000 going straight to Cagney Productions ' bankers to pay off their losses.

Cagney Productions was not a great success, however, and in 1953, after William Cagney produced his last film, A Lion Is in the Streets, the company came to an end.

Day subsequently took on more dramatic roles, including her 1955 portrayal of singer Ruth Etting in the biographical film of Etting's life, Love Me or Leave Me, in which she co-starred with James Cagney.

Cagney attributed the performance to his father's alcoholic rages, which he had witnessed as a child, as well as someone that he had seen on a visit to a mental hospital.

However, as soon as Ford met Cagney at the airport, the director warned him that they would " tangle asses ", which caught Cagney by surprise.

The following year, Cagney appeared in Man of a Thousand Faces, in which he played Lon Chaney.

Later in 1957, Cagney ventured behind the camera for the first and only time to direct Short Cut to Hell, a remake of the 1941 Alan Ladd film This Gun for Hire, which in turn was based on the Graham Greene novel A Gun for Sale.

In 1959, Cagney played a labor leader in what proved to be his final musical, Never Steal Anything Small, which featured a comical song and dance duet with Cara Williams, who played his girlfriend.

Cagney had concerns with the script, remembering back 23 years to Boy Meets Girl, in which scenes were re-shot to try to make them funnier by speeding up the pacing, with the opposite effect.

Cagney remained in retirement for twenty years, conjuring up images of Jack Warner every time he was tempted to return, which soon dispelled the notion.

Zimmerman then took it upon herself to look after Cagney, preparing his meals to reduce his blood triglyceride level, which had reached alarming proportions.

The 1934 accusation stemmed from a letter from a local Communist official found by police which alleged that Cagney would be bringing other Hollywood stars to meetings.

These include the story that Orson Welles began work on a Batman movie in the 1940s, which was to feature James Cagney as The Riddler and Marlene Dietrich as Catwoman ; the persistent rumour that the rock singer Courtney Love is the granddaughter of Marlon Brando ; and the idea that in a famous 1970s poster of Farrah Fawcett, there is a subliminal sexual message concealed in the actress's hair.

In addition to Cagney and Robinson, Muni was also given a big push as one the studio's top gangster stars after appearing in the successful film, which got audiences to question the legal system in the United States.

A controversial scene in which Tom ( James Cagney ) angrily smashes a half grapefruit into his girlfriend's face ( Mae Clarke ).

as he leaves the White House, he performs a dance step down the stairs ( which Cagney thought up before the scene was filmed and performed with no rehearsal ).

The forces that prevented him from getting high quality roles were really the result of the combined willpower of the Warner Bros., the studio system in general, and the general public, which also had its own perception of how Garfield ( or Cagney or Bogart for that matter ) should appear on screen.

Another result of the merger was that Orion entered television production ; Orion's biggest TV hit was Cagney and Lacey, which lasted six seasons on CBS.

1931 and 1932 saw the genre produce three classics: Warner Bros .' Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, which made screen icons out of Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney, and Howard Hawks ' Scarface starring Paul Muni, which offered a dark psychological analysis of a fictionalized Al Capone.

Two and a half years later, in June 1954 his ship docked in Long Beach harbor and after a brash audition for director John Ford during which Adams did impressions of James Cagney and other celebrities while dressed in his Coast Guard uniform, he took his accumulated leave and appeared as Seaman Reber in the 1955 film version of Mister Roberts.

She received substantial roles and positive reaction from critics and moviegoers in such films as Angels with Dirty Faces ( 1938 ), opposite James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, Dodge City ( 1939 ) with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, Torrid Zone with Cagney and They Drive by Night with George Raft and Bogart ( both 1940 ), The Man Who Came to Dinner ( 1942 ) with Bette Davis, and Kings Row ( 1942 ), in which she received top billing playing opposite Ronald Reagan, Robert Cummings, and Betty Field.

Later into the series run, a fictional celebrity and acquaintance of the Warners had revealed that the Warners were actually quite popular in the thirties, until, as he had said: "... they ( the Warners ) pantsed Jimmy Cagney ," at which point, " something had to be done ," so the Warners, who made even less sense than their cartoons, were locked away, also never to be released.

Cagney, as a result, was portrayed as more glamorous and vivacious than partner Mary Beth Lacey, but could still relate to the world with attitudes that could be shared by people across the social spectrum.

While Cagney was not nominated, he had thoroughly enjoyed the production.

After the success of Yankee Doodle Dandy at the box office, Cagney again questioned if the studio would meet his salary demand and again quit to form his own film production and distribution company with his brother Bill.

Cagney & Lacey was back into production by January 1984.

The Gallant Hours, a 1960 film Montgomery directed and co-produced with its star, his friend James Cagney, was the last film or television production he was connected with in any capacity, as actor, director or producer.

It is probably best remembered as the production company of CBS ’ “ rural comedies ” of the 1960s, including The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres, as well as the comedy-drama The Trials of O ' Brien, the western Dundee and the Culhane, the adventure show Bearcats !, the police drama Cagney & Lacey, and the sitcoms Mr. Ed and The Addams Family.

Notable American films from the war years include the anti-Nazi Watch on the Rhine ( 1943 ), scripted by Dashiell Hammett ; Shadow of a Doubt ( 1943 ), Hitchcock's direction of a script by Thornton Wilder ; the George M. Cohan biopic, Yankee Doodle Dandy ( 1942 ), starring James Cagney, and the immensely popular Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart.

Media fans, have, on occasion, organized on behalf of canceled television series, with notable success in cases such as Star Trek in 1968, Cagney & Lacey in 1983, Xena: Warrior Princess, in 1995, Roswell in 2000 and 2001 ( it was canceled with finality at the end of the 2002 season ), Farscape in 2002, Firefly in 2002, and Jericho in 2007.

In 1936 he made the aviation adventure Ceiling Zero with James Cagney and Pat O ' Brien.

Bogart's disputes with Warner Bros. over roles and money were similar to those the studio had with other less-than-obedient stars, such as Bette Davis, James Cagney, Errol Flynn, and Olivia de Havilland.

" However, Warners, perhaps searching for another Yankee Doodle Dandy, assigned Cagney a musical for his next picture, 1950's The West Point Story with Doris Day, an actress he admired.

Cagney had worked with Ford before on What Price Glory ?, and they had gotten along fairly well.

Cagney worked with MGM on the Western film Tribute to a Bad Man, a role that had originally been written for Spencer Tracy.

Filming did not go well, though, with one scene requiring 50 takes, something Cagney was unaccustomed to.

Cagney was diagnosed with glaucoma and began taking eye drops, but he continued to have problems with his vision.

His appearance on stage prompted the Queen Mother to rise to her feet, the only time she did so during the whole show, and she later broke protocol to go backstage to speak with Cagney directly.

On September 28, 1922, Cagney married dancer Frances Willard " Billie " Vernon, with whom he remained for the rest of his life.

Cagney did not just live there, he turned it into a working farm by selling some of the dairy cattle and replacing them with beef cattle.

Cagney loved horses from childhood, when he would sit on the horses of local delivery riders and ride in horse-drawn streetcars with his mother.

In his autobiography, Cagney stated that as a young man he had no political views, since he was simply more concerned with where the next meal was coming from.

It and the later Cagney & Lacey overlaid the police series formula with ongoing narratives exploring the personal lives and interpersonal relationships of the regular characters.

Nevertheless, Cagney left the studio to establish an independent film company with his brother Bill.