This company are looking very good.Anyone got a view before I invest.

Outside/Inside: James Cagney as Ethnic In-between, 1930-1933
by Grant Tracey



Go to:

CRAWFORD

STANWYCK
In 1933, during the filming of Lady Killer (1933), Warners producer Darryl F. Zanuck sent a memo to his crew of writers in which he detailed the studio's requirements for the Cagney persona: "He has got to be tough, fresh, hard-boiled, bragging--he knows everything, everybody is wrong but him--everything is easy to him--he can do everything and yet it is a likeable trait in his personality."















James Cagney and Mae Clarke in Lady Killer


James Cagney as Tom Powers in Public Enemy.


James Cagney as Tom Powers vs. Donald Cook as his brother in Public Enemy.

During the early 1930s, Cagney was all of this and more. His uptempo acting style--the rat-a-tat-tat of his reedy voice--and his distinctly Irish-puck appearance, created a decidedly lower-East side aura. When he leaned into a room, fists clenched, he dominated the mise-en-scene like a careening car. His grin--cocky, self-assured, masculine--said I'm better than you and I know it. And his roving eyes, stabbing stubby forefinger, and flexed body were a bunch of city lights, exploding like firecrackers.

Cagney began work at Warners in a series of small roles before electrifying audiences as the indomitable Tom Powers in Public Enemy (1931). Cagney shows Powers's brash, cocky spirit, with body language that exudes energy and violent tempo. Walking down the back alleys to Putty's club, Cagney spins, spits, and pushes his "newsie" hat over his head with languor.

Cagney's sulky energy and the film's theme appealed to the down-trodden working class. The film's opening credits offer two paths for the immigrant: conformity or rebellion. The lawless Cagney wears an unbuttoned shirt and open collar that represents freedom from restraint. He smiles, gives two right jabs and raises an eyebrow while winking. Older brother Michael (Donald Cook), trapped in a tight-fitting conductor's uniform, looks straight ahead with a solemn, dour expression. Cagney's anarchy is presented as engaging. Cook's conformity binds and overwhelms his individuality.

The film is by now famous for an enduring still in which Cagney, with lips pursed, hair awry, and eyes enraged, smashes a grapefruit in Mae Clarke's face. But it was Tom's contempt for assimilation, rather than his contempt for women, that alarmed educators and reformers. "Aw that sucker. He's too busy going to school. He's learning how to be poor," Tom says of his brother, a "ding-ding" on the streetcar. In 1932-33, armed with the Payne Studies, a group of Chicago sociologists feared that immigrant youths would over-identify with certain screen stars and surrender their parents' values for the falsely "Americanized" ones on screen. In his popular account of the Payne report, Henry James Forman echoed these sentiments when he identified one second-generation Italian youth's praise for Cagney: "I eat it. You get some ideas from his acting. You learn how to pull off a job, how he bumps off a guy and a lot of t'ings."

Because of these incumbent pressures and the ascendancy of President Roosevelt and his call for collective action, Warner Brothers became a "New Deal" studio and shifted its narrative emphasis from lost-world losers to common men trying to make it in America.

Taxi (1932) was Cagney's first film to take on this new role, and an exhibitor's ad showcased Cagney as a point of ethnic identification. He grins, his left hand and thumb raised with friendly greeting. The ad's art-deco lines and shapes combine with the circle that spotlights his name to create an airy uptown romantic aura, while the copy inside the spotlight brings Cagney back to the lower-East side.

He's an outlaw: fast paced ("speed"), two-fisted ("Fightingest"), lawbreaking ("skipped a stop light"), Irish ("red-head"), and a New Yorker, promising to give immigrants the "lowdown": follow me and we'll fight to make it.


page 1 of 2


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barbara Stanwyck

Joan Crawford


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo Credits: MGM/UA Home Video.

I think Cagney has potential, a lot of operating profits there if they can get their
admin costs down a little then they may well be of value in the future.

Short term and it's the two worst things....Downtrend/Overhang.

Takes something special to break them two.

Thanks guys, I am a big fan of the old movies as well as investing in the modern day namesake of the great Jimmy Cagny--Yooooooooooooo dirty rats(but he never said it). I saw him when he had a special Award in the 80s when he said I never said that, but what I say was Judy, Judy, Judy---a take off of the great Cary Grant.

Those were the days.

Anyway its great to remenis over old movie stars.

However, to the business of the day---does anyone think Cagney, not the James kind, is now worth a punt?

I think its on the bottom with a great deal of upward potential as it looks cheap on fundamentals.

Anyone agree or disagree please guys lets have you comments.

Thanks for the above, best of luck to all, Kat.

Promising statement, big jump in operating profits, still loss making but
maybe not for long.

Another jump in turnover and it should be a reverse from losses to profits.

Watching and waiting for a bad day in the stock now to get in (hopefully)

I bought a few on the announcement, now its look very promising and quite cheap with little down side.

Keep watching Cagney!

MMMMHHHHHHH ok you dirty rats and informer has told me to expect some good news soon. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

keep watching please!

Do nothing else, just keep watching.

Year end coming up, City Whispers are rumouring a pleasant surprise.

THIS IS NO RAMP.

Should you think it is, then please kindly and simply ignore this post.

Expect good news flow very soon-

Interesting post taking from ADVFN with all due respect to them and STEVE.

it makes good reading, besides this is my favorite share for 2008



CyprusSteve - 14 Jan'08 - 09:15 - 131 of 135


This is an interesting little share. May I please offer my views for what they are worth.
The Company was first launched on the AIM on 13-02-06 at 8p, and, it has never subsequently traded to that level, and in fact has fallen to its current low of 2p, despite some significant rises and falls in between.
The latest forecast from the Company was for an operating loss of 500k for the full year, as in the RNS of 07-11-07 hardly encouraging !!
The Company usually issues a trading update before year end financial results due in late March, so, I would hope for a trading update later this month if previous patterns are followed, and maybe a series of other announcements resulting from their developments last year.
So the key question is, what cause is there for optimism ?
The CEO, Paul Simons, increased his own personal shareholding to the value of 21.7% of the Company on 08-12-06. This in itself demonstrates massive faith in the Company future , not to say financial commitment, to delivering profits and shareholder value.
The reasons this share interests me is mainly due to the quality of their management - Paul Simons has an excellent track record in the industry, and is highly regarded he has built around him a management team of high quality. There is little doubt that during the last year they have heavily invested in bringing new management on board not only is this an expensive exercise in itself, but, also, it takes time for that management team to develop new and profitable business for Cagney effectively, the management team are an investment in the future.
Cagney has also been developing new brands and concepts again these take time and money before the financial results begin to come through the Trading Statement RNS of 07-11-07 offers an excellent summary of the various plans and projects undertaken this year, which are scheduled to deliver profit in 2008 it is well worth a detailed read.
The problem is, as always, with any media/ PR company, is that they are totally reliant upon concepts, and not on product production. Profits are potentially excellent, as there are no manufacturing costs, but, management costs are high, especially in the early years until this translates into new business.
What also impresses me greatly is the quality of their clients Companies such as Budweiser, Alliance Trust , Sacla, First Choice Plc and Silver Spoon do not sign with up any Company that they did not have considerable faith in, and for them to decide to go with such a small Company as Cagney makes huge statement about the Companys quality, I think.
At the end of the day, the decision investors have to make , is whether Cagney can deliver profits on their strategy, or, whether it is all blue skies and promises.
It is my view that they will deliver in 2008 , and, as always, we invest in the future. At the current price of 2p I think they offer a speculative, but potentially very high benefit, investment opportunity.
Regards
Steve

Someone up there likes me!

Just keep watching lots of news soon.

Keep watching things are moving, resultS in two months time which will prove most interesting, Now is the time to buy---remember you heard it here only on this bb.

Its all beginning to happen now, this really is a first class little company.

I have been telling you all to keep watching and here she blows.

Did any of your get on board, its going up now right up to the issue price and beyond.

New Business

RNS Number:8107O
Cagney PLC
27 February 2008





Cagney Plc ("Cagney" or the "Group")

New Business and Client Developments

27 February 2008

Cagney, an integrated group of marketing services firms, is pleased to announce
several recent new business wins, and the outcome of some important client
account reviews.

CST, the Group's advertising agency, has been re-appointed following a statutory
review of its National Savings & Investments account. In addition, the Group's
two largest clients have confirmed their intention to renew two-year
assignments.

Several new business wins across the Group have provided impetus to the start of
the year. Tree London, the Group's research agency, has won assignments for
Victim Support and Natural England; Exedra, the Group's brand consultancy, has
won a branding and positioning assignment for The Belfast Telegraph; CST has
been awarded three further government assignments, from the Department of
Children, Schools and Families, the Cabinet Office and UK Transplant; and The
Media Foundry, the Group's public relations agency, has won three new clients in
February.

Paul Simons, Chief Executive of Cagney, said: "In what is perceived to be a
difficult market we are encouraged by these developments from both existing and
new clients"

The Group's results for the year to 31 December 2007 will be announced on 31
March 2008.

ENDS