The strange case of Cagney's Machine Gunners
If I said "James Cagney" and "Cinematic violence," most moviegoers would think "gangster movies," or, possibly, "grapefruit." Personally, what comes to mind first and foremost is "ducking live machine-gun fire right there on the set!"
I had no idea this was possible before digging up a book on special effects from the early 80's that mentioned Cagney had started working in gangster movies before squibs were widespread. Apparently, cutting-edge special effects at the time involved using sharpshooters carefully firing close to the actors at nearby set pieces, since squibs were either rare, expensive, or nonexistent.
Cagney's autobiography (Cagney by Cagney) confirms this, claiming that Warner Brothers retained a Marine Corps machine gunner (and WWI veteran) for just such effects. Just who this gunner was is something of a mystery. Cagney by Cagney simply references "a man named Bailey." while Imdb claims a fellow named George Daly was the gunner in question.
The most spoken-of shooting is from The Public Enemy, in a scene where Cagney's character ducks around a building to avoid gunfire. From a combination of very sketchy sources and conjecture, the effect worked something like this:
The Gunner was put on a raised platform some 15 or 20 feet from the "building," which was a false structure. There he set up his position (for the sake of argument, we'll say a Thompson submachine gun and some sort of modified bench rest). Cagney enters frame, ducks around the building (I hope to the gods in some sort of fortified position) and the gunner fires off however many bursts are needed that take.
As a machine gunner myself, it sounds completely possible. In a set-in position, with a Thompson, at those ranges, in trained hands, the term surgically accurate would apply. It's also something I'd never, EVER do on a set, and would probably have some choice educational vocabulary terms for anyone who suggested it.
At the time, apparently such things were commonplace.
But no less terrifying. While Cagney had been shot at in other movies over the years (including Taxi!), by the time they filmed Angels with Dirty Faces he'd gotten rather tired of such treatment.
One shot in the film required Cagney to hang outside a window while shooting below. Returning fire was supposed to break the window glass around his head. Cagney was understandably annoyed at this, trying to get director Michael Curtiz to just superimpose the shot of him shooting with a shot of the glass breaking (which would have been relatively simple, even with the FX technology of the time.)
In the end, a shot was taken without Cagney, with the gunner shooting the windows out. One of the rounds ricocheted off the steel window frame, passing into the room and through the wall. Cagney had escaped being shot by sheer force of argument.
I'd love to know more about how this happened, but there's really a dearth of information out there. How many gunners plied their trade for Hollywood before squibs made sharpshooters (thankfully!) obsolete? There's supposedly George Daly, was he the only one? If so, Imdb claims that Daly was killed in an explosion on the set of The Road Back in 1937. That means there was another gunner duringAngels with Dirty faces, which was filmed a year after Daly's death. Is this the "Bailey," Cagney talked about in his autobiography? Who knows?
I've been looking into online veteran finders to see if I can dig up anything more on Daly, but it's been slow going. There may be more info tucked into someone's memoirs somewhere. If I find anything, I'll put it up here.
In the meantime, whenever someone complains about my safety procedures, I can always go, "Be happy you aren't REALLY being shot at."
I had no idea this was possible before digging up a book on special effects from the early 80's that mentioned Cagney had started working in gangster movies before squibs were widespread. Apparently, cutting-edge special effects at the time involved using sharpshooters carefully firing close to the actors at nearby set pieces, since squibs were either rare, expensive, or nonexistent.
Cagney's autobiography (Cagney by Cagney) confirms this, claiming that Warner Brothers retained a Marine Corps machine gunner (and WWI veteran) for just such effects. Just who this gunner was is something of a mystery. Cagney by Cagney simply references "a man named Bailey." while Imdb claims a fellow named George Daly was the gunner in question.
The most spoken-of shooting is from The Public Enemy, in a scene where Cagney's character ducks around a building to avoid gunfire. From a combination of very sketchy sources and conjecture, the effect worked something like this:
The Gunner was put on a raised platform some 15 or 20 feet from the "building," which was a false structure. There he set up his position (for the sake of argument, we'll say a Thompson submachine gun and some sort of modified bench rest). Cagney enters frame, ducks around the building (I hope to the gods in some sort of fortified position) and the gunner fires off however many bursts are needed that take.
As a machine gunner myself, it sounds completely possible. In a set-in position, with a Thompson, at those ranges, in trained hands, the term surgically accurate would apply. It's also something I'd never, EVER do on a set, and would probably have some choice educational vocabulary terms for anyone who suggested it.
At the time, apparently such things were commonplace.
But no less terrifying. While Cagney had been shot at in other movies over the years (including Taxi!), by the time they filmed Angels with Dirty Faces he'd gotten rather tired of such treatment.
One shot in the film required Cagney to hang outside a window while shooting below. Returning fire was supposed to break the window glass around his head. Cagney was understandably annoyed at this, trying to get director Michael Curtiz to just superimpose the shot of him shooting with a shot of the glass breaking (which would have been relatively simple, even with the FX technology of the time.)
In the end, a shot was taken without Cagney, with the gunner shooting the windows out. One of the rounds ricocheted off the steel window frame, passing into the room and through the wall. Cagney had escaped being shot by sheer force of argument.
I'd love to know more about how this happened, but there's really a dearth of information out there. How many gunners plied their trade for Hollywood before squibs made sharpshooters (thankfully!) obsolete? There's supposedly George Daly, was he the only one? If so, Imdb claims that Daly was killed in an explosion on the set of The Road Back in 1937. That means there was another gunner duringAngels with Dirty faces, which was filmed a year after Daly's death. Is this the "Bailey," Cagney talked about in his autobiography? Who knows?
I've been looking into online veteran finders to see if I can dig up anything more on Daly, but it's been slow going. There may be more info tucked into someone's memoirs somewhere. If I find anything, I'll put it up here.
In the meantime, whenever someone complains about my safety procedures, I can always go, "Be happy you aren't REALLY being shot at."