''Johnny Come Lately'' is a 1943

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film directed by

William K. Howard William K. Howard (June 16, 1899 – February 21, 1954) was an American film director, writer, and producer. Considered one of Hollywood's leading directors, he directed over 50 films from 1921 to 1946, including '' The Thundering Herd'' (1925), ...

starring

James Cagney James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor, dancer and film director. On stage and in film, Cagney was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He ...

Grace George Grace George (December 25, 1879 – May 19, 1961) was a prominent American stage actress, who had a long career on Broadway stage and also appeared in two films. Biography Grace George was born on December 25, 1879. She married producer Willia ...

Marjorie Main Mary Tomlinson (February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975), professionally known as Marjorie Main, was an American character actress and singer of the Classical Hollywood period, best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player in the 1940s and ...

and

Hattie McDaniel Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1893October 26, 1952) was an American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedian. For her role as Mammy in ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African ...

. It was the first film produced by Cagney's brother,

William Cagney William Jerome Cagney (March 26, 1905 – January 3, 1988) was an American film producer and actor, remembered for roles in the Monogram Pictures films ''Lost in the Stratosphere'' and ''Flirting with Danger'', both filmed in 1934. Career He ...

. The title is derived from the

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language, ...

"Johnny Come Lately", which refers to a newcomer who seeks to change an established system. The film centers on a drifter who comes to a new town and is faced with the question of choosing integrity or financial gain.

Plot

In 1906, Tom Richards, a drifter, arrives in the small town of Plattsville. He sits reading a book in the town square when newspaper proprietor Vinnie McLeod speaks to him and offers him help. She goes to meet wealthy mayor Dougherty, a corrupt man who also owns a rival newspaper. Mrs. McLeod re-encounters Richards in the town courtroom where he is on trial for

vagrancy Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...

. She offers him a job as a journalist to allow him to escape imprisonment. He starts to shake the place up, and asks to close the paper (the Shield and Banner) for 3 days to redesign and relaunch it, specifically launching an attack on Dougherty. Meanwhile Dougherty's son is in love with Mrs. McLeod's niece. Dougherty offers Richards a job paying three times more but he declines due to his morals. Dougherty goes to extreme measures and sends two hired guns to shoot Mrs. McLeod. They hit her in the hand. Richards (who pre-empted the attack and has a gun) chases them off, shooting one. Mrs. McLeod's niece starts to fall in love with Richards but decides it is young Dougherty she loves. An eccentric rich woman, nicknamed "Gashouse Mary" (clearly modelled on

Mae West Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...

) gives funds usually channeled through Dougherty to the orphanage to Richards instead. When she taunts Dougherty she ends up in prison on a bail of $1,500. Dougherty starts to bend when the entire town parades by holding an effigy of him on a

gibbet A gibbet is any instrument of public execution (including guillotine, decapitation, executioner's block, Impalement, impalement stake, gallows, hanging gallows, or related Scaffold (execution site), scaffold). Gibbeting is the use of a gallows- ...

. Richards and Dougherty Jr. start brawling in the street and Richards is arrested and taken off in a horse-drawn black maria. The townsfolk storm the jail and release him. In the end Dougherty senior meets with Mrs. McLeod and Richards and agrees to leave town for the sake of his son and her niece. All agree. He also gives back Mrs. McLeod the mortgage on her property. Richards too decides to move on.

Cast

Preservation

''Johnny Come Lately'' was preserved by the

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

, in conjunction with the

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the archiv ...

, in 2013.

References

* * * *the National Board of Review magazine, Volumes 18-20, page 24

External links

* * * * * * 1943 films American black-and-white films United Artists films Films directed by William K. Howard Films based on American novels Films based on works by Louis Bromfield Films set in 1906 1940s historical drama films American historical drama films 1943 drama films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films {{1940s-drama-film-stub