Picture Snatcher

Cagney's in typically ebullient shape for this zippy little melodrama as an ex-con who turns Weegee-style 'picture snatcher', grabbing shots of camera-shy underworld figures and selling them to the newspapers. He uses his skills to get in with the police lieutenant father of latest flame Patricia Ellis, but his copybook is soon severely blotted when he smuggles a camera in up his trouser leg to snap a notorious murderer in the electric chair. Cagney's energy keeps it going, though there's also an early bow for Ralph Bellamy as a feisty newspaper editor.