Indianapolis-champion Joe Greer (James Cagney) has gasoline in his blood, exhaust gas in his lungs and engines on his mind. The roar drowns out his girlfriend's (Ann Dvorak) feeble attempts to get her share of his attention. She's alarmed that he risks his life for a blood-thirsty crowd ("I want you to quit racing"), afraid of his family ("They think I'm not good enough for you") and concerned about the flask in his pocket. He pays no attention to her self-sacrificing devotion. Bedded is not wedded...<br /><br />He revels in the admiration of his kid brother (Eric Linden) who plans to follow in his footsteps. The sight of Linden's home-assembled car appalls him but when the brood-hen preaches: "Don't ruin your health" the chick usually replies: "I'll show you whether I can drive or not".<br /><br />The story seems stereotyped but autobiographies of racing drivers resemble each other. Win or lose, die or survive in the wheelchair, and there's a hussy in every pit...Hawks, a former semi-professional racer shot much of the film on location and achieves authenticity. When Cagney and Linden start in a home-race they whirl up an asphyxiating cloud of dust. Cagney coaches his brother and shelters him from immoral females. No virginal crown princess could be better guarded...<br /><br />The buoyant Joan Blondell - in Cagney's eyes a "racetrack-broad" is incensed: "Why do you stay with him? He doesn't love you. He doesn't marry you!", but Dvorak makes the best of her position as "kept" woman. She endures Cagney's pinpricks, even spends the night in a separate hotel room. Blondell catches her weeping: "He thinks I'm not good enough. He thinks I have a bad influence on his brother". One day Cagney bursts into Dvorak's room. Blondell is there, legs on the table, smoking a cigarette. And Linden drinks beer ("Tastes good. Fifty million drivers can't err"). An orgy. Cagney boils with rage, swears at Blondell and breaks with Dvorak. She slaps him, weeps, begs...He gives her a contemptuous smile...("I was good enough for him. Not for his brother").<br /><br />Blondell decides to give Cagney a lesson - by seducing his brother! ("how old does he think the boy is? six?") but the seductress falls in love ("I'm mad about the boy") which is fine since the boy's also in love with her. Cagney calls Blondell on the carpet: ("The kid has no money. He's nothing for you") and bites on granite. Even blackmail fails - Linden is weary of being treated like a child ("I'm not sorry. He was wrong. And I'm going to show him tonight"). Cagney starts drunk, so drunk that he forgets his talisman (baby shoes) and causes the death of a friend in a spectacular scene (They drive through a sea of flames).<br /><br />The last part of the film - Cagney's decline, remorse and resurrection - is so nuanced and touching that I can safely recommend this film. Cagney is "on the toboggan" (say the headlines) while Linden makes a cake-baking wifey, er, a respectable woman of Blondell. Dvorak touches her for the fare ("I tried to forget him but I can't"). Cagney rummages garbage cans for food and eats rotten bananas. Old friends patronize him but he does not find a job on the racetracks, not even as mechanic. Dvorak, now a waitress, offers him a free meal - soup, steak, coffee - and a shoulder to cry on ...<br /><br />...But the performances make everything good. Dvorak has much style and Blondell is quicksilver. Joe Greer is a complex character, certainly not a good mixer, but a great actor like Cagney accepts the challenge, even asks for it...