erik lundegaard

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Friday November 26, 2021

'Give Us a Kiss': from Cagney to Lennon

This scene in “Taxi!” (1931), after James Cagney gets into a fight with George Raft at a dance contest, and his girlfriend Loretta Young berates him on the subway ride home, made me think of two things: Loretta Young looks dynamite but her tone is a bit hifalutin for the daughter of a cabbie (screenwriter John Bright was actually appalled by the casting); and Cagney's line at the end, “Give us a kiss, will ya?” seemed awfully familiar to me. 

Something about it: train ride, being berated, the cheeky comeback. Then it hit me: John Lennon says the exact same thing (sans the “will ya”) to the harumphing commuter who berates the Beatles in “A Hard Day's Night.” 

Anyone know of other moments in TV or movies where you get that dyanmic and then that line? Because surely it didn't stop there.

Posted at 01:26 PM on Friday November 26, 2021 in category James Cagney