This was the last of seven movies James Cagney and Joan Blondell made together and it didn't disappoint. Cagney is Flicker Hayes who is released from prison and his former baleful cronies want him dead. The first picture above is Joan Blondell from this film, explaining why Hayes (Cagney) falls in love with her.
Rose (Blondell) is set to marry her fiancée Nick, then she meets Hayes, and becomes his cover for the men wanting to kill Hayes. The killers are looking for a single man, not a couple. Blondell and Cagney settle in a coastal town near San Francisco, where her future husband Nick lives. Nick is a fisherman so he's gone a lot, and Hayes doesn't object!
The first time I watched "He Was Her Man," I was pulling for Blondell and Cagney to end up together. Flicker Hayes falls fast for Rose, and it's clear she likes him as well, but she also wants to marry Nick. The story is perhaps as old as time itself, two men who want the same woman, and she truly likes them both.
Which man winds up in the throngs of love, complete with all the lascivious and delicious desires granted by the babe Blondell? The storyline is very solid, even today, and "He Was Her Man" is a true Pre-Code Hollywood classic Three stars easy for this after hours vintage black and white movie.
Mark Izzy Schurr
