Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

A Lion Is in the Streets Blu-ray Movie Review

Turns out it CAN happen here.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III May 4, 2023

Nearly a decade after James Cagney reportedly paid $250,000 for the rights to Adria Langley's novel "A Lion is in the Streets", this big-screen adaptation arrived in theaters to retell the kinda-sorta story of Louisiana politician Huey Long. The only problem is that, four years earlier, Robert Rossen's film All the King's Men told a very similar tale -- though it was itself based on an entirely different novel -- and racked up three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. So to say A Lion is in the Streets was figuratively "late to the party" would be a gross understatement, but this long delay feels especially hard to overcome because, regardless of release date, it's just not a particularly great film.

It's nowhere near a disaster, of course. A Lion is in the Streets' best moments are inarguably due to James Cagney's typically magnetic screen presence as Huey Long stand-in Hank Martin (regardless of that dodgy Louisiana accent, which sometimes comes and goes mid-sentence), as well as the fire and fervor drummed up during his short rise to political power... which, for this film version, is cut off long before a gubernatorial campaign. Nor can you pin any blame on its supporting players, from likable Barbara Hale (Perry Mason) to Cagney's regular co-star and friend Frank McHugh (their 11th and final collaboration) and the irreplaceable Lon Chaney, Jr. (The Wolf Man). This film's main roadblocks are momentum and tone, which to the latter's credit will likely keep audiences guessing but goes so far over-the-top that it's all but impossible to take seriously as a whole. Perhaps that's just a byproduct of any kind of biopic that focuses on a politician who some viewed as a populist champion of the poor and others, a demagogue.

But the forward momentum of A Lion is in the Streets only really gets going in small spurts, both from the patchwork way this book adaptation has been stitched together and, of course, a handful of scenes that are unintentionally funny. Perhaps the most infamous arrives shortly after the introduction of a young woman named Flamingo (Anne Francis), who has had feelings for Huey since childhood; when she finds out he's married to lovely Verity (Hale), she tries to kill Huey's wife with an alligator. Elsewhere, a third-act trial involving a man shot by the associate of crooked-ass Robert L. Castleberry IV (Larry Keating) takes place as the victim, acting as a witness, bleeds on the witness stand. It's moments like these that make A Lion is in the Streets morbidly watchable but, well, more than a little ridiculous.

An uncredited quote that ends A Lion is in the Streets -- "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time" -- has been attributed to Abraham Lincoln and (incorrectly) P.T. Barnum. That dichotomy basically describes this film's spirit, so take that for what it's worth.

Either way, A Lion is in the Streets gets plenty of support from Warner Archive, who has lavished excellent restorations on films as diverse as Out of the Past and Corvette Summer. Case in point: its stunning Technicolor cinematography by prolific DP Harry Stradling -- whose work can be seen in the likes of My Fair Lady, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and A Streetcar Named Desire -- shines like new here, bringing much-needed punch and clarity to a lukewarm film whose excellent technical merits and base-level entertainment value beat its screenplay by a fairly wide margin.

A Lion Is in the Streets Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sourced from a recent 4K scan of its separate Technicolor negatives, Warner Archive's dazzling new 1080p transfer of A Lion is in the Streets is yet another five-star effort that almost sells the disc by itself. As seen in these screenshots, the film's wonderfully robust color really gets a chance to shine here, flanked by excellent fine detail and crisp textures that virtually leap off the screen in close-ups and wide shots alike. Tying it all together is the boutique label's rock-solid disc encoding, which keeps the natural film grain from devolving into a clumpy, noisy, macro-blocked mess, ensuring that even the most mundane locations -- including the modest one-room schoolhouse that opens the film -- look fantastic. Seeing as how the film's last home video release was WAC's own DVD from 2009, it's safe to say that this new Blu-ray easily beats it in every possible department and likely exceeds most original theatrical showings as well.

A Lion Is in the Streets Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio likewise improves upon its lossy DVD counterpart, though more from its new 4K-sourced restoration than the bump in bit rate. Virtually no source damage remains aside from trace levels of hiss, leaving room for crisp dialogue and good mixing of background effects. Franz Waxman's score maintains a properly over-the-top tone at key moments and likewise sounds great -- perhaps a bit harsh on the high end, but that's absolutely understandable under the circumstances. Overall, it's a solid and possibly underrated effort that's deserving of high marks.

Optional English (SDH) are included during the main feature only, not the extras.

A Lion Is in the Streets Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover art and no inserts. The bonus features are ported over from previous home video releases dating all the way back to Warner Archives' own 2009 DVD.

• Merrie Melodies Short: "Duck! Rabbit, Duck! (6:51) - This absolutely classic 1953 cartoon, the third and final Chuck Jones short involving Bugs, Daffy, Elmer Fudd, and hunting gags, is also available on Blu-ray as part of Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2. It looks and sounds great, and I enjoyed it more than the main feature. Anyone else chomping at the bit for Looney Tunes Collector's Choice?

• Theatrical Trailer (2:58) - This one's not really an official trailer per se, just three minutes of unrestored footage from A Lion is in the Streets' opening scene prefaced by a title card.

A Lion Is in the Streets Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Raoul Walsh's A Lion is in the Streets, much like the lead performance of James Cagney, is a fatally overconfident film whose baffling tonal shifts and patchwork screenplay all but neutralize any real sense of forward momentum. Yet it's still largely entertaining, whether for the right or wrong reasons, and if nothing else serves as a good example of the star's enduring charisma. Warner Archive's Blu-ray aims to tip the scales with another one of their outstanding A/V restorations, but this is essentially a movie-only disc and is thus recommended to established fans only.