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One of my favorite James Cagney pre-Codes, in which he plays a gangster who becomes a journalist. A Depression fantasia built around the infamous real-life Daily News photo of convicted murderer Ruth Snyder in Sing Sing's electric chair. allthatsinteresting.com/ruth-snyder

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Next On TCM

@NextOnTCM

Nov 7, 2019

PICTURE SNATCHER (1933) James Cagney, Ralph Bellamy, Patricia Ellis. Dir: Lloyd Bacon 4:00 PM ET An ex-con brings his crooked ways to a job as a news photographer. B/W, 77 mins, CC, #crime #TCM

8:12 PM · Nov 7, 2019

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Ruth Snyder conspired with her lover, a corset salesman named Judd Gray, to kill her husband. Before they did, they took out a $48,000 life insurance policy on Mr. Snyder with — all together now—a double indemnity clause.

Farran Nehme

@selfstyledsiren

Nov 7, 2019

They were astonishingly bad at murder; it took them seven tries before they finally killed Snyder in March of 1927, by garrotting him and stuffing his nose full of chloroformed rags. They told the police it was a burglary. You'll be shocked to hear the cops didn't buy that.

Farran Nehme

@selfstyledsiren

Nov 7, 2019

Once arrested, the erstwhile lovers turned on one another faster than you can say "I Want to Live!" but it did them no good; both were convicted, and both got the chair on the same day in January 1928 (note the quick turnaround in those days).

Farran Nehme

@selfstyledsiren

Nov 7, 2019

I can't bring myself to post the Ruth Snyder photo, taken literally as she was dying, but it comes right up on Google if your morbid curiosity gets the better of you. This is the ankle camera used by Tom Howard, who snatched the picture for the Daily News.

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For our finale, here is the opening of Damon Runyon's celebrated article on Snyder & Gray, in which he christened their crime "The Dumbbell Murder." He wrote this on deadline, and every last bit of it is this good.

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I remember watching it as a boy and being shocked at that Deathhouse scene. Cagney played the character as hard as flint.

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One of my favorite Cagneys as well! Probably due to being Pre-code, it's got an interesting range of reactions to the execution, from the journalists, to the prison officials, to Cagney, eventually. Man, they made such bad-ass movies in the 30's.

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I saw it on a triple (!!!) bill at the blessed Film Forum with Hard to Handle (also terrific) and, if memory serves, Public Enemy.

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You've reminded me of Lee Tracy terrorizing Allen Jenkins in Blessed Event, by describing (in great detail) what happens during an execution by electric chair....

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Ooh, thanks! I've never heard of that one. I'll check it out. How do you rate it,

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