In City for Conquest (1940), James Cagney played Danny Kenny, a New York truck driver who becomes a boxer to support his brother’s musical career. Directed by Anatole Litvak, the film follows Danny through the boxing world, where success costs him his sight and his dreams.
Cagney’s Danny is tough and tender at once — a man who sacrifices himself for his family and pays a high price for it. The boxing scenes are physical and convincing, but the film’s emotional centre is Danny’s relationship with his brother and with the woman he loves.
City for Conquest is a less famous Cagney film than his gangster classics, but it shows his dramatic range and his ability to make a working-class hero feel real and sympathetic.