Love Me or Leave Me

The story of torch singer Ruth Etting and her involvement with racketeer Gimp Snyder, who used his muscle to launch her career, was rewarded with marriage, and ran into trouble when she hit the big time and outgrew his adoring but bullying machinations. Cagney, hovering constantly on the verge of White Heat mania, plays well off Doris Day's girl-next-door persona, lending a genuinely explosive edge to their relationship as, finding his demands increasingly inhibiting both personally and professionally, she begins to yearn for the less complicated devotion of her piano-player (Mitchell). Not quite as tough as it thinks it is - the script contrives to skirt the notion of any pre-marital sex deal - the film nevertheless has more substance than most musical biopics. And the stream of standards sung by Day, often used with dramatic point - 'You Made Me Love You', 'Mean to Me', 'Shaking the Blues Away', 'Ten Cents a Dance' - are a treat.