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      Hard to Handle

      1933 1h 15m Comedy Romance List
      Reviews 44% Audience Score 50+ Ratings A press agent (James Cagney) promotes a dance marathon and meets a contestant (Mary Brian) and her mother (Ruth Donnelly). Read More Read Less

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      Hard to Handle

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      Audience Reviews

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      spencer p While it's always interesting and sometimes funny, the final "product" is one that doesn't seem to learn the lesson it deserves concerning commercialism. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member good pre-code early talkie Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member "Listen Mac, what with this little racket over, where did all this dough come from?" "A lotta yaps." "Sure. Yaps, suckers, chumps, anything ya wanna call 'em, the public. And how do you get 'em? Publicity. Listen Mac, here's the idea: we take the bankroll, open a publicity agency. Exploitation, advertising, ballyhoo, bull, hot air. The greatest force in modern-day civilization. Look what it did for us here. You want any further proof?" "Oh, I don't know, it might work out." "It always works out! You can offer a twenty-dollar gold piece for 80 cents and you won't get one taker, unless you tell 'em. And it's all in the way you tell them. For example, uh, millions of women use lipstick, don't they?" "I guess so." "You know so! But do you know that some of it contains mercury, a deadly poison? But that doesn't bother 'em, because the force of advertising removes from their mind the possibility of being poisoned. Take face powder." "What for?!" "Do you know that some of it contains antimony, also a deadly poison? But the great advertising campaigns put out by the face powder manufacturers blots out all fear from their minds. Look at the guy that added 'halitosis' to the national vocabulary, and a million dollars to his own bankroll. Look at Ivy Lee, Rockefeller's press agent. Look at the guy who coined the expression '4 out of 5 have it'--made more out of that than Shakespeare did out of Hamlet!" "Oh, it's a lotta hooey!" "Sure hooey, but the most profitable hooey in the world! I'm telling you, Mac, the public is like a cow, bellowing, bellowing to be milked. And if you're smart, you'll get yourself a bucket." "I always knew the public were dumb and they panned out even dumber than I thought." It's (as advertised) "the lowdown on the publicity racket", an advertisement for advertising. (And that's what dance marathons were like?! Wow.) Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member "IF YOU GUM UP THIS DEAL, I'LL SOFTEN YOUR SKULL!" Ruth Donnelly is priceless. One of the rare instances where another actor upstages Cagney...Donnelly does it. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Hard to Handle

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis A press agent (James Cagney) promotes a dance marathon and meets a contestant (Mary Brian) and her mother (Ruth Donnelly).
      Director
      Mervyn LeRoy
      Screenwriter
      Robert Lord, Wilson Mizner
      Production Co
      Warner Brothers/Seven Arts
      Genre
      Comedy, Romance
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jan 30, 2017
      Runtime
      1h 15m
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