Charles Lederer's short, NYC-centered musical comedy (derived from an unproduced stage play by Maxwell Anderson and Rouben Mamoulian), shot in the bright colors of a Universal Pictures mainstream release, was not a box-office success but coasts nicely for nostalgia-minded home viewing on the megawatt charisma of star James Cagney, playing off his established Public Enemy image.
Cagney plays Jake MacIllaney, an unapologetic hoodlum who has used racketeering techniques to gain traction in the waterfront labor unions. His credo is that he's a street crook, sure, but he doesn't use his guile just to enrich himself, and he genuinely tries to get the best deal for the working man—and if it wasn't MacIllaney in power, then the really, really bad guys would take over.
After rigging an election that makes him president of a longshoremen's local, Jake must engage novice lawyer Dan Cabot (Roger Smith) to fight an extortion charge. Jake is smitten by the attorney's young, virtuous wife Linda (Shirley Jones), a part-time TV model, but she is repulsed by his notoriety in the police blotters. Jake bribes his own red-headed moll (Cara Williams) to take a job as Dan's secretary, seduce the guy and break up the Cabot marriage, thus giving an open path to Linda...maybe.
The upbeat, cheerful presentation is a bit at odds with the milieu heavy with betrayal, disloyalty and wrongdoing, though all ends happily. In a commentary track (more like alternating audio lectures), tandem movie historians Daniel Kremer and Lee Gambin not only investigate Never Steal Anything Small as a musical "outlier" but also run down the handful of tuner tributes to the American labor movement, on stage as well as screen.
They also reveal that twice as many songs were originally insinuated into the verbose script here, but ultimately only five fairly mediocre tunes made the cut. Highlight for many viewers will probably be "I'm Sorry, I Want a Ferrari," with Cagney and Cara Williams cavorting in an automobile show room against an eye-watering, candy-shop display of sparkling late-1950s vintage vehicles. A strong optional purchase. Aud: P.