budget westerns and action pictures. It signed  James Cagney (qv) during one of his frequent disputes with Warner  Bros. and saw this picture as its chance to compete with the major  studios by doing a lavish musical with a major star. It poured more  than $900,000 into this film, not much by MGM or 20th Century Fox  standards but a tremendous sum for a small studio like Grand  National. Unfortunately the film was a major flop and the studio  lost just about all the money put into it. Grand National folded  just a few years later, having never recovered from the financial  beating it took on this picture.