Review of Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) by Joshua H — 10 Feb 2011

This much-loved and much-acclaimed musical biography salutes the life and career of American composer and performer George M. Cohan. James Cagney brilliantly essays the role of Cohan, a song-and-dance man who made his mark on the vaudeville stage at the young age of 13. Thereafter, he continued to rack up triumph after triumph -- until he became the first performer of the popular theater to win a Congressional Medal of Honor. Along the way, he penned countless memorable tunes, including "Over There," "It's a Grand Old Flag," "Give My Regards to Broadway" and the film's rousing title number. ---- RT.

RT wrote a nice, concise review of this film, so I would rather you read it rather than me do a worse job.

This film won a well deserved Oscar for Cagney in 42 (Casablana took Best Picture, by the way). This one had Cagney singing and dancing his very best. Cagney was such a multi-talented person... he sang, dance, did comedy, drama... he just did it all. Nothing but great admiration for an icon of the stage and film.

If you don't get up and be absolutely stimulated with goose bumps when he dances and signs Yankee Doodle Dandee, then you don't have blood in your veins or you just don't like Cagney.

I hesitated giving this a 100%, but it had it all for me. A black and white treasure if there ever was one, along with my favorite of the era Holiday Inn, of course.

James Cagney is perhaps the most dynamic, multi-talented, gifted, articulate and electric actors of the entire last century, all things considered. Lets face it, as great a I (Bogart) was, I didn't dance or sing, ha ha.

NOTES:

1) The film won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (James Cagney), Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Sound, Recording. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Walter Huston), Best Director, Best Film Editing for George Amy, Best Picture and Best Writing, Original Story. In 1993, Yankee Doodle Dandy was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

2) Production on the film was just a few days old when the Attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. The film's cast and crew resolved to make an uplifting, patriotic film. It was timed to open around Memorial Day in 1942, and was regarded as having achieved its goal in grand fashion.

3) In 1986, Yankee Doodle Dandy was the first computer-colorized film released by entrepreneur Ted Turner.

4) James Cagney reprised the role of George M. Cohan in the movie The Seven Little Foys (1955), but agreed only on the condition that he receive no money - he did the film as a tribute to Eddie Foy.

5) Actress Jeanne Cagney, who played the part of Cohan's sister, was James Cagney's real-life sister.[2] Cagney's brother, William Cagney, was the Associate Producer of the film.

CAST:

James Cagney as George M. Cohan.

Joan Leslie as Mary Cohan.

Eddie Foy, Jr. as Eddie Foy.

Walter Huston as Jerry Cohan.

Richard Whorf as Sam Harris.

Irene Manning as Fay Templeton.

George Tobias as Dietz.

Rosemary DeCamp as Nellie Cohan.

Jeanne Cagney as Josie Cohan.

Frances Langford as Nora Bayes.