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Yankee Doodle Dandy
James Cagney's charismatic Oscar-winning performance is the centerpiece of an elaborate musical biopic of patriotic composer and showman George M Cohan called Yankee Doodle Dandy that rises above its predictable screenplay to provide solid entertainment thanks to the extraordinary performance from Cagney.
This 1942 musical feast traces Cohan's life and career from his humble beginnings to vaudeville to his amazing success on Broadway with several musicals that were rooted in the man's strong political conscience and how his said political conscience allowed him to contribute to the war effort even though he was deemed too old to serve.
The screenplay plays like many other musical biopics of the era, but the underlying theme of Cohan's political conscience and his considerable ego are always at the forefront. Biopics of the 40's and 50's weren't big on the facts, often sacrificing or altering facts for the sake of entertainment and where entertainment is concerned, this film delivers in spades.
Director Michael Curtiz, who would also direct Joan Crawford to an Oscar in Mildred Pierce, does a wonderful job of creating elaborate musical sequences based on Cohan's work, particularly a show called "Little Johnny Jones, which featured "Give My Regards to Broadway" and the title tune and this is where Cagney really shines. His rag doll-styled tap dancing was unlike anything we were seeing Astaire and Kelly doing, not to mention his "talk-singing" of songs, a technique of selling a song onscreen that would decades later be perfected by Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady.
Other musical highlights include "Mary", "Harrigan", "The Belle of the Barber's Ball", "Oh You Wonderful Girl" and the patriotic finale "Over There".
In addition to Cagney's Oscar for Best Actor, the film also won Oscars for musical scoring and sound. The lavish costumes and settings are Oscar-worthy too, but this movie is the Jimmy Cagney show. He appears in practically every frame of the movie and never makes you regret it.
James Cagney's charismatic Oscar-winning performance is the centerpiece of an elaborate musical biopic of patriotic composer and showman George M Cohan called Yankee Doodle Dandy that rises above its predictable screenplay to provide solid entertainment thanks to the extraordinary performance from Cagney.
This 1942 musical feast traces Cohan's life and career from his humble beginnings to vaudeville to his amazing success on Broadway with several musicals that were rooted in the man's strong political conscience and how his said political conscience allowed him to contribute to the war effort even though he was deemed too old to serve.
The screenplay plays like many other musical biopics of the era, but the underlying theme of Cohan's political conscience and his considerable ego are always at the forefront. Biopics of the 40's and 50's weren't big on the facts, often sacrificing or altering facts for the sake of entertainment and where entertainment is concerned, this film delivers in spades.
Director Michael Curtiz, who would also direct Joan Crawford to an Oscar in Mildred Pierce, does a wonderful job of creating elaborate musical sequences based on Cohan's work, particularly a show called "Little Johnny Jones, which featured "Give My Regards to Broadway" and the title tune and this is where Cagney really shines. His rag doll-styled tap dancing was unlike anything we were seeing Astaire and Kelly doing, not to mention his "talk-singing" of songs, a technique of selling a song onscreen that would decades later be perfected by Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady.
Other musical highlights include "Mary", "Harrigan", "The Belle of the Barber's Ball", "Oh You Wonderful Girl" and the patriotic finale "Over There".
In addition to Cagney's Oscar for Best Actor, the film also won Oscars for musical scoring and sound. The lavish costumes and settings are Oscar-worthy too, but this movie is the Jimmy Cagney show. He appears in practically every frame of the movie and never makes you regret it.