1942: Yankee Doodle Dandy (61st)

What else happened this year? The world had finally come together... in war. The biggest events of 1942's war, battle in North Africa, Japan invades the Philippines, Singapore is captured, the battle of midway, and a bunch of stuff in Europe. Great times huh?

What is the plot - in one sentence? This is a biopic of the song and dance man George M. Cohan, a celebrated Broadway performer and writer, and he tells his life story as he goes to the White house to talk to a silhouette of Franklin Roosevelt.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? He's tells his tale, is given the Medal Of Honour, and comes out to a parade of soldiers who are just about to leave, who are singing one of his songs.

What is the meaning of the title? The song Yankee Doodle Dandy comes from one of Cohan's plays - seemingly about a cheated jockey. That said, he took the tune and reworked it into his play. He also refers to himself as a Yankee Doodle Dandy to the president.

That's James Cagney in the hat, jumping up. He's over 40 at the time this was filmed, which makes it even more impressive I suppose. His character tries to sign up to fight in WWI, but is too old to be a recruit, in a move that definitely wasn't designed to make able-bodied men sign up to be shot at by Axis powers.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? No one gets slapped around except for George when he was a particularly annoying kid - why he found time to tell that part of the story to the President is unknown. His father spanks him and says 'that's one part of your body without talent,' which would be - at best - weird today. 

There's also a bit where he and his family are Gollywog dancers, and this don't fly today except in the South of America. Oh, and they have that weird thing where the guy playing Cohan is much older than the woman who is playing his mother, but that's just showbiz.

It is also telling that he has no kids, and a loving wife, which is still pretty uncommon in movies today, especially biopics, which need a bit of drug addiction and sauce to juice them up.

Any thoughts? This didn't help that I hadn't heard of Goerge M. Cohan before this, and assumed he was a sort of fictional amalgam of various successful Broadway people. It may as well be, as it has a lot of character beats that you would expect from such a thing: he's loyal to his family, wife and business partner, has various successes and failures, but seems competent and genuinely talented. He's from a reasonably humble-but-hardworking showbusiness background, and gets fame through his talent and from his ability to write material that every day Americans seem to love. There isn't any real drama, other than a few minor setbacks, which he overcomes, this is a very positive movie, he even parts ways with his writing partner successfully..

Surprisingly, he's played by James Cagney. He dances with skill and grace, which I had no idea about. My only other experiences with him are him being a gangster or tough guy. It seems that his dancing and singing style were modelled on the real George Cohan, which I guess acts as a bit of an excuse. His dancing style is a little strange (he walk / dances like a gorilla often), his singing style is strange (the song 'Yankee Doodle Dandee' is delivered in a flat, long-version of talking which is really strange). I am not sure that how accurate it is, or even if Cagney could sing properly for real (I believe in his dance skills, he shows them off often), but he hits all of his dramatic beats and has a genuine charisma.He's a good lead for this.

Would you recommend this? Kind of. It has perhaps been passed by other biopics since it came out, at this juncture, the lack of drama certainly feels a little generic, but they put a lot of effort into the dancing and singing, and it feels epic in scope. Sure it's a patriotic piece, about an American hero, and it is probably encouraging people to join the army, but if you couldn't do that in 1942, when could you? I liked it.

Final thoughts? Cohan meets his future wife, aged 17, and he's dressed as an old man for part of a play (something I think will be frowned upon in future, I've let it be known). He looks pretty cool in an old man beard, and freaks her out with some fast dancing, but it's James Cagney in his 40s, dressed as an old gentleman, pretending to be 17. Let's just say he doesn't look 17. 

The two of them go away together and make auditions for some of his material, which causes something of a rift in his family (which is resolved, of course). The problem I had was that I couldn't tell what was supposed to be good or bad singing: he sings a song about a guy named Flannigan, and it didn't seem that bad, but it's rejected by a couple of financiers (who, wouldn't you know it, come to rue that particular day). However, I think it's meant to be a crappy song, but to my ear, that song and Yankee Doodle Dandy were the same except the latter had extras and stage setting, and choreography.

There you go, you gorgeous people. This is the 61st, all the others can be found here. Don't work too hard.