Runtime: 126 minutes
Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Starring: James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, Richard Whorf, Irene Manning
From: Warner Bros.
The film that was a 4D experience at times.
Likely every year since Turner Classic Movies began in '93, they have played Yankee Doodle Dandy each 4th of July. It was finally time to give it a show in '21, even though musicals are not my favorite genre, nor do I really know much about the subject of the motion picture, George M. Cohan. After the fact I discovered they took liberties with aspects of the story, so thank goodness for the bastion of truth, Wikipedia... as I literally have a list of the James Cagney movies I've seen it was also about time to see the one performances which won him an Academy Award. Indeed what he did in front of the camera here was great, whether it was acting, dancing or singing.
George M. Cohan was a man who performed on stage with his family as a kid (where he apparently was a real cocky SOB) and as an adult wrote many plays & plenty of songs for Broadway in the first half of the 20th century. The movie covers the various ups and downs in his life; except for a few moments this was light breezy entertainment which naturally had quality songs & dance numbers. It was a cinematic story-at least the way it was presented here-and was bookeded by Cohan accepting a Congressional Gold Medal (which was misidentified on screen) from President FDR... who was only seen from the back as if he was an evil villain.
As some of his songs were patriotic (and he was either born on the 3rd or 4th of July) this is why this biography is titled as such and a few times it reaches “America, F*** Yeah” levels of flag-waving Americana. As I mentioned at the beginning, this was when it became a 4D spectacle... you see, whenever those musical numbers occurred, probably intoxicated neighbors in the area were shooting off halfassed fireworks, which made for quite the aural experience.
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