Now there's a man with talent

James Cagney playing the main character in Yankee Doodle Dandy. It was a big change from his previous gangster roles. He sings, he dances, he acts. And he'd better, since the man he was playing did all of that and more. YDD is the story of George M. Cohan, who started performing in vaudeville acts with his family at an early age. He wrote and starred in plays and musicals on Broadway, and wrote the songs "Over There" and "You're A Grand Old Flag". He could accurately be described as a flag-waving patriot. His most famous works were about how great America is. He became the first entertainer to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. "Over There" was the theme song--if that's the right term--of the U.S. troops during World War I. The chorus:

Over There, Over There
Send the word, send the word,
Over There
That the Yanks are coming, The Yanks are coming,
The drums rum tumming everywhere
So prepare, Say a Prayer
Send the word,Send the word to beware
We'll be over, we're coming over.
And we won't be back till it's over over there!

Actors you've heard of: James Cagney. Actors you know but may not recognize: probably none, unless you're a fan of Casablanca. S.Z. Sakall plays investor Schwab in Yankee Doodle Dandy. He was also Carl, the manager of Rick's place in Casablanca. Both dated in 1942, so that was a good year for Mr. Sakall. And only if you look into the imdb archives will you realize that Walter Huston plays Cagney's father and the old guy in Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I totally whiffed on him.

1942 also gave us Pride of the Yankees, starring Gary Cooper.

Good movie, fun to watch. My favorite scenes: 1) the one-on-one that Cohan has with Eddie Foy, a rival showman. Foy: "I've got a chorus of seventy!" Cohan: "Oh, I don't think they're that old." 2) The "Over There" performance, which is pretty moving. 3) There's a postwar "montage" that's cleverly done. It's a shot of Broadway theaters and lighted billboards, each showing another Cohan show. Liked it a lot. It's an excellent job of doing something snazzy without snazzy special effects technology to do it with. 4) Cohan and his wife are wandering the globe after he retires. They get to England, and he tells his wife, "It's a good thing I wasn't born in England. Their flag's got so much history, I'd wear myself out waving it around."

Two hours and six minutes. It's more likely that you'll see it in bits and pieces on TV before you ever sit down and watch it all at once. But it's good.