James Cagney usually remembered for gangster roles had been a "song and dance" man in his early days in show business. He can be seen in the Busby Berkley film Footlight Parade performing with lead footed Ruby Keeler. Yankee Doodle Dandy is the high point in the dancing part of his career. This film is very loosely based story on the legendary Broadway performer George M. Cohan with Cohan's best songs integrated into the plot.
Made during World War II, Yankee Doodle Dandy is an extremely patriotic film with the emphasis on extremely. As much as it spotlights Cagney's musical numbers there is an awful lot of cornball flag waving throughout the film which you kind of have to roll with. Still Cagney dominates the film with his great performance and that kind of weird stiff dance style he had.
The film was directed by ace studio director Michael Curtiz. At his peak Curtiz could make a film in about every film genre be it swashbucklers, horror films, gangster films and in this case musicals. Curtiz was aided by a superb production crew. James Wong was a legendary cinematographer especially when working in black and white film. The film was edited by George Amy. Editors never get enough credit for pulling a film together. But above all Michael Curtiz really moved this film along. Each scene is very well paced. It's nice to see a filmmaker who actually knows how to make a film.
The cast is from the familiar Warner Brother's stock company. Walter Huston is Cagney's father, Joan Leslie (age 17) plays Cagney's wife, Rosemary DeCamp, George Tobias, S. Z. Sakall (aka Cuddles Sakall) and film director Richard Worfe as Cohen's business partner all show up. This bunch was in a lot of Warner Brothers films in the 1930's and 40'a. Yankee Doodle Dandy is certainly a high point in professional Hollywood film making.
The film was written by Robert Busckner and Edmund Joseph, the running time is 126 minutes.
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