Yankee Doodle Dandy

Yankee Doodle Dandy is a 1942 American biographical musical film about George M. Cohan, known as "The Man Who Owned Broadway". It stars James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, and Richard Whorf, and features Irene Manning, George Tobias, Rosemary DeCamp, Jeanne Cagney, and Vera Lewis. Joan Leslie's singing voice was partially dubbed by Sally Sweetland.

The film was written by Robert Buckner and Edmund Joseph, and directed by Michael Curtiz. According to the special edition DVD, significant and uncredited improvements were made to the script by the twin brothers Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein. The film was a major hit for Warner Brothers, and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning three.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) As an ostensible biopic, the film does a decent job showcasing the life of the jingoistic songwriter-performer George M. Cohan even if a lot of the events are dramatized. It supported the war effort as it paid tribute in its mostly fictional story to a popular Irish/American entertainer and the grand American gentleman of the theatre in the early 20th century.
 * 2) Amazing performances from the cast
 * 3) * James Cagney does a powerful performance as George M. Cohan expressing buoyant enthusiasm in the role. It's a vast change of pace from his usual tough-guy persona, and the show's practically a showcase for him.
 * 4) * Walter Huston, Rosemary DeCamp, real-life sister Jean Cagney and Joan Leslie round out the cast as Cohan's close family and companions, enough thought they don't stand out too much.
 * 5) With the film being produced and released during the early months of World War II and just after the Pearl Harbor attack in late 1941, it garnered the intent of bolstering morale with a patriotic message, and celebratory, exciting song and dance numbers (such as rousing theme song written years earlier for WW I - Over There. And a second song, You're a Grand Old Flag).
 * 6) As for the story itself. It's pretty much a musical rags-to-riches life story for George M. Cohan, following several generations of the Cohan family from the time of young Cohan's vaudeville training on the road, through to his later success on Broadway (with the production of 40 Broadway shows and many hundreds of songs), and ending with his retirement and a comeback in the theatre in I'd Rather Be Right. Overall it's a rather sentimental family saga.
 * 7) A number of touching and emotional moments, with one of the most noteworthy being the scene with Cohan bids his dying father goodbye. It got to the point where the director and some others burst into tears at the scene.
 * 8) Another way the film's noteworthy is that it was the first time that a living US President (FDR in this case, played by Jack Young) was portrayed in a motion picture. The president had been portrayed onscreen before, but all those other times the president was dead at the time. Franklin D. Roosevelt on the other hand, was still alive and still president at the time of the film's release.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The film contains tons of historical inaccuracies and most of the events in the film are pretty much fictional. The film's less concerned about having an accurate retelling of George Cohan's life and more on concentrating on his work. Although to be fair, George Cohan himself forbade any details his personal life and his first wife sued Warners for invasion of privacy.
 * 2) * A fictional woman called "Mary" basically represents and stands in for all Cohan's various romances.
 * 3) * The film ignores Cohan's widely disliked antiunion stance as Cagney stated "It was a sad story".
 * 4) As a biopic, there's very little that's original about the film and it's pretty by-the-numbers. Definitely a product of its time.
 * 5) While James Cagney shows off an undeniably amazing and electric performance, most of the other actors and their characters are pretty forgettable and restrained by certain limitations. Even Walter Huston, usually an amazing character actor who plays Jerry Cohan, is confined by routine material. There is a sudden chemistry in a sequence involving Fay Templeton, as a Broadway star Cohan wants to work with,

Trivia

 * The real-life George M. Cohan composed over 500 songs. He is remembered as “the man who owned Broadway” and had a defining role in transitioning vaudeville to the American musical standards we know today!
 * Yankee Doodle Dandy was a family affair. It was the first time James Cagney appeared in a film with his sister Jeanne Cagney, and associate producer William Cagney was their brother.
 * Cinematographer James Wong Howe filmed more than 130 feature films. He won two Academy Awards® from his 10 nominations and pioneered camera technologies, including deep focus, wide-angle lenses and hand-held cameras.
 * James Cagney was several years older than the actress who played his mother, Rosemary DeCamp.
 * Warner Brothers sold war bonds instead of tickets for the film’s New York City premiere and raised over $5 million. That’s nearly $75 million today.
 * The filmmakers rushed post-production so George M. Cohan, who was in ailing health, could see Yankee Doodle Dandy before he died. Cohan attended a special screening and read rave reviews, but he passed away two months before its wide release.
 * The film won three of its eight Academy Award® nominations, including a Best Actor Oscar® for James Cagney. It was his first and only Oscar® in a career that spanned 50 years.
 * James Cagney recreated the role of George M. Cohan in The Seven Little Foys. The film features a dance duet with Cagney and Bob Hope.