108. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Stars:  James Cagney (George M. Cohan), Joan Leslie (Mary Cohan), Walter Huston (Jerry Cohan), Richard Whorf (Sam Harris)

Director:  Michael Curtiz

Awards / Honors

• 3 Oscar Wins - Best Actor (James Cagney), Best Music (Score), Best Sound Mixing
• 5 Additional Oscar Nominations - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Walter Huston), Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Film Editing
• #100 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list (1998)
• #71 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs list - "Yankee Doodle Boy" (2004)
• #97 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes list - "My mother thanks you.  My father thanks you.  My sister thanks you.  And I thank you." (2005)
• #18 on AFI's 100 Years of Musicals list (2006)
• #88 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers list (2006)
• #98 on AFI's 100 Years.. 100 Movies list (2007)
• In 1993, Yankee Doodle Dandy was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Genre:  Musical

Running Time:  2 Hours, 6 Minutes

Format:  DVD (not yet available on Blu-ray)

Odyssey Rating:  3 Stars (John - 3 Stars, Beth - 3 Stars)

John's Take

Neither Beth nor I had seen this movie before, so we were kind of interested in seeing whether or not this movie lived up to all the hype.  The idea that Yankee Doodle Dandy, the story of legendary Broadway producer / writer / performer George M. Cohan, is a true classic is near universal in its acceptance.  As it says above, this movie is on 6 AFI movie lists (including being on both of the 100 Years… 100 Movies lists), won three Oscars and was nominated for 5 more.  It was one of James Cagney’s favorite movies, and as I understand it, this movie became the first colorized film because it was Ted Turner’s favorite.  After watching it, I can tell you that I am not necessarily in agreement with James and Ted.

That is not to say I don’t like the movie at all.  It wasn’t horrible.  I didn’t hate it.  I sort of liked it a little actually.  If I wasn’t doing anything, and someone said, “Hey, let’s watch Yankee Doodle Dandy.”, I wouldn’t say no.  However, I certainly didn’t love the film either.

The term “a perfect storm” has become something of a cliché.  Everything from the economical meltdown to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico seems to be characterized as a “perfect storm” lately.  This movie, however, begs the question:  What is the term for something that should have become a “perfect storm”, but somehow didn’t quite become one?  An Imperfect Downpour?  A Flawed Tempest?  A Marred Cyclone?  Personally, I think I like “A Reproachable Squall”.  That’s what I am going with – Reproachable Squall. Yankee Doodle Dandy should have been a perfect storm of a movie, but it kind of just turned into a reproachable squall.  How so?  Well, let’s take a look… 

The first element of the potential storm front would be the film’s star James Cagney.  He was just one of those people that the camera loves.  To me, he is undoubtedly a film legend (the American Film Institute agrees, listing him #8 on their list of male screen legends, for example).  I can watch Cagney films such as The Public Enemy, White Heat, and Angles with Dirty Faces all day long.  In other words, I love me some James Cagney.  Throw in the fact that Cagney was himself an old stage / vaudeville performer with the same half-sing / half-talk style that Cohan had, and his performance should just knock my socks off. 

The second element in this potential brew-up would be the film’s director Michael Curtiz.  Not exactly a household name like Steven Spielberg, I grant you, but Curtiz was probably one of the prolific film directors in Hollywood, directing 100 or so films.  Heard of a little movie called Casablanca?  He directed that.  How about Errol Flynn classics like The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk?  He directed those too.  All you Rocky Horror fans out there might have heard of a little horror movie called Doctor X (… will build a creature…).  He directed that as well.  He directed the James Cagney classic Angles with Dirty Faces, White Christmas with Bing Crosby and King Creole with Elvis Presley.  His directorial debut was the 1912 Hungarian movie, The Last Bohemian and his final film was The Comancheros starring John Wayne in 1961.  Curtiz’s career spanned silent, black & white dramas to Technicolor musicals and touched on everything in-between.  In other words, the man knew how to direct a movie.  Definitely sounds like someone capable of putting together a classic to me.

The third element would the subject of the movie, George M. Cohan himself. Known as “The Man Who Owns Broadway”, Cohan had an incredibly interesting life, the kind of up-by-your-boot-straps, rags-to-riches, story that everyone loves.  He did everything there was to do in theatre.  He was an actor, a singer, a dancer, a writer, a producer, a director, and a choreographer.  He created songs like “The Yankee Doodle Boy", "Give My Regards to Broadway", "Harrigan", "Mary's a Grand Old Name", "You're a Grand Old Flag" and the World War I classic "Over There".  He even owned his own theatres.

So we have three “high pressure systems” (great star, great director, great subject) all converging on an area of “low pressure” – the start of World War II.  Production on this film started in late November / early December, 1941.  In other words, just a few days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.  In response, the cast and crew resolve to make the most uplifting and patriotic film they possibly could.

So, you have the talent, you the subject, and you have the leadership all coming together in a time of fear and uncertainty.  The result of such unique confluence of motion picture conditions must have produced one of the most perfect cinematic storms of all time, and most film experts would agree that it did...

In my case, however, it simply seemed to rain just a little.

I know that I am flying in the face of commonly held belief, but I don’t think this is really a great movie.  Cagney’s performance was just OK, not great to me.  Despite Curtiz having a flair making films that have a quick pace, the movie seems to just plod along.  The film is two hours and 6 minutes long, but it felt much longer than that.  In addition, as with most bio-pics, the film takes a few liberties with the facts of Cohan’s life.  Throw in a short, but completely unnecessary blackface scene and I just ended up being radically underwhelmed.  Ultimately, the film has a hard time getting past my “for-its-time” caveat test.  Thus, I am left with no choice but to declare Yankee Doodle Dandy a reproachable squall of a movie.  Not completely without merit, but certainly not living up to what it could have been and most people seem to think it is.  It gets a very weak ranking of 3 Stars from me.

John