| Yankee Doodle Dandy (film) | |
| Director: | Michael Curtiz |
| Music: | Score and songs George M. Cohan Score adaptation: Ray Heindorf Heinz Roemheld |
| Cinematography: | James Wong Howe |
| Editing: | George Amy |
| Distributor: | Warner Bros. |
| Runtime: | 126 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $1.5 million[1] |
| Gross: | $6.5 million |
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.
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", and in 1998, the film was included on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movies list, a compilation of the 100 greatest films in American cinema.
In the early days of World War II, George M. Cohan comes out of retirement to star as President Roosevelt in the Rodgers and Hart musical I'd Rather Be Right. On the show's first night, he is summoned to the White House to meet the President, who presents him with a Congressional Gold Medal (although the Cohan character on screen incorrectly identifies the award as the Congressional Medal of Honor). Cohan is overcome and chats with Roosevelt, recalling his early days on the stage.
The film flashes back to Cohan's supposed July 4 birth while his father is performing on the vaudeville stage.
Cohan and his sister join the family act as soon as they learn to dance, and soon The Four Cohans are performing successfully. But George gets cocky as he grows up and is blacklisted by theatrical producers for being troublesome. He leaves the act and hawks his songs unsuccessfully to producers.
In partnership with Sam Harris, another struggling writer, Cohan finally interests a producer and they are on the road to success. He marries Mary, a young singer/dancer. As his star ascends, he persuades his now-struggling parents to join his act, eventually vesting some of his valuable theatrical properties in their name. Cohan retires but returns to the stage several times, culminating in the role of the U.S. President.
The film returns to the White House, where George has just received the Congressional Gold Medal. As Cohan leaves, he tap-dances down a set of stairs (which Cagney thought up before the scene was filmed and undertook without rehearsal). Outside, Cohan joins a military parade where the soldiers are singing "Over There"; at first, he isn't singing. Not knowing Cohan is the song's composer, one of the soldiers asks if he knows the words. Cohan responds with a smile before joining in.
Cast notes:
Cagney, like Cohan, was an Irish-American who had been a song-and-dance man early in his career. His unique and seemingly odd presentation style, of half-singing and half-reciting the songs, reflected the style that Cohan himself used. His natural dance style and physique were also a good match for Cohan. Newspapers at the time reported that Cagney intended to consciously imitate Cohan's song-and-dance style, but to play the normal part of the acting in his own style. Although director Curtiz was known as a taskmaster, he also gave his actors some latitude. Cagney and other players came up with a number of "bits of business", as Cagney called them, meaning improvised lines or action in theater parlance.[4]
A number of the biographical particulars of the movie are Hollywood-ized fiction, such as omitting the fact that Cohan divorced and remarried. Cohan's two wives, Ethel and Agnes, were combined into a single character named Mary (in the film, Cohan wrote Mary's A Grand Old Name about her). It also took some liberties with the chronology of Cohan's life and the order of his parents' deaths.
In one scene, after Cohan suffers a flop with an atypical non-musical drama, Popularity, he writes a telegram apologizing to the public. He then leaves the Western Union office to find newspaper sellers announcing the torpedoing of the Lusitania. In reality, the failed play was staged in 1906 and the Lusitanias sinking occurred in 1915.[5]
Nevertheless, care was taken to make the sets, costumes, and dance steps match the original stage presentations. Cagney sprained an ankle twice while mastering Cohan's stiff-legged dance style. This effort was aided significantly by Jack Boyle, a former associate of Cohan's who knew the original productions well. Boyle was also in some of the dancing groups featured in the movie.
Cagney, as Cohan, is shown performing as a singing and dancing version of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although it was well known, Roosevelt's use of a wheelchair after a paralytic illness was not emphasized at the time. In the film, Roosevelt never leaves his chair when meeting Cohan.
Cohan himself served as a consultant during the production of the film, as well as being credited with the incidental score. Due to his failing health, his actual involvement in the film was limited. But when completed, the film was privately screened for Cohan and he commented on Cagney's performance: "My God, what an act to follow!"[6]
Because of Cohan's health, Warner Brothers moved the scheduled gala premiere from July 4 to May 29. The original date was chosen because of the film's patriotic theme and because in the movie, Cohan is said to have been born on the Fourth of July (as he wrote in the lyrics of "Yankee Doodle Dandy"). However, Cohan was actually born July 3. Cohan lived for several months after the film's release.
The movie poster for this film was the first ever produced by noted poster designer Bill Gold.
Cagney had initially been opposed to a biopic of Cohan's life, having disliked Cohan since the Actors' Equity Strike in 1919 in which he sided with the producers. In 1940, Cagney and 15 other Hollywood figures were named in the grand jury testimony of John R. Leech, self-described "chief functionary" of the Los Angeles Communist Party who had been subpoenaed by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The New York Times printed a front-page allegation that Cagney was a communist. Cagney refuted the accusation and Martin Dies, Jr. made a statement to the press clearing Cagney. William Cagney, one of the film's producers, reportedly told his brother "We're going to have to make the goddamndest patriotic picture that's ever been made. I think it's the Cohan story".[7]
The film nearly doubled the earnings of Captains of the Clouds (1942), Cagney's previous effort, bringing in more than $6 million in rentals to Warner Brothers.[8] According to Warner Brothers records, it earned $4,631,000 domestically and $1,892,000 foreign.[1] This made it the biggest box-office success in the company's history up to that time. The star earned his contractual $150,000 salary and nearly half a million dollars in profit sharing.[9] According to Variety, the film earned $4.8 million in theatrical rentals through its North American release.[10]
Contemporary reviews were highly positive. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times said film patrons would do well to see it, for "you will find as warm and delightful a musical picture as has hit the screen in years, a corking good entertainment and as affectionate, if not as accurate, a film biography as has ever—yes, ever—been made ... there is so much in this picture and so many persons that deserve their meed of praise that every one connected with it can stick a feather in his hat and take our word—it's dandy!"[11] Variety called the film "as entertaining as any top filmusical ever made ... James Cagney does a Cohan of which the original George M. might well be proud."[12] Harrison's Reports wrote: "Excellent! Audiences should find this musical comedy, which is based on the life of George M. Cohan, one of the most sparkling and delightful musical pictures that have ever been brought to the screen. Much of its entertainment value is due to the exceptionally fine performance of James Cagney, whose impersonation of Mr. Cohan is uncanny—his gestures, his talk, and his dancing, are done to perfection."[13] John Mosher of The New Yorker called the film "a complete delight, an extravaganza of tunes the country has liked for decades," although he considered it "dubious" as a biography of Cohan.[14]
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 90% of 29 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "James Cagney deploys his musical gifts to galvanizing effect in Yankee Doodle Dandy, a celebration of patriotic fervor as much as it is a biopic of George M. Cohan."[15] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 89 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[16]
The film won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (James Cagney), Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture (Ray Heindorf and Heinz Roemheld), and Best Sound Recording (Nathan Levinson). It was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Walter Huston), Best Director, Best Film Editing for George Amy, Best Picture and Best Writing, Original Story.[17] 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".
American Film Institute recognition