Yankee Doodle Dandy - A Cagney Masterclass

For anyone who wonders why James Cagney stands in the very top echelon of Hollywood movie stars, take a look at 'Yankee Doodle Dandy', made in 1942.

It would be terribly easy from a postmodern, politically correct, and sophisticatead perspective to regard the movie as jingoistic wartime propaganda. Indeed, this flag-waving musical extravaganza biopic, detailing the life of patriotic |Irish American song-and-dance man George M. Cohan (the first performer to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor), gushes with sentimental, simplistic musical numbers invariably characterized by Cohan's trademark stiff-kneed, effervescent, brash dancing style and championing through their lyrics the most stolid American institutions: "Grand Old Flag,", "Give My Regards to Broadway", "Over There," and the title song, to name a few. The film is a flashback - told by a modest Cohan to FDR - that ends with a self-conscious advertisement for intervention - "I wouldn't worry about this country if I were you. We've got this thing licked. Where else in the world could a plain guy like me come in and talk things over with the head man?"

But such a cynical reading would fail grossly to miss something surprising and touching and grand that runs through 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' like a clear river, and that is James Cagney's magnificent sincerity in the title role. This is evident in his way of embarrassedly smiling to punctuate his thoughts, in his soft and civilised speaking voice, in the astonishing virtuosity of his dancing which is persuasive and original in style, unrelentingly athletic while also being childish, playful, and beautifully meaningless: and in something we rarely see onscreen anymore since alienated distance has overtaken Hollywood performance, and that is Cagney's complete and loving belief in everything he does. Michael Curtiz's direction never overplays him, James Wong Howe's lush black-and-white cinematography never fails to show every nuance of his posture and expression in articulate light. And when his hoofer father (Walter Huston) is falling away into death, with Georgie at his bedside, Cagney gives in to a rush of honest feeling that carries him into tears. So mucn, in fact, do we care for this man we forget we are watching a performance. Cagney has become Cohan. Even more, he has become the optimistic spirit of the screen. A beautiful masterpiece of James Cagney's acting brilliance.

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