Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

A musical portrait of composer/singer/dancer George M. Cohan (James Cagney). From his early days as a child-star in his family's vaudeville show up to the time of his comeback at which he received a congressional medal of honor from the president for his special contributions to the US, this is the life-story of George M. Cohan, who produced, directed, wrote and starred in his own musical shows for which he composed his famous songs as hilarity ensues.

Trivia: George M. Cohan chose James Cagney to play him. This was the very first black and white movie to be colorized using a controversial computer-applied process. Despite widespread opposition to the practice by many film aficionados, stars and directors, the movie won over a sizeable section of the public on its re-release. Many facts were changed or ignored to add to the feel of the movie. For example, the real George M. Cohan was married twice, and although his second wife's middle name was Mary, she went by her first name, Agnes. The movie deviated so far from the truth that, following the premiere, Cohan commented, "It was a good movie. Who was it about?"

This was a nice biopic. How could you go wrong with a movie about George M. Cohan because it would have to include his music. Now I know the film was released in 1942 near the start of the war and the George M. Cohan was a very patriotic person and wrote some great patriotic music like "Over There" and "Grand Old Flag" but this movie seemed to really try to pound in the fact the Cohan did a lot of "flag waving" as they call it. Not that that is a bad thing. I also noticed the Cagney had a funny little dance move where his legs were stiff and he leaned forward. Just seemed strange there for some reason. The DVD I had also had a special feature that was called a night at the movies which included a 1942 news reel, a short from the period and a Bugs Bunny Cartoon before showing the movie, which was nice.