by Julian Spivey

Hollywood is no stranger to great bio-pics. Michael Apted’s Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), Taylor Hackford’s Ray (2004) and James Mangold’s Walk the Line (2005) are all good examples.

However, you have to go back sixty-six years for what is likely Hollywood’s greatest bio-pic. Michael Curtiz’s Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is the story of George M. Cohan. Cohan was a Broadway star, an American patriot and one of the greatest songwriters in our country’s history. His most notable works are the patriotic anthems “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “Over There.”

James Cagney, known for his many roles as heavies in gangster flicks like William A. Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931), Curtiz’s Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and Raoul Walsh’s White Heat (1948), stars in arguably his finest performance as Cohan. Cagney won the best actor Academy Award for the role.

Yankee Doodle Dandy is a delightful film that couldn’t have possibly been filmed better by Curtiz who was in his greatest year as a director also helming Casablanca in 1942.

The highlight of Yankee Doodle Dandy is the long, Broadway fashioned performance of the song “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” In this scene Cagney thrills as he dances and sings his way across the stage and film. Cagney’s acting skills really show through in this film more so than possibly any other of his films. He showed the country and Hollywood alike that he had the “triple threat” skills of acting, dancing and singing that made Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly so popular with American film audiences.

The other highlights of the film are when Cohan first performs “Over There” for soldiers fighting in World War I and the beautiful scene were he tap dances down a staircase in the White House after personally meeting the President of the United States.

Yankee Doodle Dandy also features wonderful supporting acting by Joan Leslie, who portrays Cohan’s wife Mary, and veteran character actor Walter Huston, playing Cohan’s father Jerry.

Yankee Doodle Dandy spans Cohan’s life from a brash young Vaudevillian actor in his family’s show to his elderly retirement years.

It is definitely one of the great feel good films in cinema history and one that is cherished and should be viewed every year during the Fourth of July. It’s a great American film about a great American.

Even if you have never heard of George M. Cohan this is definitely a movie that you should be acquainted with.