tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569750317755310322.post6261055714792074276..comments2023-11-19T04:43:33.827+11:00Comments on Matt vs. the Academy: 1942 - Yankee Doodle DandyMatt Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10317583098531787395noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569750317755310322.post-82764102869750696062012-12-17T00:16:16.385+11:002012-12-17T00:16:16.385+11:00The Best Picture nominees for the first half of th...The Best Picture nominees for the first half of the 1940s will certainly be rife with flag-waving patriotism that occasionally borders on propaganda. This isn’t unnecessarily a bad thing. While it does date the films, it also serves as a record of what was going on in the world and the overwhelming effect of a more horrendous follow-up the The Great War. To those of us who didn’t live through it, (becoming fewer by the year), films like Mrs. Miniver and Yankee Doodle Dandy stir up emotions that may never be felt again in our modern society. <br /><br />Yankee Doodle Dandy’s biography of George M. Cohan uses his time period of WWI for the most part. As a biography it is pretty much a by the numbers Hollywoodization of his life. What sets Yankee Doodle Dandy apart is the great charismatic performance of James Cagney. Cagney was my father’s favorite actor. I think it was because they were both tough, streetwise bantamweight Irishmen. I grew up watching just about all of his gangster movies that showed regularly on local television. Truth be told, I still feel that as deserved as his Oscar was for his change of pace work, his best acting came with Angels with Dirty Faces and White Heat. His song and dance man talent was there, however, idiosyncratic as it was. I don’t think it was ever duplicated with the possible exception of Robert Preston in The Music Man. I can actually see the Cagney of 1942 as Harold Hill, telling us about “Trouble” right here in River City.<br /><br />Two pieces of trivia. Cagney’s Oscar was the first given for a musical performance, and the film itself has the dubious distinction of being the first to be subjected to Ted Turner’s colorization experiment. <br /><br />I also wish to offer my congratulations on your second successful theatrical production. As an admirer of Lantana, I would have loved to have seen Speaking in Tongues. <br />Mike Kellyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14953461679716236054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569750317755310322.post-44125774221110696012012-12-14T08:03:18.834+11:002012-12-14T08:03:18.834+11:00James Cagney has been my favorite actor, of all ti...James Cagney has been my favorite actor, of all time, since age 16 (I'm now 52). I've seen about 45 of his 65 films (GOT to the me act togetha re the other 20 ...) He is incandescent. - Check out his acceptance speech (You can Google it) for the 2nd-ever Amer. Film Inst. Lifetime Achievement Award (the 1st one, in 1970, I think, went to Dir. John Ford). JC has SUCH range ... such a real, spiritual, accomplished soul ... There are not enough good things one can say about him. Thanks for sending him out there, Matt! (and wonderful work, all of you, in "Speaking in Tongues." GREAT re "L&O SUV"<br />(oops - SVU - Jeez ...)<br /><br />xo<br />Virginia Hammer & Midlantic Theatre Co.<br />Theatre in Renaissance Newark, NJ + Schools & PPrisons<br />A NJ 501(c)3 nonprofit corp.<br />Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17068622924205384350noreply@blogger.com