Has anyone ever seen this movie/play reprised in any way? Broadway or
film? Did anyone ever try? Why won't somebody try?
Why hasn't there been an attempt to remake this movie/play? Maybe the
answer has to do with a mental disorder called liberalism. Patriotic
songs and feeling good to be an American is simply something not allowed
today, especially in the entertainment industry.....
Calling on all liberals to now defend the indefensible by saying the
film is dated, corny, or too much flag waving actually makes it
unpatriotic. I have heard the countless idiotic arguments before..
Bottom line is the film was a great musical and well worth remaking...
But why it was never even attempted to be remade doesn't remain a
mystery to me.... ....
Sez who? I think it stinks.
It's maudlin and jingoistic and a product of Hollywood's wretched excess.
I think Cagney is a terrible dancer - looks like he has a stick up his butt.
That wasn't the way Cagney usually danced he was just imitation
Cohan's unique style and he was spot on.
Dave in Toronto
------------------------------------------------------------------
I've never seen film of Cohan dancing, nor did I ever see him in person.
He does a short dance number in this clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1iWNdS1Kfg&NR=1
...and Cagney does some non-Cohan style dancing in this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu05-YFmBbg&NR=1
Dave in Toronto
As if you existed.
Unreasoning hatred is an ugly thing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1iWNdS1Kfg&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu05-YFmBbg&NR=1
============================================================
Thanks for the links.
Apparently audiences were easier to please 80 or 90 years ago...
Yes; for example:
"Sez who? I think it stinks.
> Apparently audiences were easier to please 80 or 90 years ago...
>
>
Nice make up though.
"calvin" <cri...@windstream.net> wrote in message
news:888667c1-6777-4d90...@j11g2000vbi.googlegroups.com...
> OK Calvin, you've convinced me. You're a complete asshole and should be in
> my
> killfile.
> Bye bye... PLONK
Oh, the irony.
--
"Politicians are worse than thieves. At least when thieves take your money,
they don't expect you to thank them for it."
Walter Williams
Actually, Cagney did dance that way. Many years ago he was on one of
the late night shows and the host (it might have been Paar or Carson)
asked him about his stiff-legged, on-your-toes style. Cagney's
response was that, when he was starting in show business, there was a
much bigger call for girl dancers than boys. To get work, Cagney
could usually strike a deal with a director to be in the back of the
chorus line dressed as a woman. This necessitated the wearing of high
heels, of course, so all the steps were practiced with his feet in
that angled position.
One of the neighborhood tough guys, Moishe, indirectly stimulated Jim
[James Cagney] to fight--and dance. Moishe had a rhythm to his punches.
He never flailed, as so many of the street scrappers did. He held up his
fists in defensive arc and rushed in only when he saw an opening. He was
adept at seeing the instant when his opponents dropped their guard, and
when this occurred, he darted his fist in quickly to the target, then
out again just as quickly, standing on tiptoe most of the time. As a
seven-year-old Jim began to sense the benefits of standing on his toes
either to reach up or to reach in. Darting became second nature to him,
and it was to become a key characteristic of his acting. The dance steps
of his maturity grow directly from these habits.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/mccabe-cagney.html
Though it may be as questionable as your tale, that one just sounds better.
--
Bill Anderson
I am the Mighty Favog
If you have a bad thing to say about Yankee Doodle Dandy, it is suffice
to say you believe a classic film is maybe Star Wars......Try watching
like 1000 films from the 30s and 40s before you come to such
conclusions. Watching these movies requires an attention span and some
imagination, two basic essentials the human race has lost through the
evolutionary process in the last 25 years....Oh but wait, we have the
magical computer and cell phone. Two things the sleaze ball lawyers love
because the tumors to come over the next 20 years will be a windfall
bonanza to such parasites.......
....
God how I love a good nonsensical rant by a complete idiot...
Cagney had a sense of humor. He might have told that story to Paar or
Carson but he was just having whoever it was on. Actors are notorious
for telling lies about their past, usually deliberately. Just look at
the movies where Cagney danced, pre Yankee Doodle Dandy. He danced
nothing like Cohan.
Dave in Toronto
Yes, quite possibly!
Several years ago TCM showed a short of Cohan dancing, and I was
immediately struck by how closely it resembled what Cagney did in the
movie.
Among the reasons Yankee Doodle Dandy will not be remade:
1. Hollywood doesn't do musicals any more (except Disney).
2. Hollywood doesn't do biopics of historical figures any more. No
Cohan, no Curie, no Wilson, no Edison. Just Bob Dylan and Mohammed Ali.
3. This movie doesn't need to be remade (OK, that hasn't stopped anybody
before...)
Any remake would try and be more accurate, and I doubt fans of the
original would care for that :)
--
Chris Mack *quote under construction*
'Invid Fan'
But isn't this movie a product of the "mental disorder called
liberalism"? It was made by the most liberal Hollywood studio (Warner
Brothers) and starred one of the most liberal Hollywood actors
(Cagney). The film glorifies FDR ("Greatest man in the U.S."), has
Cohan sing a song with anachronistic pro-war lyrics (by noted liberals
Rodgers and Hart), completely omits mention of Cohan's anti-union
activities, et cetera. Any isolationist, anti-war conservatives that
persisted after Pearl Harbor probably had harsh criticisms of the
film's pro-war propaganda. Perhaps the movie is not going to be remade
in part because some of today's conservatives have unthinkingly co-
opted it as their own and Hollywood doesn't want to needlessly provoke
them with an updated version. Better to leave the jingoism to the
toothless libs at PBS:
Funny thing about today's liberals, jingoism seems to be a required
vocabulary word by every one of them. It is not hard for a liberal to
confuse patriotism with jingoism....
Cagney did Yankee Doodle Dandy to affirm his patriotism because he was
unjustly being accused of left leaning politics at the time. But as
Cagney grew as a human being he became quite friendly with staunch
conservatives Robert Montgomery and Ronald Reagan. He was very
conservative in his later years........
I think that would be better expressed as Cagney resembling Cohan
which he did superbly, that's what good acting is all about.
Dave in Toronto.
> I was just wondering why this film wasn't ever tried on Broadway as a
> play to date?. Why just the countless Bye Bye Birdies?......
>
They did do a Broadway version, a biographical review called George M!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_M!
Why copy a movie when you can do a new version that might work better
on stage?
>2. Hollywood doesn't do biopics of historical figures any more. No
>Cohan, no Curie, no Wilson, no Edison. Just Bob Dylan and Mohammed Ali.
I'm not at all convinced that they had a higher percentage of movie
biopics in the old days than these days.
Actors who recently (this decade) have played real people include
(from the top of my head):
Sean Penn
Meryl Streep
George Clooney
Jaimie Foxx
Forest Whitaker
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Ed Harris
Will Smith (you got him)
Jon Voight (you got him)
Leonardo DiCaprio
Cate Blanchett
Johnny Depp
Geoffrey Rush
Joaquin Phoenix
The guy who played Edward R. Murrow
Denzel Washington
Russell Crowe
The guy in The Pianist
The gal who played Edith Piaf
Julia Roberts
Don Cheadle
Eddie Murphy
I suppose if I thought another 10 minutes, I would add another dozen
names.
--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."
- James Madison
I thought for 10 minutes once.
Then my head started to hurt, so I stopped and refused to think again!
Exactly. He was under fire from the right at the time and made the
movie in part as a response.
You think?
Some interesting information about the song and its origin here :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Doodle
Dave in Toronto
Hollywood doesn't do musicals anymore? In the last few years we had
Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia, and Sweeny Todd. No matter what you
might happen to think about their quality, they still qualify as
musicals.
Hollywood doesn't do biopics anymore? What were Capote, A Beautiful
Mind, and Che then?
Brad
No, the funny thing is that liberals use the word and can't recognize
that it applies to their own statist policies.
CHICAGO, MOULIN ROUGE, RENT, SWEENEY TODD, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, ENCHANTED,
DREAMGIRLS, FROM JUSTIN TO KELLY, HAIRSPRAY, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, THE
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, WALK THE LINE, WALK HARD, RAY, etc., etc.
> 2. Hollywood doesn't do biopics of historical figures any more. No
> Cohan, no Curie, no Wilson, no Edison. Just Bob Dylan and Mohammed Ali.
A BEAUTIFUL MIND, A MIGHTY HEART, ALEXANDER, AMELIA, ANTWONE FISHER, AUTO
FOCUS, BERNARD AND DORIS, THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE, BEYOND THE SEA, CAPOTE,
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, CHE, CINDERELLA MAN, CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND,
DAHMER, ERIN BROCKOVICH, FINDING NEVERLAND, FRIDA, GOLDA'S BALCONY,
INFAMOUS, KINSEY, MARIE ANTOINETTE, MILK, NED KELLY, POLLOCK, PUBLIC
ENEMIES, STEAL THIS MOVIE, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD
ROBERT FORD, THE AVIATOR, THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, THE PIANIST, TRUMBO,
VERONICA GUERIN, W., WALK THE LINE, WALKING TALL, etc., etc.
> 3. This movie doesn't need to be remade (OK, that hasn't stopped anybody
> before...)
I'm with you on this one.
Jim Beaver