Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) on Netflix
George M. Cohan leaves retirement to play President Roosevelt in I'd Rather Be Right, the Rodgers and Hart musical. On opening night a summons to the White House arrives.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.6/1018,280 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes91%
Trailer
Plot summary
During World War II, George M. Cohan leaves retirement to play President Roosevelt in I'd Rather Be Right, the Rodgers and Hart musical. On opening night a summons to the White House brings him before the President, who awards him the Congressional Gold Medal. Cohan recalls his early days on the stage, when his father performed in vaudeville. He and his sister Josie joined the family act once they learned to dance, and the four Cohans performed successfully. George grew cocky, and producers blacklisted him as troublesome.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- George M. Cohan, who advised on the film, wanted Fred Astaire to star as himself and pitched the idea to several studios, but Astaire repeatedly turned it down because Cohan's eccentric, stiff-legged dancing was far from his own more fluid style.
- James Cagney sprained an ankle twice while mastering George M. Cohan's stiff-legged dance style. A former Cohan associate, Jack Boyle, also helped the production match the original stage sets, costumes and dance steps.
- Cohan himself advised on the production and was credited with its incidental score, though his failing health limited his involvement; when the finished film was screened privately for him, he said of Cagney's performance, "My God, what an act to follow!"
- After James Cagney was accused of communism in 1940 grand jury testimony and on the front page of The New York Times, and then cleared by Martin Dies Jr., his brother and producer William Cagney reportedly said they would have to make "the goddamndest patriotic picture that's ever been made."
- The film merges Cohan's two real wives, Ethel and Agnes, into a single character named Mary, and leaves out the fact that he divorced and remarried.
- The movie poster for Yankee Doodle Dandy was the first ever produced by the noted poster designer Bill Gold.
