The extraordinary screen dance-off of James Cagney and Bob Hope that I’ve posted above is from ‘The Seven Little Foys’, a 1955 biopic of vaudeville star Eddie Foy as portrayed by Hope. Cagney is once again reprising his role as George M. Cohan--see yesterday’s clip from Yankee Doodle Dandy for one of his most energized and amusing examples of his very body-specific technique. Aside from the brilliant technical accomplishments of both men in this scene there’s the fact that Cagney was 56 and Hope 51 at the time of the filming. Cagney’s graceful leap up to the table is only the beginning of his many demonstrations of unimpeded technical prowess. But Hope, in some ways, is the real surprise. The 1950s was, to my eyes, the beginning of the mechanicalization of all things Hope–his delivery, his timing, his listlessness in scenes with other actors all became increasingly evident. (It’s sort of when Bob Hope becomes ‘Bob Hope’ if you dig what I’m saying). Most of his performances from the mid-fifties onward feel very much from the cue-card school of acting and there’s nary a laugh to be had after ‘Road To Bali’ in 1952–and then just barely. And yet, in stark contrast, we have the above number which is clearly so carefully choreographed, so well worked out and performed with such freshness that we can only assume a certain healthy amount of competition-amongst-veterans was responsible for Hope’s superb showing. Both men began in vaudeville as ‘hoofers’ and this return to their roots in middle-age is both slyly competitive and deeply impressive.

By the way–if you read this blog via my newsletter mailings every evening you may have wondered why no posts appeared last week. (Or perhaps you were simply relieved?). I blame MailPoet, which changed the rules on how they deliver things to my mailing list without bothering to tell me. So if you’re in the mood for catching up on some vintage video click here for Monday’s post about the history of ‘Putting On The Ritz’ as performed by Harry Richman, click here for Tuesday’s version of the song featuring Clark Gable, click here for a short interview with Clark Gable and Sophia Loren as conducted by a gay-bashing Ed Sullivan and click here for a marvelous 1933 Warner Brothers short film about composer Harry Warren. Fans of The Three Stooges (both of you) click here...