The other day we took a look at the Best Picture nominees of 1928 and I commented on the very different, staid acting styles of the era. It’s always been my contention that screen acting–maybe all acting for that matter– was changed forever with the sudden, shocking appearance of James
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2itmdeH0nQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEn3tjbYO8M Howard Hawks was what used to be known as a ‘man’s man’. He was a sportsman (another defunct term) who raced cars and motorcycles, flew planes, hunted, fished, rode horses, the whole shmeer. His love of flying was well documented in several movies–‘The Dawn Patrol’, ‘Air Force’ and the
For many years James Cagney divided his time between a country-esque retreat in Coldwater Canyon, high above Beverly Hills, and a Martha’s Vineyard spread that is nothing if not wildly appealing. But, with a fervor that only a once poor city kid (Cagney grew up in the Yorkville section of New York
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1DTKhVlUMYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-z4L1-lEtU When exactly did James Cagney first appear on screen? According to IMDB, he plays the ‘handsy patron at Blackie Joe’s’ in the Al Jolson vehicle ‘The Singing Fool’, made in 1928 as the follow-up to the enormously successful ‘The Jazz Singer’ (1927) and shot at the Warner Brothers Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm2wRqrOttU Continuing our exploration of the dancing technique of James Cagney (click here, here and here for other magnificent examples) behold the full ‘Give My Regards To Broadway’ routine from George M. Cohan’s show ‘Little Johnny Jones’ (1904) as recreated in Warner Brothers Cohan biopic ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ (1942). It’s
Apropos of our previous posts this week featuring James Cagney and his singular style of hoofing, here’s the audacious and highly entertaining ‘Shanghai Lil’ number from ‘Footlight Parade’ (1933). As with yesterday’s clip featuring Bob Hope and Cagney dancing on a table, once again Cagney dances…on a table! (This time
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
The above number, from ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ (1942) is the great James Cagney performing the delightful ‘Off The Record’. He’s playing George M. Cohan playing Franklin D. Roosevelt and his distinctive, one-of-a-kind ass-in-air dancing style will be the subject of further posts this week. Whether you like it or not…
After a year-long hiatus my podcast ‘Movies Til Dawn’ has returned to the ether-waves, with none other than Orson Welles as my first post-reboot guest. How did I make contact with Orson, you ask? Via Ouija Board perhaps? No. I won’t even pretend that I interviewed the man (the way
Apropos of yesterday’s post featuring the 1926 song hit ‘Yiddishe Charleston’, here’s a clip from a Warner Brothers/First National movie from 1932 called ‘Taxi’. In this famous scene, James Cagney speaks fluent Yiddish with a Jewish man who seems to be in some sort of trouble with an Irish cop.