Welcome to Peter and Hannah's watch list. I'm your host Pete Mitchell. I'm here with my great co-host
Hannah we're here for AFI top 100 it's movie number
98 and so you know what that means
It's Yankee Doodle Dandy
Hannah have you seen Yankee Doodle Dandy before that we watched it for the podcast? Yes, I've seen it once before and I do own a
I have seen it many times as well
From 1942 yeah from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Yeah
there used to be I can't believe I haven't brought this up before but there used to be a TV show on
Australian television
Bill Collins Golden Years of Hollywood
Yeah, and he used to introduce a movie of the week and Yankee Doodle Dandy was one of those movies starring the great James
Cagney yes, and it's the life of George M. Cowan
The elevator pitch for those who have not seen Yankee Doodle Dandy from 1942
It's a by-pick on George M. Cowan the Broadway all-rounder legendary
American playwright
actor
song person and
It goes for two hours and five minutes. Wow. We watched it on Apple TV. Yeah, we bought it. Yeah
the maker studio
It was Warner Brothers
Jack Warner produced this movie Hannah
Now I'm going through a great run at this stage and they continue
Yeah, we've got some great movies and we'll have one later in the
podcast run cast a blank out, but that was the after Yankee Doodle Dandy so
Warner Brothers one of those big studios still around to this day
Would you consider Warner Brothers your favorite studio?
At this time during this period
And like out of the two big ones which were Warner Brothers and MGM I would have given the edge to MGM
I just like their musicals better, but nowadays it's I think it's it's hard to say. It's my favorite
They do a lot of missing. Yeah, as well as some hips. Yeah, but it's better than money
Today
Now other studios do tech lists, but you know some of the smaller ones are doing better actually then
David's ads last week you're welcome to on the podcast and don't talk about one of others and discovery
I like I do I think I do
Enjoy Warner Brothers movies though, especially during the 40s and 50s. They were always competing with MGM
Which was quite fun. Yeah, and so a lot of their movies were
Be rated versions of whatever an MGM movie was. Yeah
They were they were trying to MGM would throw a lot of money at a movie
And then they would just make a little cheaper version of that movie and it still do pretty well sometimes even better
Classic Hollywood like the studio system at the time. So actors and we'll talk about this with Jan to cabinet a lot actors writers directors
Cinematographers that just be contracted to the studio and only make studio pics
Ah story behind it. So this is where we deep dive for the people listening to the podcast for the first time
I'm behind the movie and this is my favorite part when we're watching the movies
Then I do research afterwards and I really love reading article after article about the movies and if I were really lucky
They do a lot of articles about these movies because they're they're on a on the list
So we're about to go into the at that
stage of the podcast
So the story behind it
We asked the question was it a book was it a script? It's actually based on a
Autobiography from George M. Cohan. He wrote that when he was 45
He was skeptical about movies because you only started a couple and
Jack Warner was chasing him down to tell this story
And he said you can be involved. You can have some money up front and you can have some of the gross as well
So he finally signed on to do Yankee doodle dandy
Co-head co-harm was heavily involved in the script
He wasn't heavily involved in production because he was it became greatly ill and he passed away
I'm not long after the film completion. They actually brought up the premiere
It was supposed to happen on July 4th, which is Independence Day, which is a big
Kind of deal for Yankee doodle dandy
And they brought the release date up to June 6 1942
So it was about Cohen's life that Cohen's life was it was a mystery
As most entertainers yeah, July 4th. Yeah, he actually wasn't he was born on July 3rd
As usual Hollywood
It doesn't this is that no he wanted to
Only wanted the film to focus on his triumphs. It didn't want him to focus on any of these personal life at all
We all want that so what happened happening was he went from having two wives in real life
So only having one yeah, and it's not even based on any of their names. It's based from a middle name of one of them
It also
Didn't mention any of the children that he had and his daughter later when watching the show
Watching this movie said that this is the life that dad actually wanted
That's cool
It also molded many characters into one other which is okay in movies, you know, we're not here
It also muddled up the
The timelines it also model up the the fire
His father actually passed away second of his family. Yeah, and his mom passed away last
the the Cohen story he was
the son of two
Vaudville stars
Yeah, and the co and then he had a sister and then they became the four co-heirs and they'd go around all of America and perform
Their shows mostly comedy, but they also did some serious stuff as well
He wrote songs he wrote plays he had 40 plays 38 of them were comedies
He had at one stage. He had five
Broadway shows on Broadway at the same time
That's the big statue in the middle of Times Square that is Georgian Cohen
He's famous songs
Give my regards to all Broadway. Yeah, the grand old flag
Over there
I would also put my hand my
Personal favorite of his musicals is little Nelly Kelly. It was made into a film with Judy Garland and I really I like that one
So
Let's put George M. Cohen's life in perspective a bit so he had the talent of
Producing plays like entry-world weather. Yeah, he had the lyricist of
Little more Miranda and Tim Rice the writer of Lion King and stuff like that
But he also acted so it was like the Neil Patrick Harris and Jonathan Groff of these days
He had the song the dance the acting he did it all
Yeah
Couple other things about the movie the one of the wives
Being excluded from the story try to sue Warner Brothers. It didn't happen. I didn't
I
George M. Cohen wanted Fred Astaire to play him but Fred Astaire refused because there's just dancing styles were very different
Yeah, Fred Astaire very like yeah fluid. Yeah, he had ballet background
Um, well, it's also it's more so he's not challenging enough. Yeah
Cohen was a straight-legged dancer, so he had this famous straight-legged dancing and
Cagney really pulled that off when he was when I'd also go it's Warner Brothers and
At the time
Fred was leaving RKO and was going into like MGM pictures. Yeah, so I don't think he like he didn't do that many
Yeah
The songs in the
The musical Yankee Doodle Dandy they say they were written for the stream by George M. Cohen
But there's actually songs from other people in there. Do you know that one of the songs was actually written by Rogers and Hart?
Yeah, okay. Yeah
Yeah, so the one where he's singing about
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it'll be right. Oh
Yeah
Because yeah, sometimes some of the music doesn't sound like because he
Yes, you can tell when it's yeah lucky did get criticized for he replayed the same thing over and over again
I also noticed he used you know tunes from other songs in his writing and
You know all to it so that's music nowadays anyway
So the title of the movie Yankee Doodle Dandy was after one of these songs
Yeah, I'll give you a little bit background of the Yankee Doodle Dandy sort of it. So the Yankee Doodle Dandy was a actual
payout from the
British soldiers in the Revolution War to the Yankee soldiers. So Yankee meaning the Colonialist
Doodle meaning they're
Not very smart
And Dandy as being
Yeah, they called him guy basically
Yeah
But I'd say you know what this film
This film does not age well. Yeah, there is there is some bits there's blackface in there
There's yeah, unnecessary as well. Yeah, I don't get it. It's not a story
It was not uses storytelling device, which it shouldn't be but it was just there because he did it so, you know, it's there
I would also just like a lot of the
Just it's very much one note the storytelling in this because it's we're trying to put
Sunshine of rainbows on a story of my life
Yeah, there's a lot of
Montages in this movie. Yeah, which
At Monta the montages the montage was actually directed by Don Siegel and you might know that name because he's the director and the creator of
Dirty Harry. Oh, okay. Yeah, so don Siegel. He was a big on the montages
Montage a guy
there's a so how the movie starts is
It's about George M. Cohan's life
He does the it comes back to Franklin Delores. Well, who is the president of the United States during World War two and
He was get he thought he was in trouble, but he's actually getting an award
This is said in the movie. Yeah, but this is actually not true
He was actually given the award four years earlier and he finally came around he was actually
It says that he was a Democrat in there in the movie, but he actually wasn't he was a staunch Republican George M.
Cohan he was very conservative. He had very conservative views
It's one of the reasons why James Cagney didn't want to play him because Cagney himself was a
Franklin Delores a new deal Democrat
And he was big on supporting workers rights. Yeah, I'm gonna hand Cohen broke up a
Strike in 1919 and he was out Cagney was against George M. Cohan for that the only reason Cagney
Play ended up playing
the
title role it was because he needed to be seen as a patriot because he was an accused communism
So yeah, it's always good stories when it comes around there a couple other quick facts before we move on to
best quote you
Frank Delores Roosevelt's voice in this movie that's actually the first time in movie history that are a
President in portrait on film and in sound. That's the first time it's ever been. We've had it many times since then
But yeah, it's the first time
Last one the famous cinematographer in this
James Wong Howe he was a cinematographer in sweet sales success. He had like 170 credits
So he was the reason why the movie looks so great
James Wong Howe
best quote
My mother thanks you my father. Thanks you my sister. Thanks you and I thank you. That's famous. That's famous
Yeah, so I fi not only does movies, but they do quotes I do
Yeah, they do leading man's James Cagney who played George M. Cohan. He's actually one of the best
Yeah, so this is a good time to go on to
James Cagney he's started many great movies public enemies the angels with dirty faces the roaring twenties white heat
Amazing you also did another movie as George Cohan in a Bob Hope movie. Yeah, so
He was typecast as one of the bad guys, but he actually grew up as a song and dance man
Yeah
Tocque Hudson, so this is his last ever movie that he did with Warner Brothers
Yes, so he
Really disliked the way that the Warner executives treated him as a star
He thought he was a lot more than just a gangster and a thug
Yeah
Other people in this movie Joan Leslie, this is her first movie her sing was partly dubbed in this movie
But she was playing an 18 year old that moved all the way to the 57 year old and she was only actually 17 in the film
She was in Sergeant York
I don't know the best part of this movie. Yeah. Yeah
Not much going through
He comes home
He made a song her and then the song is given to someone else
And so he came home with flowers and chocolates and he's discussing, you know, oh
Would you do would you do anything to have this woman in the show blah blah blah?
And
She goes I already know you gave up the song. I knew at the moment you walked in with flowers and chocolates. Yeah
I already knew like she could tell yeah
Yeah
That's that's what I think because she was an actress herself
So she knew the actor playing her something like that
But like the she didn't realize when she's in the film yeah make up this romance that he was playing an old man
Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah
Yeah, and then it's like he's doing that
Doing with it
Yeah, yeah
It was a weird with me cute
The father in this movie is the famous Walter Houston who is
John Houston's father and John Houston directed the African Queen and he was also the father of
Angelica and Danny Houston who are the famous actors are still going around
Walter Houston end up winning a best supporting actor for the treasures of Sierra Madre
Yeah, he was really
Let's talk about the director of this movie Michael Cortez. He was Hungarian
He famously said that this was the pinnacle of his career
Which is a card game
I'll tell you why because his next movie was Casablanca
I
Because he's next movie was Casablanca. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he also did Robin Hood with
And he also did white Christmas. Oh, he did
Oh wow, hey, yeah
So produced by Jack Warner, of course
Was written by Robert Buckner and now he
Wasn't happy with the changes that were made to the script because the script was helped out by the Epstein brothers who wrote
Casablanca they wrote asking an all-day and no
Pro prolific writers they also wrote one of your favorite movies send me no flowers
Okay, so let's talk about
Reaction to the film Yankee Doodle Dandy
It was the third biggest box office of the year behind
Mrs. Minova and a
Disney movie classic
1942
Baby
I was looking through the receipts of so I was trying to get not the money, but like how many tickets were sold
In in the ninth movie of 1942 you will not believe
Gone with the wind three
You know three years after it was released it was still selling tickets
It'd be it'd be like now if you like now saying
Infinity War was still the top 10 movie of the year
So that was
That was reaction to the film read Bocca Bocca's yeah, we got critic critics
Neal Tom was very positive this movie. They said it was a highly enjoyable
James Cagney was an absolute
standout in this movie for righty called it one of the best musicals ever made
Yeah
Awards it won three Academy Awards and was nominated for eight including Best Picture
James Cagney won for Best Actor. He beat out yeah
the great
Gary Cooper who play the pride of the Yankees
So but the next year Gary Cooper ended up winning for Sarge York
You know what I always say about the Oscars they always make up that Gary Cooper's in pride of the Yankees
Unbelievable, I think he was probably better than James Cagney in this movie
And so Oscar's always make up for it next year Sarge New York
And you know who played his wife in that?
Joan Leslie the same
It all comes back
It won for best music and a best sound just looking back at those Oscars that year
There's a lot of nominees they do big big nominees. They do for sound and music
That was like 12 and 13 nominees
In these news calls were basically what superhero movies are today
Yeah, oh, but they also did
cinematographer for color cinematography black and white
It's lost out best picture to Mrs. Minifer who was the second biggest
Grossing movie of the year
I don't think you should have won anymore. I think I think I was I think they did well to the three
Yeah, I think it did well to win the three. Yeah, I would give it to
Reaction recently to the film so rotten tomatoes
91% letterboxes 3.5. I am DB is
7.6 Metacritic is eighty eighty nine
Originally on the list on the AFI top hundred list because we're doing the revised list
It was actually movie 100 so it's gone up. Yeah, which
Roger Ebert wrote in 1998 a glowing praise of James Cagney's formats and gave the film for four stars
But he said it was just a by the numbers by a pick
Yeah, so I would just say Hollywood
Just absolutely
Yeah, especially musical by picks they are always just an excuse to have
Great taken and that leads perfectly into one of my favorite segments on all our shows
It's the hot take which is click bait and this week. I'll start I'll start off and Hannah just perfectly go into
My hot take is thank you for team up, Hannah
My hot take is
There's no difference between this movie and Bohemian Rhapsody absolutely none
Well, I just I just think the the different like
the Bohemian Rhapsody is
Queen
basically had full approval of that script because they wouldn't let them use that music and
George M. Cohen would not let
Well Freddie Mercury
Mercury didn't find out it had AIDS until well after the
Yeah
They wanted Freddie Mercury to die halfway through the movie and then the rest of the movie was
Queen after his dad. Yeah, I'm sorry
No, I'm
This is like George M. Cohen just making up the fact that he didn't have two wives
We go some trice to draw in the wall and they're like you're too old
Yeah, mate, you're nearly 40
Yeah, dancing
Maybe we need you to do an enicada song and then he creates over there
Had a clickbait for you
Well besides the fact that there are no good
Especially this is Hollywood Hollywood at this time any bite a good pipe exit all
And I you're really my real house Jeff. Yeah, but it's Jeff K on AFI top hundred
Maybe we should revisit AFI top hundred make our own
My god, I do for a podcast
Yeah
Big hits or people get angsty yeah, and this film I think you could question mark a lot of his big hits because yeah
He is like good catchy songs, but I give his music pretty much. It's like that generic
Yeah, very filler. Well, the only one that would be still played now out of all these is give my regards to all Broadway
That's the only other two big hits
Over there yeah, and a flag song of the flag song we get to play around July 4th and stuff
Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't get it didn't get played after World War two
Words and music is pretty bad where it's the bridge it's
It's
Heart and Roger's yeah, and heart was actually like a terrible like alcoholic and a lot of dark ass but in the in the movie
Mickey Rooney is just
Yeah, it's just make it up
Well if you like it if you like a hot take don't forget to listen to our movie news
Podcast which drops Thursday every week and you will get hot hot takes right off the press called clickbait
Let's get on to our review
Yankee Doodle Danny really number 98 reasons to see Hannah
It is a well you'll find out the interesting life of George and Karl or the mate the one I made up
Well, yeah, but you learn like well, I didn't really know going in when I first watched it
Who George I had heard the name. Yeah, the other time. So it's not really I wouldn't say he's
Had a lasting like a single pop culture by all means or the statue the statue, but no one
Shut up
I
All I know is like in other songs. They use the yeah
Yeah, yeah, you start line because he was like a huge thing. Yeah for sure
I think and even this film tries to portray the fact he was huge on Broadway, but as time has gone on
Yeah, no one really even in the movie
Yeah, yeah, what have you done for a slightly and then he's like that even the over there song of the only soldiers singing and they'd like
He's and they like don't you know this one all time? It's like
but
Reasons to it's just a great dance umpus like he James County does
Yes, it's just a really nice. Yeah, it's really easy you turn off your brain. It's just yeah
Yeah, it's
There's no it's just one note throughout the movie. You know, you're gonna get surprised from it and breathe America
It's yeah, definitely
So reason not to it's definitely not groundbreaking like you you get the montages you get the the usual stuff if you if you
Want to know about history and stuff like that don't watch this movie. It's definitely
100%
Let's go on to does it deserve to be on the list 10
I know why it's all the list. I don't think it deserves it. No, I don't think it deserves
Yeah
Yeah, I reckon if they're doing the
Listening out it wouldn't be on it. Oh, it wouldn't be on it. I would also go
So I would make a case for like me with a list of gonna go a movie a musical during that time
Yeah, because that change
Kind of the format because no one had taken because this what this movie struggles with is that it's the skills the same format of
You'd only get the musical numbers during a stage show. Yeah, you'd never get it outside like he's not singing out and dancing in the middle of a street
No, it's not that kind of thing
That we see later on in musicals. Yeah
Meet me in San Luis is one of the first one. That's true to sound issues and stuff like that. Yeah
It's more so that they didn't know how to incorporate musicals into
Real situations. Yeah, and they hadn't been done and
Yeah, only seen them on stage and that's what people wanted to see what they saw on stage
Yeah on a show, but I would say it wouldn't make it. I even jaked came in this performance while it's enjoyable. I don't think it's
Yeah, like it breathtaking. Yeah, I think he did a great job and he's great at dancing
He does like seeing the dancing of george m co-an he did it. He did it perfectly. So
So
Doesn't deserve to be higher on this list in our opinion. Would you buy it on blu-ray?
Well, you already have a copy
And finally would you watch this movie again? I would watch it again if it's on a night or watch again
I don't mind because I love musicals. So
And uh, so would you watch or miss would you recommend watch or miss? I would
Miss it if you're not into musicals. I think it's just it's
Pretty one and you're writing for this movie hand
That's hard for me
My personal rating
Yeah, I look I reckon it's right down the line golf clap. I just think it's a it's a golf clap for sure
I'm just saying that
You know, it's a golf club because it's a solid musical
That's yeah, and I think it's just a solid movie. I think it's a solid movie. I just don't think it's nothing outstanding. It's yeah, it's nothing
Thought-provoking or anything like that
That should be well, I think there's better movies and we're gonna have one of those next week 19
uh, 1982 movie blade runner is not movie 97
On the list. So this is great for us because we it's the original card hen. So, uh
I don't see the original really Scott. So the original card is
On austria it's in um on stan and you can get it digitally on apple as well
Uh, don't forget to leave feedback. Uh good or bad and we'll read the best ones on the show
um
We got some feedback that uh, henna they disagree with you that the fact that um, woody is the bad guy it's
Um, the feedback is mr. Potato head is the bad guy. Yeah
I'm saying mr. Potato egg is an egg or on I love those. Yeah, he's he's just a stirrer
A man that stares at the pot. Yeah, woody woody is like the I am the cause of my problems
Yeah, he's not uh, uh the leader of the the negativity is woody and then he wanted to assassinate someone who tried to invade the cult
Yeah, that's how it happened
Uh, that's it for today's show. Don't forget we have uh, what's next?
Drops on wednesdays and we also have movie news which drops on thursdays
hen we have um some exciting uh things coming next week
Next week we're going to review um charade
Which which is charade which is uh, sorry the great carry grant. Um, we're gonna do that on us
And what happened? We're gonna do that on um someone else's podcast and we're going to go on wookie's
Movies and music and that would be really enjoyable and that is next week
We're also for a movie news next week. We're also doing a santa christmas slash
Draft and we're gonna have denny returning and we're also gonna have a special guest because it's a christmas episode
We need a special guest as well
Uh, so we're looking forward to releasing that information. Don't forget you can catch up on all our socials
until later in the week
Uh, when we try to figure out what to watch next
That's my lovely coast henna. I'm your host peter until next week when we try and work out the afi top 100
We're looking at blade runner
For those at home give it a watch
Until next week it's bye for now. Bye