Latest / Pete and Hannah’s Watchlist: / AFI Top 100: Movie 97: Yankee Doodle Dandy
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to Peter and Hannah's watch list. I'm your host Pete Mitchell. I'm here with my great co-host
- 0:08Hannah we're here for AFI top 100 it's movie number
- 0:1398 and so you know what that means
- 0:17It's Yankee Doodle Dandy
- 0:19Hannah 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
- 0:31I have seen it many times as well
- 0:36From 1942 yeah from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Yeah
- 0:40there used to be I can't believe I haven't brought this up before but there used to be a TV show on
- 0:46Australian television
- 0:47Bill Collins Golden Years of Hollywood
- 0:49Yeah, and he used to introduce a movie of the week and Yankee Doodle Dandy was one of those movies starring the great James
- 0:57Cagney yes, and it's the life of George M. Cowan
- 1:03The elevator pitch for those who have not seen Yankee Doodle Dandy from 1942
- 1:08It's a by-pick on George M. Cowan the Broadway all-rounder legendary
- 1:14American playwright
- 1:16actor
- 1:18song person and
- 1:20It goes for two hours and five minutes. Wow. We watched it on Apple TV. Yeah, we bought it. Yeah
- 1:29the maker studio
- 1:30It was Warner Brothers
- 1:34Jack Warner produced this movie Hannah
- 1:38Now I'm going through a great run at this stage and they continue
- 1:42Yeah, we've got some great movies and we'll have one later in the
- 1:48podcast run cast a blank out, but that was the after Yankee Doodle Dandy so
- 1:55Warner Brothers one of those big studios still around to this day
- 1:59Would you consider Warner Brothers your favorite studio?
- 2:04At this time during this period
- 2:07And like out of the two big ones which were Warner Brothers and MGM I would have given the edge to MGM
- 2:13I just like their musicals better, but nowadays it's I think it's it's hard to say. It's my favorite
- 2:18They do a lot of missing. Yeah, as well as some hips. Yeah, but it's better than money
- 2:28Today
- 2:30Now other studios do tech lists, but you know some of the smaller ones are doing better actually then
- 2:37David's ads last week you're welcome to on the podcast and don't talk about one of others and discovery
- 2:41I like I do I think I do
- 2:45Enjoy Warner Brothers movies though, especially during the 40s and 50s. They were always competing with MGM
- 2:52Which was quite fun. Yeah, and so a lot of their movies were
- 2:57Be rated versions of whatever an MGM movie was. Yeah
- 3:02They were they were trying to MGM would throw a lot of money at a movie
- 3:06And then they would just make a little cheaper version of that movie and it still do pretty well sometimes even better
- 3:13Classic 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
- 3:21Cinematographers that just be contracted to the studio and only make studio pics
- 3:25Ah story behind it. So this is where we deep dive for the people listening to the podcast for the first time
- 3:32I'm behind the movie and this is my favorite part when we're watching the movies
- 3:35Then I do research afterwards and I really love reading article after article about the movies and if I were really lucky
- 3:43They do a lot of articles about these movies because they're they're on a on the list
- 3:50So we're about to go into the at that
- 3:53stage of the podcast
- 3:58So the story behind it
- 4:00We asked the question was it a book was it a script? It's actually based on a
- 4:06Autobiography from George M. Cohan. He wrote that when he was 45
- 4:11He was skeptical about movies because you only started a couple and
- 4:16Jack Warner was chasing him down to tell this story
- 4:19And he said you can be involved. You can have some money up front and you can have some of the gross as well
- 4:26So he finally signed on to do Yankee doodle dandy
- 4:32Co-head co-harm was heavily involved in the script
- 4:35He wasn't heavily involved in production because he was it became greatly ill and he passed away
- 4:42I'm not long after the film completion. They actually brought up the premiere
- 4:46It was supposed to happen on July 4th, which is Independence Day, which is a big
- 4:53Kind of deal for Yankee doodle dandy
- 4:57And they brought the release date up to June 6 1942
- 5:03So it was about Cohen's life that Cohen's life was it was a mystery
- 5:08As most entertainers yeah, July 4th. Yeah, he actually wasn't he was born on July 3rd
- 5:19As usual Hollywood
- 5:24It doesn't this is that no he wanted to
- 5:29Only wanted the film to focus on his triumphs. It didn't want him to focus on any of these personal life at all
- 5:35We all want that so what happened happening was he went from having two wives in real life
- 5:41So 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
- 5:49It also
- 5:50Didn't mention any of the children that he had and his daughter later when watching the show
- 5:56Watching this movie said that this is the life that dad actually wanted
- 6:00That's cool
- 6:02It also molded many characters into one other which is okay in movies, you know, we're not here
- 6:10It also muddled up the
- 6:13The timelines it also model up the the fire
- 6:17His father actually passed away second of his family. Yeah, and his mom passed away last
- 6:24the the Cohen story he was
- 6:29the son of two
- 6:31Vaudville stars
- 6:33Yeah, 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
- 6:39Their shows mostly comedy, but they also did some serious stuff as well
- 6:44He wrote songs he wrote plays he had 40 plays 38 of them were comedies
- 6:51He had at one stage. He had five
- 6:54Broadway shows on Broadway at the same time
- 6:56That's the big statue in the middle of Times Square that is Georgian Cohen
- 7:03He's famous songs
- 7:05Give my regards to all Broadway. Yeah, the grand old flag
- 7:09Over there
- 7:13I would also put my hand my
- 7:16Personal favorite of his musicals is little Nelly Kelly. It was made into a film with Judy Garland and I really I like that one
- 7:24So
- 7:28Let's put George M. Cohen's life in perspective a bit so he had the talent of
- 7:33Producing plays like entry-world weather. Yeah, he had the lyricist of
- 7:39Little more Miranda and Tim Rice the writer of Lion King and stuff like that
- 7:43But he also acted so it was like the Neil Patrick Harris and Jonathan Groff of these days
- 7:49He had the song the dance the acting he did it all
- 7:57Yeah
- 8:03Couple other things about the movie the one of the wives
- 8:08Being excluded from the story try to sue Warner Brothers. It didn't happen. I didn't
- 8:12I
- 8:19George M. Cohen wanted Fred Astaire to play him but Fred Astaire refused because there's just dancing styles were very different
- 8:25Yeah, Fred Astaire very like yeah fluid. Yeah, he had ballet background
- 8:30Um, well, it's also it's more so he's not challenging enough. Yeah
- 8:37Cohen was a straight-legged dancer, so he had this famous straight-legged dancing and
- 8:43Cagney really pulled that off when he was when I'd also go it's Warner Brothers and
- 8:48At the time
- 8:50Fred was leaving RKO and was going into like MGM pictures. Yeah, so I don't think he like he didn't do that many
- 8:57Yeah
- 8:59The songs in the
- 9:02The musical Yankee Doodle Dandy they say they were written for the stream by George M. Cohen
- 9:07But there's actually songs from other people in there. Do you know that one of the songs was actually written by Rogers and Hart?
- 9:14Yeah, okay. Yeah
- 9:16Yeah, so the one where he's singing about
- 9:19Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it'll be right. Oh
- 9:23Yeah
- 9:25Because yeah, sometimes some of the music doesn't sound like because he
- 9:32Yes, you can tell when it's yeah lucky did get criticized for he replayed the same thing over and over again
- 9:40I also noticed he used you know tunes from other songs in his writing and
- 9:46You know all to it so that's music nowadays anyway
- 9:50So the title of the movie Yankee Doodle Dandy was after one of these songs
- 9:56Yeah, I'll give you a little bit background of the Yankee Doodle Dandy sort of it. So the Yankee Doodle Dandy was a actual
- 10:04payout from the
- 10:07British soldiers in the Revolution War to the Yankee soldiers. So Yankee meaning the Colonialist
- 10:13Doodle meaning they're
- 10:16Not very smart
- 10:18And Dandy as being
- 10:21Yeah, they called him guy basically
- 10:24Yeah
- 10:26But I'd say you know what this film
- 10:29This film does not age well. Yeah, there is there is some bits there's blackface in there
- 10:36There's yeah, unnecessary as well. Yeah, I don't get it. It's not a story
- 10:41It 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
- 10:48I would also just like a lot of the
- 10:53Just it's very much one note the storytelling in this because it's we're trying to put
- 10:59Sunshine of rainbows on a story of my life
- 11:05Yeah, there's a lot of
- 11:07Montages in this movie. Yeah, which
- 11:09At 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
- 11:18Dirty Harry. Oh, okay. Yeah, so don Siegel. He was a big on the montages
- 11:25Montage a guy
- 11:26there's a so how the movie starts is
- 11:30It's about George M. Cohan's life
- 11:32He does the it comes back to Franklin Delores. Well, who is the president of the United States during World War two and
- 11:41He was get he thought he was in trouble, but he's actually getting an award
- 11:45This is said in the movie. Yeah, but this is actually not true
- 11:50He was actually given the award four years earlier and he finally came around he was actually
- 11:54It says that he was a Democrat in there in the movie, but he actually wasn't he was a staunch Republican George M.
- 12:01Cohan he was very conservative. He had very conservative views
- 12:04It's one of the reasons why James Cagney didn't want to play him because Cagney himself was a
- 12:12Franklin Delores a new deal Democrat
- 12:14And he was big on supporting workers rights. Yeah, I'm gonna hand Cohen broke up a
- 12:22Strike in 1919 and he was out Cagney was against George M. Cohan for that the only reason Cagney
- 12:28Play ended up playing
- 12:30the
- 12:32title role it was because he needed to be seen as a patriot because he was an accused communism
- 12:38So yeah, it's always good stories when it comes around there a couple other quick facts before we move on to
- 12:44best quote you
- 12:49Frank Delores Roosevelt's voice in this movie that's actually the first time in movie history that are a
- 12:55President in portrait on film and in sound. That's the first time it's ever been. We've had it many times since then
- 13:02But yeah, it's the first time
- 13:05Last one the famous cinematographer in this
- 13:09James Wong Howe he was a cinematographer in sweet sales success. He had like 170 credits
- 13:17So he was the reason why the movie looks so great
- 13:20James Wong Howe
- 13:23best quote
- 13:25My mother thanks you my father. Thanks you my sister. Thanks you and I thank you. That's famous. That's famous
- 13:35Yeah, so I fi not only does movies, but they do quotes I do
- 13:40Yeah, they do leading man's James Cagney who played George M. Cohan. He's actually one of the best
- 13:49Yeah, so this is a good time to go on to
- 13:51James Cagney he's started many great movies public enemies the angels with dirty faces the roaring twenties white heat
- 14:03Amazing you also did another movie as George Cohan in a Bob Hope movie. Yeah, so
- 14:10He was typecast as one of the bad guys, but he actually grew up as a song and dance man
- 14:17Yeah
- 14:19Tocque Hudson, so this is his last ever movie that he did with Warner Brothers
- 14:26Yes, so he
- 14:30Really disliked the way that the Warner executives treated him as a star
- 14:35He thought he was a lot more than just a gangster and a thug
- 14:41Yeah
- 14:43Other people in this movie Joan Leslie, this is her first movie her sing was partly dubbed in this movie
- 14:53But 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
- 15:00She was in Sergeant York
- 15:02I don't know the best part of this movie. Yeah. Yeah
- 15:16Not much going through
- 15:22He comes home
- 15:25He made a song her and then the song is given to someone else
- 15:29And so he came home with flowers and chocolates and he's discussing, you know, oh
- 15:34Would you do would you do anything to have this woman in the show blah blah blah?
- 15:38And
- 15:39She goes I already know you gave up the song. I knew at the moment you walked in with flowers and chocolates. Yeah
- 15:45I already knew like she could tell yeah
- 15:47Yeah
- 15:48That's that's what I think because she was an actress herself
- 15:51So she knew the actor playing her something like that
- 15:54But like the she didn't realize when she's in the film yeah make up this romance that he was playing an old man
- 16:01Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah
- 16:04Yeah, and then it's like he's doing that
- 16:08Doing with it
- 16:13Yeah, yeah
- 16:15It was a weird with me cute
- 16:18The father in this movie is the famous Walter Houston who is
- 16:24John Houston's father and John Houston directed the African Queen and he was also the father of
- 16:31Angelica and Danny Houston who are the famous actors are still going around
- 16:36Walter Houston end up winning a best supporting actor for the treasures of Sierra Madre
- 16:42Yeah, he was really
- 16:44Let's talk about the director of this movie Michael Cortez. He was Hungarian
- 16:50He famously said that this was the pinnacle of his career
- 16:55Which is a card game
- 16:59I'll tell you why because his next movie was Casablanca
- 17:03I
- 17:05I
- 17:07I
- 17:09I
- 17:11Because he's next movie was Casablanca. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he also did Robin Hood with
- 17:21And he also did white Christmas. Oh, he did
- 17:26Oh wow, hey, yeah
- 17:35So produced by Jack Warner, of course
- 17:38Was written by Robert Buckner and now he
- 17:41Wasn't happy with the changes that were made to the script because the script was helped out by the Epstein brothers who wrote
- 17:49Casablanca they wrote asking an all-day and no
- 17:52Pro prolific writers they also wrote one of your favorite movies send me no flowers
- 18:05Okay, so let's talk about
- 18:07Reaction to the film Yankee Doodle Dandy
- 18:10It was the third biggest box office of the year behind
- 18:16Mrs. Minova and a
- 18:19Disney movie classic
- 18:211942
- 18:24Baby
- 18:29I was looking through the receipts of so I was trying to get not the money, but like how many tickets were sold
- 18:37In in the ninth movie of 1942 you will not believe
- 18:44Gone with the wind three
- 18:46You know three years after it was released it was still selling tickets
- 18:55It'd be it'd be like now if you like now saying
- 19:00Infinity War was still the top 10 movie of the year
- 19:09So that was
- 19:11That was reaction to the film read Bocca Bocca's yeah, we got critic critics
- 19:18Neal Tom was very positive this movie. They said it was a highly enjoyable
- 19:23James Cagney was an absolute
- 19:25standout in this movie for righty called it one of the best musicals ever made
- 19:30Yeah
- 19:32Awards it won three Academy Awards and was nominated for eight including Best Picture
- 19:36James Cagney won for Best Actor. He beat out yeah
- 19:42the great
- 19:44Gary Cooper who play the pride of the Yankees
- 19:48So but the next year Gary Cooper ended up winning for Sarge York
- 19:52You know what I always say about the Oscars they always make up that Gary Cooper's in pride of the Yankees
- 19:57Unbelievable, I think he was probably better than James Cagney in this movie
- 20:00And so Oscar's always make up for it next year Sarge New York
- 20:04And you know who played his wife in that?
- 20:07Joan Leslie the same
- 20:10It all comes back
- 20:12It won for best music and a best sound just looking back at those Oscars that year
- 20:17There's a lot of nominees they do big big nominees. They do for sound and music
- 20:23That was like 12 and 13 nominees
- 20:27In these news calls were basically what superhero movies are today
- 20:32Yeah, oh, but they also did
- 20:36cinematographer for color cinematography black and white
- 20:44It's lost out best picture to Mrs. Minifer who was the second biggest
- 20:49Grossing movie of the year
- 20:51I don't think you should have won anymore. I think I think I was I think they did well to the three
- 20:55Yeah, I think it did well to win the three. Yeah, I would give it to
- 21:05Reaction recently to the film so rotten tomatoes
- 21:1091% letterboxes 3.5. I am DB is
- 21:157.6 Metacritic is eighty eighty nine
- 21:18Originally on the list on the AFI top hundred list because we're doing the revised list
- 21:25It was actually movie 100 so it's gone up. Yeah, which
- 21:30Roger Ebert wrote in 1998 a glowing praise of James Cagney's formats and gave the film for four stars
- 21:38But he said it was just a by the numbers by a pick
- 21:41Yeah, so I would just say Hollywood
- 21:44Just absolutely
- 21:47Yeah, especially musical by picks they are always just an excuse to have
- 21:52Great taken and that leads perfectly into one of my favorite segments on all our shows
- 21:58It's the hot take which is click bait and this week. I'll start I'll start off and Hannah just perfectly go into
- 22:06My hot take is thank you for team up, Hannah
- 22:09My hot take is
- 22:12There's no difference between this movie and Bohemian Rhapsody absolutely none
- 22:24Well, I just I just think the the different like
- 22:29the Bohemian Rhapsody is
- 22:31Queen
- 22:33basically had full approval of that script because they wouldn't let them use that music and
- 22:37George M. Cohen would not let
- 22:44Well Freddie Mercury
- 22:46Mercury didn't find out it had AIDS until well after the
- 22:54Yeah
- 22:57They wanted Freddie Mercury to die halfway through the movie and then the rest of the movie was
- 23:03Queen after his dad. Yeah, I'm sorry
- 23:07No, I'm
- 23:09This is like George M. Cohen just making up the fact that he didn't have two wives
- 23:27We go some trice to draw in the wall and they're like you're too old
- 23:31Yeah, mate, you're nearly 40
- 23:35Yeah, dancing
- 23:41Maybe we need you to do an enicada song and then he creates over there
- 23:48Had a clickbait for you
- 23:50Well besides the fact that there are no good
- 23:57Especially this is Hollywood Hollywood at this time any bite a good pipe exit all
- 24:06And I you're really my real house Jeff. Yeah, but it's Jeff K on AFI top hundred
- 24:13Maybe we should revisit AFI top hundred make our own
- 24:16My god, I do for a podcast
- 24:23Yeah
- 24:25Big hits or people get angsty yeah, and this film I think you could question mark a lot of his big hits because yeah
- 24:34He is like good catchy songs, but I give his music pretty much. It's like that generic
- 24:41Yeah, very filler. Well, the only one that would be still played now out of all these is give my regards to all Broadway
- 24:50That's the only other two big hits
- 24:52Over there yeah, and a flag song of the flag song we get to play around July 4th and stuff
- 25:00Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't get it didn't get played after World War two
- 25:16Words and music is pretty bad where it's the bridge it's
- 25:20It's
- 25:22Heart 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
- 25:32Mickey Rooney is just
- 25:34Yeah, it's just make it up
- 25:56Well if you like it if you like a hot take don't forget to listen to our movie news
- 26:01Podcast which drops Thursday every week and you will get hot hot takes right off the press called clickbait
- 26:09Let's get on to our review
- 26:14Yankee Doodle Danny really number 98 reasons to see Hannah
- 26:19It is a well you'll find out the interesting life of George and Karl or the mate the one I made up
- 26:27Well, yeah, but you learn like well, I didn't really know going in when I first watched it
- 26:33Who George I had heard the name. Yeah, the other time. So it's not really I wouldn't say he's
- 26:39Had a lasting like a single pop culture by all means or the statue the statue, but no one
- 26:45Shut up
- 26:47I
- 26:48All I know is like in other songs. They use the yeah
- 26:51Yeah, yeah, you start line because he was like a huge thing. Yeah for sure
- 26:54I think and even this film tries to portray the fact he was huge on Broadway, but as time has gone on
- 27:01Yeah, no one really even in the movie
- 27:05Yeah, 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
- 27:12He's and they like don't you know this one all time? It's like
- 27:17but
- 27:19Reasons to it's just a great dance umpus like he James County does
- 27:25Yes, it's just a really nice. Yeah, it's really easy you turn off your brain. It's just yeah
- 27:32Yeah, it's
- 27:34There's no it's just one note throughout the movie. You know, you're gonna get surprised from it and breathe America
- 27:40It's yeah, definitely
- 27:44So reason not to it's definitely not groundbreaking like you you get the montages you get the the usual stuff if you if you
- 27:52Want to know about history and stuff like that don't watch this movie. It's definitely
- 27:58100%
- 28:01Let's go on to does it deserve to be on the list 10
- 28:03I know why it's all the list. I don't think it deserves it. No, I don't think it deserves
- 28:10Yeah
- 28:13Yeah, I reckon if they're doing the
- 28:16Listening out it wouldn't be on it. Oh, it wouldn't be on it. I would also go
- 28:21So I would make a case for like me with a list of gonna go a movie a musical during that time
- 28:26Yeah, because that change
- 28:28Kind 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
- 28:35You'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
- 28:42No, it's not that kind of thing
- 28:44That we see later on in musicals. Yeah
- 28:47Meet me in San Luis is one of the first one. That's true to sound issues and stuff like that. Yeah
- 28:51It's more so that they didn't know how to incorporate musicals into
- 28:55Real situations. Yeah, and they hadn't been done and
- 28:58Yeah, only seen them on stage and that's what people wanted to see what they saw on stage
- 29:02Yeah 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
- 29:10Yeah, like it breathtaking. Yeah, I think he did a great job and he's great at dancing
- 29:14He does like seeing the dancing of george m co-an he did it. He did it perfectly. So
- 29:19So
- 29:23So
- 29:25Doesn't deserve to be higher on this list in our opinion. Would you buy it on blu-ray?
- 29:30Well, you already have a copy
- 29:36And finally would you watch this movie again? I would watch it again if it's on a night or watch again
- 29:40I don't mind because I love musicals. So
- 29:42And uh, so would you watch or miss would you recommend watch or miss? I would
- 29:49Miss it if you're not into musicals. I think it's just it's
- 29:53Pretty one and you're writing for this movie hand
- 29:57That's hard for me
- 29:59My personal rating
- 30:00Yeah, 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
- 30:07I'm just saying that
- 30:08You know, it's a golf club because it's a solid musical
- 30:11That'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
- 30:20Thought-provoking or anything like that
- 30:24That should be well, I think there's better movies and we're gonna have one of those next week 19
- 30:29uh, 1982 movie blade runner is not movie 97
- 30:34On the list. So this is great for us because we it's the original card hen. So, uh
- 30:39I don't see the original really Scott. So the original card is
- 30:44On austria it's in um on stan and you can get it digitally on apple as well
- 30:51Uh, don't forget to leave feedback. Uh good or bad and we'll read the best ones on the show
- 30:57um
- 30:58We got some feedback that uh, henna they disagree with you that the fact that um, woody is the bad guy it's
- 31:06Um, the feedback is mr. Potato head is the bad guy. Yeah
- 31:12I'm saying mr. Potato egg is an egg or on I love those. Yeah, he's he's just a stirrer
- 31:17A man that stares at the pot. Yeah, woody woody is like the I am the cause of my problems
- 31:23Yeah, 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
- 31:31Yeah, that's how it happened
- 31:33Uh, that's it for today's show. Don't forget we have uh, what's next?
- 31:38Drops on wednesdays and we also have movie news which drops on thursdays
- 31:44hen we have um some exciting uh things coming next week
- 31:48Next week we're going to review um charade
- 31:52Which which is charade which is uh, sorry the great carry grant. Um, we're gonna do that on us
- 31:58And what happened? We're gonna do that on um someone else's podcast and we're going to go on wookie's
- 32:06Movies and music and that would be really enjoyable and that is next week
- 32:10We're also for a movie news next week. We're also doing a santa christmas slash
- 32:16Draft and we're gonna have denny returning and we're also gonna have a special guest because it's a christmas episode
- 32:22We need a special guest as well
- 32:24Uh, so we're looking forward to releasing that information. Don't forget you can catch up on all our socials
- 32:29until later in the week
- 32:31Uh, when we try to figure out what to watch next
- 32:35That's my lovely coast henna. I'm your host peter until next week when we try and work out the afi top 100
- 32:43We're looking at blade runner
- 32:45For those at home give it a watch
- 32:47Until next week it's bye for now. Bye