Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Hey, this kid can dance.

Mention James Cagney's name and chances are it's his gangster roles that people will remember - white heat , The Roaring Twenties, The Public Enemy.

But give a chance for this fine biopic by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, The Sea Hawk) from 1931 of American composer George M. Cohan.

Granted, it's a glowing look at the amazingly prolific career of the Rhode Island native. He wrote more than 300 songs including The Yankee Doodle Boy, Mary is a Grand Old Name and You're a Grand Old Flag. Cohan was known as 'the man who owned Broadway' in the early 1900s because of all his shows that were on the boards. President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented him with the Congressional Gold Medal in 1936. Wow. Cohan lived quite the life.

Yankee Doodle Dandy is great entertainment - good music, fine dance and some wonderful performances from the likes of Cagney, as Cohan, Walter Huston and a very young Joan Leslie.

Cohan grew up performing, and travelling widely, with The Four Cohans. The family act featured his parents and sister. Cohan oozes confidence, but his cocky ways irritate promoters and Broadway producers. He gets his break with Little Johnny Jones in 1904 and his career takes off.

Talk about a multi-tasker. Cohan wrote his songs, produced and starred in his many shows.

Cagney is a joy to watch here, especially when he decides to woo stage hopeful Mary (Joan Leslie), who thinks he's a much older man. Watch his dance moves when he's still in full makeup.

Yankee Doodle Dandy celebrates America and its people. See this film.

RATING: 8/10

FUN FACTS: From Cagney by Cagney, published in 1976

"Psychologically I needed no preparation for Yankee Doodle Dandy, or professionally either. I didn't have to be a song-and-dance man. I was one."

Cagney read the script and wasn't impressed by the film's lack of humour. He wanted Julius and Phil Epstein (Strawberry Blonde, The Bride Came C.O.D.) "to liven it up and inject humor."

He studied dance with Johnny Boyle, who appeared in The Cohan Revue of 1916.

Cohan, who died five months after the film was released, gave Yankee Doodle Dandy his blessing.

Yankee Doodle Dandy was nominated for eight Oscars, including best picture and director, and won three (actor, sound, recording).

Joan Leslie is still alive at this writing. Her television appearances include The Incredible Hulk and Charlie's Angels!

Eddie Foy, Jr., is yet another actor who appears in Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood. I have to see this film.

Douglas Croft appears as a young George M. Cohan. He also played Lou Gehrig as a boy in The Pride of the Yankees and was Robin in a 1943 version of Batman.

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Sound the trumpets, The Adventures of Robin Hood (Two-Disc Special Edition) is rousing entertainment.

Backed by a stirring score courtesy of Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Captain Blood), this 1938 adventure film has it all. There's a cast stuffed with Hollywood legends, gorgeous Technicolor photography, plenty of sword fights, good humour and some really evil villains.

It's the 12th century in England. King Richard the Lion-Heart is off fighting a war. His crooked brother, Prince John (Claude Rains), sees a chance to seize power for himself. Helping him is henchman Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone, looking especially suave). Prince John, a Norman, makes life miserable for the Saxons with high taxes, torture and seizure of property.

Sir Robin of Loxley (Errol Flynn) stands up to Prince John and vows to ensure King Richard returns to the throne. He recruits help including Friar Tuck (Eugene Pallette), a man of the cloth who's also very talented with a sword, and Little John (Alan Hale, who also was Flynn's sidekick in Dodge City).

Now Robin Hood, Sir Robin ambushes Prince John's soldiers and redistributes his riches to Saxons in need. Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland), a royal ward of King Richard's, is initially cool to Robin Hood's actions and obvious interest in her. She soon warms to his cause, and him. Sir Guy wants her hand too, but isn't is handy with his wooing words as he is offing people who won't go along with Prince John. There's going to be a showdown between these two. Watch for the use of shadows as these two finally square off one-on-one.

There's not a lot of plot to try and follow here. The Adventures of Robin Hood jumps from one thrilling scene to the next, including an archery competition and Robin Hood's planned execution. Audiences may never see another film where so many men jump from trees and tackle their opponents.

Flynn soars as the outlaw who takes from the rich and gives to the poor. Rains and Rathbone ooze evil while Melville Cooper is a wuss as High Sheriff of Nottingham. There's no fight he'd rather avoid.

The Adventures of Robin Hood won three Oscars for art direction, editing and score. This fine film was also nominated for best picture.

Kevin Costner, you're no Errol Flynn. See this film.

RATING: 9/10

FUN FACTS: Claude Rains was King Herod in The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Eugene Pallette made his screen debut in a 1913 short, The Fugitive.

Una O'Connor appears as Maid Marian's lady-in-waiting. Her last role was in Witness for the Prosecution.

The Adventures of Robin Hood was shot in California.

Dodge City (1939)

Errol Flynn in a western?

The Hollywood legend is remembered more for his adventures on sea (Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk) than his work with a six-shooter.

But here he is in his first of about a half-dozen westerns.

Dodge City is a keeper complete with everything a fan of the genre would expect - a bumbling sidekick, a fine romance, plenty of action and some good laughs.

The American Civil War is over and the western United States is beginning to be developed. Wade Hatton (Flynn) and his buddies Rusty Hart (Alan Hale) and Tex Baird (Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams) have finished work on a rail line leading to Dodge City, Kansas.

Col. Dodge (Henry O'Neill) appeals to Haddon to stay in the town named in his honour. Hatton declines, opting instead to head further west. His departure doesn't happen before he helps with the arrest of Jeff Surrett (Bruce Cabot). He has hunted buffalo illegally and murdered Indians. Surrett vows revenge.

Hatton opts to return to Dodge City six years later. A young lady who's made the move to the now booming community, Abbie Irving (Olivia de Havilland), has caught his eye. He also gets fed up with the on-going violence in Dodge after youngster Harry Cole (Bobs Watson) gets caught up in a gunfight. The unruly community ("The town that knew no ethics, but cash and killing.") and is ruled by Surrett and his enforcers, especially Yancey (Victor Jory), has a new sheriff with Hatton.

He moves quickly to bring order to the community. Restrictions are put on weapons. Hours of gambling are curtailed. Taxes are introduced. A clash with his old friend Surrett is inevitable. He's now a cattle kingpin earning a $100,000 annually (wonder what that coin is worth now?). The clean-up job is so efficient Tex wants to leave. "I just don't fit in a sissy town like this."

Dodge City, directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, White Christmas) boasts some very fine Technicolor shots of the American west. There's an amazing barroom brawl between old Civil War enemies. Hart has taken a temperance pledge before coming to Dodge City. Watch for the very funny scene when he's tempted to go into Surrett's saloon, opts instead to attend a temperance meeting next door and struggles with his decision.

Flynn looks great and presents Hatton as a soft-talking enforcer who won't put up with any guff in his town. Jory is impressive as Surrett's henchman. Cabot does well too as the chief villian who tries to lure Hatton into an arrangement that can make both men happy. de Havilland is radiant and feisty as Irving, a woman who's reluctant to embrace Hatton's wooing attempts.

Dodge City is a great western with a fine cast. Watch it.

RATING: 9/10

FUN FACTS: Bruce Cabot was in the cast of the original King Kong.

Alan Hale's son, Alan Hale, Jr., was the Skipper in Gilligan's Island.

We're No Angels (1955)

Director Michael Curtiz will be remembered for helming several classic films including Casablanca, White Christmas and The Adventures of Robin Hood.



We're No Angels isn't one of them.



This 1955 effort, one of Humphrey Bogart's last screen appearances, boasts some funny lines, ranging from mildly amusing to loud guffaws, and a delightful short appearance by Basil Rathbone. But boy, it moves slow. Plus, these heroes are hard to cheer for given the crimes they've committed.





Joseph (Bogart), Albert (Aldo Ray) and Jules (Peter Ustinov) escape from a prison on Devil's Island. They need to get on a passenger ship that's anchored offshore due to an outbreak. To buy some time, and keep out of sight, they offer themselves as repairmen to fix the leaky roof of less-than-successful shopkeeper Felix Ducotel (Leo G. Carroll).





While roaming around the roof eavesdropping on conversations, the trio of convicts on the lam learn what's happening with Ducotel and his family. His cranky, dominating cousin Andre Trochard (Rathbone) is on said ship with plans to see how the business he owns is doing. With him is his son Paul (John Baer), who Ducotel's daughter Isabelle (Gloria Talbott) loves dearly.





Joseph, Albert and Jules have nasty things planned for Felix and his clan including cleaning out their inventory and killing them. But the merchant, his wife Amelie (Joan Bennett) and Isabelle all impress with their kindness towards them. The three put some of the skills that put them behind bars to work. Joseph has a convincing way with customers and drums up cash sales. Felix lets his customers put their purchases on account with payments rarely made. Albert enjoys the company of women and offers Isabelle suggestions on how to deal with Paul. Jules' ability at picking locks pays dividends too. A delightful Christmas meal is put together by means that wouldn't agree with the Ten Commandments.



The goodwill the three have towards the businessman and his family doesn't extend to Andre. They still have a snake that killed a guard and helped them escape from prison. Can said reptile put the bite on another adversary of the three men?



We're No Angels is based on a play so once the convicts set up shop in the store they don't move around much. As with Wait Until Dark, reviewed earlier on this site, this viewer gets antsy with a story set in one location. There's also the matter of the trio's backgrounds. Jules and Albert have, in particular, done nasty things and Joseph still sees murder as an expedient way to solve problems. It's hard to be entirely comfortable with characters like those.



The script's laughs are fairly frequent, but they come with a lot of effort from the audience's patience.



RATING: 6.5/10



FUN FACTS: Internet Movie Database credits Leo G. Carroll as the actor with the most credits in Alfred Hitchock's films. Hitchcock, with his mandatory brief appearances, has the most.



John Baer's credits also include Night of the Blood Beast and Superman and the Mole-Men.



John Smith, who appears briefly as the passenger ship's medical officer, made his film debut as a choir member in Bing Crosby's Going My Way in 1944. He'd be with the choir again in another Crosby production, The Bells of St. Mary's.



We're No Angels was remade in 1989 with Robert DeNiro and Sean Penn. I liked that version even less.

Captain Blood (1935)

Come sail away with Captain Blood.



Director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood) delivers a fantastic effort with a super cast, great romance, solid laughs and plenty of adventure.



Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) has put his violent ways behind him and "became a man of peace, not of war." He's a doctor in England. He's accused of treason when he treats an insurgent during the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685.



Blood is banished to the West Indies where he's sold into slavery. The slave with an attitude catches the eye of Arabella Bishop (Olivia de Havilland), the beautiful niece of hard-driving mine owner Col. Bishop (Lionel Atwill). She buys him. He goes to work for her uncle.



Blood uses his leverage as a competent doctor over the two boobs who pass as physicians on the island (Hobart Cavanaugh, Donald Meek) to gain favour with the island's governor. He plans an escape with other rebels and, with the help of a Spanish pirate attack, succeeds.



Col. Bishop is livid and vows revenge. His niece is heartbroken at losing the man she secretly loves. Blood becomes a success stalking ships in the Caribbean. Against his better judgment, he agrees to a pact with a French pirate, Levasseur (Basil Rathbone), who doesn't share his gentlemanly ways.



When Levasseur captures a British vessel with the lovely Arabella on board, Blood aims to free her from his comrade and get her back to Port Royal, even though he'll be confronted by numerous British ships. Death appears inevitable. His crew threatens to mutiny.



Flynn is great as Blood, quick with a quip and handy with a sword. Atwill and Rathbone make two fine villains on land and sea. Atwill is a particularly nasty fellow as he literally brands troublemakers. de Havilland is lovely and strong as Arabella.





Captain Blood is one of the finest swashbuckling films ever made. "Courage, join with me." You'll be glad you did.



RATING: 8/10



FUN FACTS: Errol Flynn's first role was as Fletcher Christian in In the Wake of the Bounty. Basil Rathbone's late career included, sigh, appearances in Hillbillys in a Haunted House and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini.



Captain Blood received Oscar nods including three write-in nominations (director, picture, recording). Olivia de Havilland, born in 1916, is still alive and lives in Paris, France.

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

It's worth the wait to see one of the most famous screen shots of James Cagney near this film's finale.



His character, Rocky Sullivan (Cagney), faces the death penalty for killing two crime associates followed by a handful of police officers in a last-ditch effort to escape justice.



Watch, and savour, the iconic shot of a defiant Sullivan walking in the shadows towards the electric chair. This is great stuff.



Angels with Dirty Faces is a good, but not great, film. There's no big surprises in this film's plot, but what a cast.

Sullivan and childhood pal Jerry Connolly (Pat O'Brien) followed very different career paths. The pair grew up poor. Both stole, but Connolly only put his hands on things he needed to survive. Sullivan was a little more enterprising.



When an attempted theft of pens from a rail car goes bad, it's Sullivan who ends up in a juvenile detention centre. Connolly escaped police. The stint is the first of several arrests for Sullivan as he gradually gets involved in more serious crimes.



Connolly took a very different career path and became a priest. He's rector of a Catholic parish in his old neighbourhood. Father Jerry and Rocky get re-acquainted when the convict gets released from prison. He rents a room from the girl he pestered as a youngster, Laury Ferguson (Ann Sheridan), now a fine-looking lady. Sullian is interested. Ferguson, not so much.



Sullivan is eager to see his crooked lawyer, James Frazier (Humphrey Bogart), who's holding on to $100,000 of his cash. Hey, this is the Great Depression and that's serious scratch. Frazier, now managing a ritzy nightclub under boss Mac Keefer (George Bancroft), is less-than-pleased to see Sullivan is still alive. He's keen to put Sullivan away for good.



Father Jerry is doing his best to encourage a gang of street toughs to live honest lives and steer clear of crime's allure. But that job is hard to do when Sullivan shows up sporting fine threads and a pocketful of bills. Father Jerry encourages his old friend to be a mentor to the kids. Sullivan is persuaded, somewhat. When Keefer figures out a way to get Sullivan in trouble, it's Rocky who turns to the kids to keep his cash stash safe.



Rocky is back in the big money. Laury, who lost her husband to crime, starts to warm to imagining a life with him. Father Jerry is determined not to be wooed by Sullivan's generous offers of cash help to build a new recreation centre for youth. What good will it do, he reasons, when that site is surrounded by people profiting from crime? Instead, he vows to bring Sullivan and his crowd down.



It's tough to see legendary tough guy Bogart as a cowardly lawyer who mops his brow and begs for his life when he's in danger. But, as film historian Dana Polan notes in a commentary accompanying this 1938 film from Michael Curtiz, he was still being groomed for stardom by Warner Brothers. Casablana, Key Largo and The Treasure of the Sierre Madre would follow.



Cagney is the best thing in this film. He's tough. He's funny. There's still some good in a guy who turned to crime many years before.



RATING: 7.5/10



FUN FACTS: Curtiz would go on to direct Bogart in Casablanca.



Cagney and O'Brien reunited more than 40 years later for Ragtime.

George Bancroft was Curley in John Ford's Stagecoach.

Billy Halop, leader of the Dead End Kids in Angels with Dirty Faces, played recurring character Bert Munson in television's All in the Family.

Frankie Burke made his film debut playing a young Rocky Sullivan. He appeared in 18 films between 1938 and 1941. He died in 1983 at age 67.