[rating: 3]
The American Film Institute puts Yankee Doodle Dandy at number 100 on its list of the all-time best movies. On any list this large, the 100 spot tends to be more of a "we've got to start somewhere" point than anything else, and that's as true in this case as in any other. That's not to say that it's a bad movie—it isn't—but I don't know that it's one of the "best." It's an enjoyable picture, but no better or worse than, nor particularly different from, countless other films of the period. By that I mean it's got a song and dance every few minutes, a moment of slapstick, fall-out-of-your-hammock style comedy here and there, and a cast of people who all talk at about five thousand words a second.
The movie presents the road to success life story of actor/songwriter/playwright George M. Cohan, with James Cagney, the original side-of-the-mouth talker, giving an Oscar winning performance in the lead role. Thanks largely to this movie, there's this incredibly odd dichotomy in people's minds when they think of Jimmy Cagney; on the one hand he's a tough-guy gangster who'd as soon shoot you as look at you and on the other ...