Yankee Doodle Dandy

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) — watch online this Warner Bros. musical biopic directed by Michael Curtiz on iFILM. James Cagney plays George M. Cohan, the songwriter, playwright, producer, dancer and actor who more or less invented the template for the American stage musical — his own words, his own music, his own staging, and always himself at the center of it.

The film frames Cohan's life as a long reminiscence told to the president: born on the Fourth of July, 1878, into a vaudeville family, the story runs from his childhood stage appearances through decades of Broadway hits and on to the wartime songs — "Over There," "Give My Regards to Broadway" — that became part of the national fabric. Walter Huston plays his father, Joan Leslie his wife Mary; the period re-creations of Cohan's actual shows are staged with full Broadway scale.

Cagney took home the Best Actor Oscar for this performance — still one of the most physically committed turns in screen musical history. He doesn't perform a tap number; he attacks it. Curtiz shot the picture while the Second World War was ongoing, and that context runs underneath every patriotic note. Stream Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) online on iFILM.