



In his role as adviser to the film, George M.Jack Mower as Backstage Actor in "Peck's Bad Boy".Eddie Acuff, Walter Brooke, Bill Edwards, and William Hopper as Reporters.George Meeker and Frank Mayo as Hotel Clerks.Fred Kelsey as Irish Cop in "Peck's Bad Boy".Sailor Vincent as Schultz in "Peck's Bad Boy".Dick Wessel and James Flavin as Union Army Veterans.Wallis Clark as President Theodore Roosevelt.Charles Smith, Joyce Reynolds, Dick Chandlee, and Joyce Horne as Teenagers.Dorothy Kelly and Marijo James as Sister Act.Spencer Charters as Stage Manager in Providence.Audrey Long as Dietz and Goff's Receptionist.Cohan's response is a smile before joining in. Not knowing that Cohan is the song's composer, one of them asks if he knows the words. Outside, he joins a military parade, where the soldiers are singing " Over There", and, at first, he isn't singing. As he leaves the White House, after receiving the Congressional Gold Medal from the president, he descends a set of stairs while performing a tap dance (which Cagney thought up before the scene was filmed and undertook without rehearsal). He also marries Mary, a young singer/dancer.Īs his star ascends, he persuades his now struggling parents to join his act, eventually vesting some of his valuable theatrical properties in their name.Ĭohan retires, but returns to the stage several times, culminating in the role of the U.S.

In partnership with Sam Harris, another struggling writer, he finally interests a producer and they are on the road to success. He leaves the act and hawks his songs unsuccessfully to producers. But George gets too cocky as he grows up and is blacklisted by theatrical producers for being troublesome. The film flashes back to his supposed birth on July 4, whilst his father is performing on the vaudeville stage.Ĭohan and his sister join the family act as soon as they learn to dance, and soon The Four Cohans are performing successfully. Cohan is overcome and chats with Roosevelt, recalling his early days on the stage. On the first night, he is summoned to meet the president at the White House, who presents him with a Congressional Gold Medal (though the Cohan character on screen incorrectly identifies the award as the Congressional Medal of Honor). In the early days of World War II, Cohan comes out of retirement to star as President Roosevelt in the Rodgers and Hart musical I'd Rather Be Right. In 1993, Yankee Doodle Dandy was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", and in 1998, the film was included on the American Film Institute's 100 Years.100 Movies list, a compilation of the 100 greatest films in American cinema. The film was a major hit for Warner Brothers, and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning three. According to the special edition DVD, significant and uncredited improvements were made to the script by the twin brothers Julius J. The film was written by Robert Buckner and Edmund Joseph, and directed by Michael Curtiz. Joan Leslie's singing voice was partially dubbed by Sally Sweetland. It stars James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, and Richard Whorf, and features Irene Manning, George Tobias, Rosemary DeCamp, Jeanne Cagney, and Vera Lewis. Cohan, known as "The Man Who Owned Broadway". Yankee Doodle Dandy is a 1942 American biographical musical film about George M.
