WEST POINT STORY
US, 1950, 107 minutes, Black and White.
James Cagney, Gordon Mac Rae, Virginia Mayo, Doris Day, Gene Nelson.
Directed by Roy del Ruth.
West Point Story is one of many similar musicals made at Warner Bros. in the late '40s and early '50s. What is of interest is that it is a James Cagney vehicle. He made an excellent comeback as a gangster in White Heat in 1949 and decided that he needed a different kind of film to change his image. He returned to his musical style which won him an Oscar for Yankee Doodle Dandy in 1942.
The film is a variation on 'the show must go on' - this time with Broadway failure and West Point success with the cadets putting on a show. Virginia Mayo is an attractive co-star and Doris Day has a feature role. She is starred with Gordon Mac Rae - and was to appear with him in many musicals including Tea For Two, On Moonlight Bay and By the Light of the Silvery Moon (directed by the present director Roy del Ruth). Surprisingly the film was made in black and white rather than colour. There is much entertaining singing and dancing, romance and ironic Cagney comedy - and a great deal of American patriotism. Perhaps the most surprising thing of all in retrospect is that the screenplay is by Irving Wallace.
1. An entertaining American musical? The tradition of American musical comedies? Situations, the show must go on, songs, dances, comedy, characters? The film as a piece of Americana?
2. Warner Bros. production: black and white photography, Broadway, West Point locations? The Warner Bros. stars? A genial role, although tough, for James Cagney? Doris Day at the beginning of her career? With Gordon MacRae?
3. The conventional plot? The familiar conventions? The West Point variations? The old story with spirit and verve?
4. The world of Broadway and show business, people out of luck, fast talking deals, money? West Point and the military tradition, discipline, codes of honour? The intertwining of the two - with comic and ironic results? The two styles?
5. James Cagney and his pugnacious look and style as an ironically enjoyable hero? His ability with song and dance? Being partnered by Virginia Mayo? His lack of success in New York, Broadway hopes, his agent - and punching him? The deal about West Point? His exasperation with the routines and discipline? Rehearsals? The variation on the older recruit becoming a cadet and experiencing the discipline of military life? Getting up in the morning, exercises, training etc.? Gradual success? The dance and the importing of a famous film star? Romance? Tom's expulsion? The happy ending - West Point and Broadway combine?
6. Virginia Mayo and her popularity, her work with Cagney (in White Heat)? Her continued threats, love for him? Her song and dance ability?
7. Gordon MacRae? as Tom - the serious military cadet, preparing the show, singing, falling in love, the expulsion, reconciliation - and the Broadway prospects?
8. Doris Day as a Hollywood star, her charm, vitality, romance?
9. Gene Nelson and his dancing ability (yielding in the plot to Cagney for dancing)? The various cadets - and the comedy with Alan Hale as the princess?
10. The American patriotic themes with West Point and its traditions, its style? The atmosphere of post-World War Two and the '50s?
