https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Doodle_Dandy#Awards_and_honors
Awards and honors:
The film won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (James Cagney), Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Sound Recording (Nathan Levinson). It was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Walter Huston), Best Director, Best Film Editing for George Amy, Best Picture and Best Writing, Original Story.[17] 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".
American Film Institute recognition:
1998: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #100
2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs – #71
The Yankee Doodle Boy
2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
"My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you." – #97
2006: AFI's 100 Years of Musicals – #18
2006: AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – #88
2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - #98
Roger Ebert's movie review is a good read:
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-yankee-doodle-dandy-1942
Some good quotes from it:
"....whatever he did, Cagney came across as one of the most dynamic performers in movie history--a short man with ordinary looks whose coiled tension made him the focus of every scene. . .......he was Hollywood's leading crime star--even at the studio that also had Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart under contract. But he didn't win his Oscar until 1942, when he played Broadway showman George M. Cohan in “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” ... ..... Audiences didn't expect to see Cagney singing and dancing. He'd been a hoofer in his stage days, but danced only once in a major film (“Footlight Parade,” 1933)......Cagney wasn't a dancer by Astaire's standards, or a singer by anybody's, but he was such a good actor he could fake it: “Cagney can't really dance or sing,” observes the critic Edwin Jahiel, “but he acts so vigorously that it creates an illusion, and for dance-steps he substitutes a patented brand of robust, jerky walks, runs and other motions.” ... ...... He doesn't dance so much as strut; he doesn't act so much as sell you his desire to entertain. In dialogue scenes, when other actors are talking, his eyes dart across their faces, silently urging them to pick up the energy; he's like Michael Jordan impatiently willing his co-stars to keep up with him. And when he's in full sail, as in “Give My Regards to Broadway” or “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” it's like regarding a force of nature......"
Robert
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