Ham makes me self-conscious

You may be wondering about the title of this post. Ham makes me self conscious? What does that even mean? I'm the worlds worst spoiler-alerter (usually) so I'm going to show some restraint and not explain the meaning behind this. 

My dear friend Mickaela joined me for the viewing of this film, as she had never seen it either. She brought a bottle of wine to enjoy and stopped to grab this delicious bottle of said vino at one of our favorite places, Cyril's.  If you live in Portland and you've never been, I highly recommend you check it out. Anyway, they asked what we were having for dinner and, naturally, Mickaela said "Popcorn." So they said "Ok...well, you better have a red. Here's a lovely bottle that pairs phenomenally with butter, so make sure you put a lot of butter on your popcorn and sip the wine right after you've had a few kernels. It will make the wine taste buttery as well." (I'm sure they said this much more eloquently than I just did). I also like that they told her "make sure you put a lot of butter on your popcorn." As if we wouldn't put enough butter on our popcorn?! What do they think this is, amateur hour?

Ok, I'm getting off track here. Back to the review.

Synopsis

A patriotic and entertaining musical that tells the story of the Cohan family: Four Vaudeville entertainers (mom, dad, brother and sister) who sing and dance their way to stardom in the early 20th century. George Cohan (played by James Cagney) is the narrator and lead of the film, and proceeds to tell his rags to riches story to none other than Franklin D. Roosevelt, who invites him to the Oval Office for a meeting following the opening of George's new play. From here, you're taken through the birth of George Cohan (who just so happens to be born on the 4th of July, and who is named after George Washington), his childhood, his life lessons, the meeting of his wife Mary, the ups and downs of the vaudeville entertainment industry, and then finally back to present day. Well, that is, the present day of the early 20th century...

Fun Facts, Compliments of IMDB

  • James Cagney became the first actor to win the Best Actor Academy Award for a musical performance.

  • This film marks the first time a living US President was depicted in a film.

  • A hugely patriotic film, production was already underway when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor took place.

  • Fred Astaire was first offered the leading role but turned it down.

  • James Cagney was 11 years older than his screen mother Rosemary DeCamp.

  • Despite failing health, the real George M. Cohan acted briefly as a consultant on the film. He lived long enough to see the finished result and approved wholeheartedly of James Cagney's depiction of himself.

Ryen's Review - Meh

I have to admit, this film was not my favorite. While patriotic, upbeat and most likely every musical-fanatic's dream, I was confronted with some things that I was not expecting. For instance, the use of blackface in the film. Before this film, I was unaware that Vaudeville used blackface in their productions. Hell, I didn't even know what vaudeville was if I'm being 100% honest. After a bit of research, I found that blackface was widely used in Vaudeville theater in the 1930's and 1940's. However, witnessing this in the film made me feel incredibly uncomfortable. 

James Cagney won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Musical for this film, and was in blackface (as was the rest of his family) during a performance as "The Cohan's" in later scenes. That, to me, is just utterly bonkers... Meanwhile, every African American who was cast in this film was cast as the "hired help." There were no lead or heroic roles given to African American actors for Yankee Doodle Dandy. 

I did not enjoy this film as much as I thought I would. It's one I think you can miss. It's one you don't need to write home about, and while it was the first musical to receive an award for Best Actor, I don't really agree with it being on the Top 100 list. Even though this wasn't the best film ever, I did enjoy it with wine and a dear friend; two of my favorite things.