A Film Canon

 

 

Despite George M. Cohan's ingenuity in bridging the gap between drama and musical theatre, his biopic is effectively an extended review, providing him with far less biographical detail, or nuanced characterisation, than his counterpart in The Great Ziegfeld. As such, it caters to the patriotic nostalgia and sentimentality typical of the war period, as evinced both in the selections made from Cohan's oeuvre ("Give My Regards To Old Broadway", "I Was Born In Virginia", "Yankee Doodle Boy"), and Cagney's presentation of him as a walking flag, a mere mouthpiece for that patriotism: "It seems it always happens whenever we get too high-hat, too sophisticated for flag-waving, some thug nation decides we're a pushover...and it isn't long before we're looking up mighty anxiously to make sure the flag's still waving over us." That said, there's a certain ingenuity to this reduction, particularly evident in the conflation of parade ground and stage, whether in the form of promotional parades for Cohan's family shows, incorporations of militarism into his later shows or, finally, inspirational peformances for troops on the front. In this way, screenwriters Robert Buckner and Edmund Joseph's ultimate aim seems to be to vindicate Cohan's reception of the Congressional Medal, as well as his identification with President Roosevelt, and, in doing so, to draw pressing attention to the diversities of national service.