The West Point Story

A shame really. With the talent, how could one go wrong with Doris Day, James Cagney, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson and Virginia Mayo, 'The West Point Story' could and should have been really good, even if not an instant classic.

Well something did go wrong, because 'The West Point Story' (despite being called 'Fine and Dandy' here, being British it is being referred to by its English, and original, title, just wanted to clarify to save any confusion) was a heavily problematic, lacklustre effort that doesn't even utilise its talent very well (even though they still come off well). Not an awful film, but not a particularly good one but more of a difficult to rate film for me.

The best thing about it is Cagney, who may not be exactly subtle (which came across to me as making the most out of, and doing at least something with, his material), but brings a tremendous amount of energy which is a marvel to watch. So much so that it makes one frustrated that that energy doesn't come over in most other elements. Day and MacRae also don't come off too shabbily. Day is fresh and endearing and one cannot get enough of her voice that shines even in not so great material. Meanwhile, MacRae shows off his warm baritone voice to perfection and is a charmer on screen, when he and Day are on screen they are irresistible.

Mayo and Nelson deserved better (as did Day and MacRae) but do a lot with what they have. Mayo is luminous, snappy and saucy, while Nelson's dancing is as dazzling as ever. The songs are pleasant enough and sung beautifully.

Against all that, of the songs there isn't one that stands out and it is crying out for a show-stopper. Likewise with having a show-stopper of a dancing sequence for Nelson, he dances really well and the choreography is witty and graceful but at the same time there is nothing extraordinary or memorable. As said though, Day and MacRae do sound wonderful and the songs suit their voices, one just wishes that the overall standard was more inspired.

Nothing against black and white (there is a very big group of great films and even masterpieces in black and white), but 'The West Point Story' also cried out for Technicolor. The sets do look shoestring-budget cheap with obvious rear projection and the cinematography is dull. Roy Del Ruth is the sort of director who could do this with his eyes closed and despite some energetic moments in some of the choreography elsewhere this was a real going through the motions effort from him.

Script goes overboard in the silliness and feels very limp too. Worst of all is the story, which is pedestrian in pace, takes silliness and contrivance to very high degrees and is filled with inconsistencies, dumbness and improbabilities, with very forced subplots and parts that don't really go anywhere. Day is also rather underused with a character that is given short shrift too much.

Overall, very difficult to rate but generally very disappointing. 5/10 Bethany Cox

A silly story, forgettable songs and a poor stage show of cadets on parade. But what fun! The best thing Doris Day did while at Warner Bros. The most alive performance of Virginia Mayo ever. And James Cagney at his best, dancing, fighting, arguing and filling the picture with his legendary personality. It must be seen to be believed. Cagney, the street boy, the gangster, the tough guy, shines and sparkles in musicals. His performance here is as good if not better than the one that earned him an Oscar (Yankee Doodle Dandy). And this, immediately after his brilliant, hideous, terrific work in White Heat. What an actor! What a dancer! What a performer! It is impossible to define the fine qualities of Roy Del Ruth direction: the man who made some of the better (Folies Bergere de Paris, Broadway Melody of 1936, On the Avenue) as well as some of the worse (Du Barry was a Lady, Broadway Rhytm) musicals in Hollywood history, excelled in West Point Story,working with a screenplay that was only bright dialogue with no story to speak of. See it and understand how Hollywood in its golden age, knew how to make gold out of plumb.

Silly story line about a show staged by an outsider at the Point,but any movie that has singing by Gordon Macrae and Doris Day plus dancing by Virginia Mayo And Gene Nelson is a must see.If only to show today's movie fans the quality of talent that was around during the 1950s' Forget the story,and enjoy the musical numbers.

Next to "Yankee Doodle Dandy", this has Cagney's best dancing. It also has some fine dancing and singing from Virginia Mayo, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae & Gene Nelson. They all do very well, along with an early funny performance by Alan Hale Jr.

Shot in Technicolor, with better songs and more plausible story, this could have been another "The Bandwagon".

Cagney's role is similar to his role in the earlier musical 'Footloght Parade'. As in "Footlight", at one point, one of the dancers is unable to go on and Cagney's character fills in for him. Virginia Mayo plays the same sort of wise-cracking sexy blonde that Joan Blondell played in "Footlight".

The main main plot is Cagney being pressured into joining West Point to help them put on a musical. Adding to that implausibility is a cadet (Gordon MacRae) with a magnificent voice preferring to make a career in the Army, even after falling in love with a famous singing star (Doris Day basically playing herself).

The romance between Cagney and Mayo isn't so far fetched when you look at the movies Fred Astaire made with Leslie Caron, Audrey Hepburn and others. Virginia Mayo displays a fine dancing talent and lovely singing voice, and Doris Day shows she could dance as well as sing. I wish they'd left out the long patriotic number with Gordon MacRae and let him sing a ballad or duet with Doris. Gene Nelson is totally wasted here; they really didn't let him have a big dance number like his Kansas City number in "Oklahoma!" The movie would have been improved had there been an estrangement between Mayo and Cagney with perhaps a dalliance between Mayo and Nelson sparking jealousy in Cagney.

Even though Cagney is noticeably heavier here than in "Yankee Doodle Dandy", he still dances very well and delivers a comic performance complete with facial mugging and explosive tantrums. Those tantrums with lots of hopping up and down like a Warner Bros. cartoon character couldn't have been good for Cagney's 50 year old knees! Alan Hale Jr. was quite funny especially when his huge bulk is next to the short statured Cagney. Warner's should have made some sort of police comedy buddy movie with Hale and Cagney.

I enjoyed seeing Cagney and Mayo once again playing totally different parts. They play off each other very well as do Cagney and Day. It's obvious that MacRae and Day look so cute together that they just had to make more movies together with better songs. Cagney was sufficiently impressed with Doris Day that he pushed for her to get the Ruth Etting part in "Love Me Or Leave Me".

... but just forget that and have fun with it. Cagney is Elwin "Bix" Bixby who is a washed up Broadway director, not because he is bad at his job, but because he crossed producer Eberhart (Roland Winters) by getting dancer/singer Jan Wilson (Doris Day) out of the chorus where he felt she was misused, and into a Hollywood contract by teaching her everything he knew.

Bix has a chance to square things with Eberhart and his increasingly impatient fiancée (Virginia Mayo as Eve) by taking a job at West Point directing a show written by Eberhart's nephew, cadet Tom Fletcher (Gordon McRae). What Eberhart really wants is his nephew to leave the army and go on Broadway, where he feels his talents won't be wasted. Bix takes the job, and is soon agreeing with Eberhart's assessment - Tom has the looks, can sing, dance AND wrote the show. Bix can't figure why Tom wants to work for minor duckets in the Army when he could clean up and be famous on Broadway. Why doesn't he just quit West Point? Now Bix is not a bad guy. He's got great courage, he just has a problem with rules, doesn't quite get the concept of camaraderie, and he has an unruly temperament - would you expect less from a Cagney role? Bix just doesn't get these cadets only showing up for rehearsal when their classes and the academy rules permit it, and then one day he punches a cadet and is out of a job UNLESS he becomes a cadet, living the life a cadet along with the uniform, the haircut, and the plebe status. At this point Bix's war record is brought up. Like I said before he had great courage, even saving his platoon in Italy in WWII, but he went AWOL so many times that if this film was true to life he'd actually be in Leavenworth turning big rocks into little ones. This is one of many times you are just going to have to suspend your beliefs.

How does Doris Day figure into all of this? Well it turns out Day, as the girl Bix rescued from the chorus line years ago, is in town, so Bix gets permission to try and get her to come to West Point for an appearance AND he tries to talk her into being the princess in the play. If not they are stuck with Alan Hale Jr. as the princess and romantic lead to Gordon McRae's character. There is only so much suspension of belief that an audience can take! All of this is just a chance for Bix to learn the importance of rules and teamwork he never learned in the war, for some patriotic numbers and speeches that didn't do a movie studio any harm in 1950 in the age of HUAC, and for Warner Brothers to "pass the baton" as you might say to their new generation of singers and dancers, embodied by McRae and Doris Day. Don't worry though, there is enough of Cagney's great dancing to satisfy.

The weirdest thing for me - seeing Cagney and Mayo play a rather functional couple after seeing them together in 1949's White Heat where they had the kind of love life you would expect between a psychopath and a gun moll with wandering eyes.