You, John Jones!

This was the first of only a few times Cagney worked at MGM, and the only time during the Louis B. Mayer era that he did so. Cagney didn't do anything else there until the mid 1950's after Mayer was long gone and the studio was in decline. Cagney plays an air raid warden with few lines who is called to duty one night, away from his wife (Ann Sothern) and child (Margaret O'Brien). As John Jones (Cagney) writes his time of arrival in his log book and sits on a park bench, the narrator talks about how that, as an American, he is lucky that air raid duty is boring, and mentions all of the countries where there is constant violence and bombing from the enemy. At this point this becomes Margaret O'Brien's short, as she is the waif that is in terror, or hungry, or missing part of a limb, or in one scene even dead.

The short serves two purposes - it's a patriotic morale booster during WWII to remind Americans how lucky they are that their nation is untouched by the actual warfare raging worldwide, and it was also a device for MGM to build up Margaret O'Brien at the very beginning of her childhood career. At this point she was only six.

This short is an extra on the "Yankee Doodle Dandy" DVD and is interesting largely from a historical perspective, but still worth viewing.

Heavy-handed short gets the glossy MGM treatment as James Cagney, Ann Sothern and Margaret O'Brien play a typical American family during World War II.

His daughter's recitation of The Gettysburg Address makes the father think about how differently things would be if he didn't live in the good old USA.

The effectiveness of this short will depend on just how heavy-handed you think this kind of propaganda was--either then or now--but there's no doubt that WWII audiences were being fed wartime shorts like this as a way to stir patriotism in the hearts of viewers.

The performances are professional and will certainly please fans of the three stars. Mervyn LeRoy directed, so you know how important shorts like these were for the studio. They even borrowed James Cagney from Warner Brothers.

Though the film is dated because of it's obvious World War II origin, You John Jones still has a somewhat relevant message for today. I qualify that with a somewhat because surely 9/11 shattered quite a few illusions about that.

Still we are a wealthy and prosperous country and still relatively safe as opposed to a lot of areas on this globe. May it ever be so as James Cagney realized while doing his thankless job as an air raid warden in World War II America.

Of course these war time shorts brought together folks from different studios for the war effort. Cagney got to work with Ann Sothern and Margaret O'Brien and never did so again.

Wouldn't it be interesting today though if this short film was updated and say Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and their little bambino did something similar? As an example of course.

A mechanical engineer working on planes that soon will be taking part in WWII is seen at the assembly plant. As he arrives home after a day's work, his wife points to their daughter who is seen on a raised platform performing the Gettysburg address for a school presentation. The man, who is on security watch that night in his area, leaves to his tour that night.

As he sits on a park bench, his thoughts go to several areas where the conflict has affected different parts of the world. In each of those images, he sees his young daughter being the victim of the war around her. When he gets home at the end of his shift, he is welcomed by his lovely wife and his daughter that have been secured in the bosom of their safe home. He is a lucky man indeed!

Mervyn LeRoy directed this short propaganda film of 1943. WWII found an important ally in Hollywood, as the industry realized what was at stake and cooperated by turning films in which patriotism and doing the right thing for one's country took center stage. In this short, but effective picture, we are given a bird's eye view about the suffering experienced by other people throughout the world, where the conflict touched their lives.

James Cagney, who was borrowed from Warner Bros. to make this film, was at his best conveying what he felt for the innocent victims. Margaret O'Brien, appears as the daughter who is rehearsing the Gettysburg address for school in her usual enchanting manner. Ann Sothern plays the wife.

Top-notch World War II short designed to draw the attentions of Americans to the plight of children in other countries devastated by the war. It stars Jimmy Cagney as an air raid warden who is grateful his young daughter (Margaret O'Brien) is safe from the bombings people in other countries at the time were enduring. He imagines what it would be like for her in some of these other countries and we see the adorable little Miss O'Brien act out those scenes. This is an entertaining and thought-provoking short with three great on screen talents (Cagney, O'Brien, and Ann Sothern) giving their best. O'Brien is a real treat. She was really a shining star among child actors. With nice direction from Mervyn LeRoy and expert narration from Carey Wilson. Really good.