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.

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.

Margaret O'Brien is practicing the Gettysburg Address for recital a school. Father Jimmy Cagney leaves her and mother Ann Sothern to perform his duties as an air raid warden. It's a clear night, and he is thankful there are no actual air raid in the United States, just practice. Tired, he falls asleep and dreams of his daughter in a bombed-out English home, as a Greek girl fleeing the soldiers, as a starving child in China, as a corpse in Lidice....

Carey Wilson's narration talks about the lucky nation of the United States, where the home front was actually safe -- unless you were in Honolulu or the Aleutians. I'm not sure how they got Cagney away from Warner Brothers for it, but perhaps director Mervyn Leroy pulled a few strings at his former studio. He was, after all, married to the boss's daughter.

You, John Jones! (1943)

**** (out of 4)

A WW2 Civil Engineer (James Cagney) is called away from his home by an air raid alarm just as his daughter (Margaret O'Brien) is saying the Gettysburg Address for a school project. While the man is watching his post he begins to imagine what it would be like living in another country that is constantly under air raids and what impact this might have on his young daughter. Countless WW2 shorts were produced while the war was going on but I have no problem saying this here is the best of the bunch and in its own way a real masterpiece. The message of the film is quite clear but, given this was a WW2 film, the producer's went pretty far in passing that message off. We see countless scenes with Cagney's young daughter suffering in other countries and this scenes are very realistic and I'm sure hit a very strong nerve with people back in 1943. Cagney is excellent in his role as you can tell he's giving it all his got. The real star here is the young O'Brien who really steals the film with her powerful performance saying the famous speech.

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.