User Reviews

James Cagney wrote in his autobiography that the only films he watched in his retirement years continually were the musical ones. He regretted he didn't do more of them. So do I, so should we all.

While The West Point Story isn't the greatest film Cagney ever did at Warner Brothers, it's far from the worst and I find it charming and entertaining.

This was his second film with Virginia Mayo and quite a contrast it was after White Heat. The lovely Ms. Mayo also got to show what a good dancer she was both with Cagney and Gene Nelson.

The singing is carried in this film by Doris Day and Gordon MacRae. Usually folks don't think of Gordon MacRae as Doris's most frequent leading man, but in fact he did four films with her. He had a wonderful baritone voice and he could easily adapt to light musical fare like The West Point Story or do operetta like The Desert Song which he did a few years later. It's too bad for MacRae that he did not come along 20 years earlier and could have done a few of those operettas the way Nelson Eddy did.

Gene Nelson was a fine dancer who when musicals went out of vogue, turned to directing. Another talented performer who came along a little too late. He never got the credit for being the fine dancer he was.

The plot is simple, James Cagney and Virginia Mayo once a good pair of top choreographers are reduced to seedy nightclub work. Cagney gets an opportunity to go to West Point to help put on the annual 100th night show the graduating class does. The catch is he has to try to lure Gordon MacRae to the bright lights of Broadway for his producer uncle Roland Winters. From there the plot evolves.

And it's a nice story with good musical numbers even though Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn got no hits out of the score. Still the songs are well integrated into the plot.

I think people will enjoy watching The West Point Story.

When previewing a performance for the musical show being put on, Cagney says "Wouldn't hiss, wouldn't cheer." That about sums it up perfectly, except that I am hissing - some. This movie musical about Cagney helping West Point cadets put on a musical revue, simply just lays there. Despite his energetic presence and the talents of Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, and Virginia Mayo, it comes across as lifeless. The musical numbers are upbeat and Cagney uses his whole body to show disgust for incompetent amateurs (if you've seen it, you know what I mean,) but the songs are not original or grand enough to really stand out. It may seem pleasant enough at the time, but after nearly two hours, you feel worn out. See another Doris Day or James Cagney film first.

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

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.

Cagney plays Elwin "Bix" Bixby, a formerly successful showman with a very bad temper, reduced to staging the numbers at a hole-in-the-wall Manhattan nightclub, assisted by his long-suffering fiancée, Eve (Virginia Mayo). Bix is more or less blackmailed into accepting a job directing the 100th Night show at West Point by a Broadway producer. The catch? The producer wants Bix to persuade his nephew, Tom (Gordon MacRae), the star and co-writer of the show with his friend Hal (Gene Nelson), to give up the Army for a singing career. So Bix (who hates West Point, based on past Army experiences) ends up at the Academy along with Eve, directing the show but temperamentally at odds with the lifestyle.

Somehow the solution to this is to make him a cadet (don't even ask, it makes no sense). And in the course of events, he persuades a movie star acquaintance, Jan Wilson (Doris Day), who is on a press junket in New York City, to travel up the Hudson to attend a formal dance at the Point as Tom's "drag." I forget why, but who cares? The plot just gets more incomprehensible as the show goes on, but the fact is, this movie is still a lot of fun. I disagree with some of the people here because I think the original songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn are terrific. None were hits, but there are just a lot of really good songs here. And the arrangements are in the best Ray Heindorf style. Cagney is fantastic, more dynamic and committed than 10 other actors. The singing, by Day and MacRae, is top-notch, and Doris in particular elevates every scene she's in, she's like a human antidepressant. Gene Nelson, an excellent dancer, has a few good numbers, and Virginia Mayo is sincere and funny as Cagney's girl and a very good dancer as well.

If you choose to focus on the positives and if you can manage to ignore some of the plot holes, you should have a good time with this one.

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".

James Cagney really gives his all (and that's plenty of talent) to the role of a rambunctious song-and-dance man who takes over a show at West Point, with the help of a talented cast including Virginia Mayo, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae and Gene Nelson. Cagney struts around getting angry and defiant as only he can, bringing lots of much needed life to a tiresome script. It's one of his best as a song-and-dance man, making one wish he had done even more musical films.

But this one could have used Technicolor and a wittier script with better songs. All of the talent cannot overcome the story's limitations and the overuse of rear projection photography for many of the outdoor scenes. Alan Hale, Jr. gets some good chuckles out of his "Princess" role and there's a light-heartiness about the whole film that keeps it entertaining enough for the most part.

Doris Day is missing from the first third of the movie, but once she shows up she demonstrates why she became such a cheerful Warner Bros. star. She and Gordon MacRae do nicely by a couple of forgettable songs.

Summing up: Worth seeing for Cagney alone. He's in fine shape for some energetic dance routines.

This one was a real disappointment. I mean with James Cagney, Doris Day, Virginia Mayo and Gene Nelson how could they go wrong! Somehow they did. Cursed with a dumb screenplay, clutzy direction, far too many stock shots of West Point and pretty sloppy rear screen projections, WEST POINT STORY just doesn't make it. Cagney is great as always, as is Doris Day, (and that the Academy has never seen fit to give her an honorary Oscar is a real crime!), but the songs they have, by Sammy Kahn and Julie Styne, no less are instantly forgettable. And to put the icing on the cake, the thing is filmed in not so glorious black and white!!! I can't believe that Jack Warner couldn't have sprung for color, but there you are! (Remember, this is the same man who passed on Julie Andrews for MY FAIR LADY!) Anyway, see it for Cagney and Doris, but otherwise give it a pass. A five..not horrible..not great...just "Bleh!"

Jimmy Cagney reunites with his White Heat co-star Virginia Mayo in a very different kind of movie - a musical comedy about a Broadway director who goes to the West Point military academy to put on a show. Cagney is the Broadway director and Mayo is his singing and dancing girlfriend. The two have a banter and chemistry that I enjoyed a lot. Doris Day is Cagney's movie star protégé he ropes into helping with the show. She falls for West Point cadet Gordon MacRae and the two sing quite a bit. It's an enjoyable film, although the songs are mostly forgettable. I think this was meant as more of a showcase for rising stars Day and MacRae but it's Cagney and Mayo who keep the film interesting. Added bonus is seeing Alan Hale, Jr. act alongside Cagney. Jimmy was in several movies with Alan Hale, Sr. who died earlier this same year.

There's a lesson to be learned here: no amount of talent can save a musical production weighted with a lame script and mediocre songs. Talent is abundant in this film, with no less than five terrific stars above the title. Yet, song after song, number after number, the picture just seems to sit there, limp and lifeless. A nice try, but "The West Point Story" remains only a fairly watchable, average film. Yet, there's no denying the bountiful talent of Cagney-Mayo-Day-MacRae-Nelson.

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.

Decent Gene Nelson hoofing, plus DD's boogie woogie bit about sheep and the song and dance tribute to Brooklyn by Cagney/Mayo form three tasty ingredients in a large stew of boredom. And if I had to hear about that friggin kissing rock one more time I'd have hurled all over my date! C minus.

He spits out lame dialog like it was Shakespeare, he talk-sings with a verve that could give Rex Harrison or Robert Preston lessons, he stomps up and down, he uppercuts, he dances up a storm. There's plenty of A-list talent in this uninspired Warners musical, but a 51-year-old Cagney is pretty much the whole show, and he appears to believe in the hole-filled plot so much that you buy it, too, despite the many lapses of logic. I find his teaming with Virginia Mayo a little distasteful--he's plainly too old for her--but she lends a lot of enthusiasm, too, as does Doris Day, given some middling Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn ballads to warble (and some very unattractive gowns to model), and Gene Nelson, tapping exuberantly, and Gordon MacRae, with his fine natural baritone. Cagney felt he did his best dancing in this film, and it's worth sitting through the dated, hit-you-on-the-head patriotism and weird plot mechanics to get to his virtuosic numbers--he even taps a bit with Day, who started out as a dancer and keeps up brilliantly with him. It's not a good movie, exactly, but I'd trade a lot of neater, better-crafted musicals for this one's dumb liveliness, and for Cagney's genius. I mentioned Robert Preston above; Cagney was, in fact, considered for Professor Harold Hill before Preston was hired. I think he'd have been terrific.

... 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.

James Cagney stars in a not very good musical that is set at West Point. James Cagney is good as usual but the script isn't very good. Doris Day is Ok but she was better in Young man with a horn. Virginia Mayo is gorgeous and the best thing in the movie.

In a blatant attempt to recapture the spirit of James Cagney's 1942 hit "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (the trailer even promises this to be "the dandiest Yankee Doodle of them all!") comes a highly-concocted story from Irving Wallace about a down-and-out-showman staging a musical revue at a military academy. Corny in the extreme, but hoofing Cagney's still got the goods; his dance routines liven up the pace of this puff-piece, though they don't exactly make it a memorable vehicle for any of the stars. Virginia Mayo and Doris Day are the gals on hand, and Day's fans will surely be disappointed by her weak musical material and the fact she gets the short shrift in favor of Mayo (who has the better role and yet still projects all the personality of a fashionable mannequin). ** from ****

MUCH LIKE THE proverbial knight who hops on his horse and attempts to ride out into all directions at once, this film tries too hard to please its audience in too many ways. Rather than opting for one main genre (i.e., musical comedy), its mission in celluloid life appears to have intended as multi-genre comedy, musical, drama, service picture and show biz behind the scenes saga/tribute.

THE CAST WAS superb. It reunited stars James Cagney and Virginia Mayo from their success of the previous year in WHITE HEAT; although the pairing was hardly to be considered neither as intense nor nearly as memorable. it also served as a re-teaming of Doris Day and Gordon Mac Rae; who apparently were intended to be a team.

ALSO PROMINENT IN he cast is "Skipper" (himself), Alan Hale, Jr.; who does some great on screen support in dramatic and comic relief. It is in fact as noticeable of a screen appearance that he had during a long career in both the movies and television.

WITH THE EXCEPTION of what appears to be an excessive application of the art of the Rear Screen Projection. Cagney & Mayo are seen in what seems to be an eternity of walking/talking with the West Point campus shown behind them.

SOME ENJOYABLE PERFORMANCES turned in by Gene Nelson, Roland Winters and an unbilled Frank Ferguson are worth mentioning. Added to a typically "anonymous" Warner Brothers stock company providing the needed support.

AS FOR OUR recommendations, we say see it, once anyway. It will definitely amuse, if somewhat confound.

On viewing the cast list I thought this would have to be good - but what a disappointment.

Cagney acts as a caricature of himself, in fact he seems like a cross between Mickey Rooney and the Bowery Boys, and although the rest of the leads are good (Gordon MacRae and Doris Day singing and especially Gene Nelson dancing) there is no real sparkle to lift this from the mundane.

The basic idea of using West Point is good, with the conflict between the unreal atmosphere of a training school and the real world, but this was not exploited, and one got the feeling that the powers-that-be in West Point had script approval to ensure that only a rosy view of life there was portrayed.

To make a successful musical comedy you need a good script with laughs and memorable songs, none of which this had.

Overall one to avoid.

...but who cares? Watch it to see how the versatile, hard-working stars at Warner Bros. could turn a pedestrian plot into a breezy, lighthearted, song-and-dance treat.

MGM may have been the king of the genre and Fox certainly had its share of toe-tapping performers, but there's something about those old black-and-white Warner Bros. musicals that continue to entertain me. From the 1930s up to the 1950s, they always had a gritty, plain- talking quality that made them very different from what the other studios offered.

What a pleasure to watch James Cagney, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, and the saucy Virginia Mayo (who never got enough credit during her career) light up the screen with their remarkable talents.

Yes, the story doesn't make sense and most of the tunes are uninspired but I'll still give it an 8 for fun.

After James Cagney won his Oscar for Yankee Doodle Dandy, he acted in a few other show biz films to continue to show off his tap dancing talents. His performance in The West Point Story was so awful, I can only suppose he was sick and tired of being cast in musicals and wanted to embarrass himself so much the studios would never cast him in one again. His character was supposed to throw frequent temper tantrums, but he spent the entire film over-acting, over-gesturing, and over-yelling. If I wasn't convinced of his ulterior motives, I would have felt very sorry for him.

In the movie, James Cagney is a washed-up theater director put in charge of a rinky-dink variety show at West Point. He brings his best gal, Virginia Mayo, along, but despite his horrible treatment of her and the sudden appearance of dozens of handsome uniforms, she only has eyes for Jimmy. It doesn't make any sense, but neither does the rest of the screenplay. The romances are contrived and uninspired, and the obstacles are resolved in unrealistic, far from poignant paths.

When James Cagney "sang" the production number "B'klyn," my mom and I groaned and buried our heads in our hands. "I'd rather listen to 'The International Rag'!" my mom lamented, referencing our favorite love-to-hate song from Call Me Madam. Even with Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, and Virginia Mayo rounding out the supporting cast, there isn't even one good number to make the movie worthwhile. There's no reason for you to rent this one, unless you have a low opinion of James Cagney and want to keep it that way.