Dandy Cagney Goes to Town With Role in ‘Yankee Doodle’

James Cagney wasn’t the only actor to swaddle himself in the American flag. Orange County’s own John Wayne, for one, wrapped the Stars and Stripes around so tightly in his many war movies that some of us wondered how he could breathe at all.

But he-man patriotism was Wayne’s calling card. You couldn’t say the same for Cagney early in his career, and that’s what made “Yankee Doodle Dandy” such a surprise.

Cagney, with his grapefruit-in-your-face machismo and alley-wise smarts, was a gangster, pure and simple. He may have been a personable, even lovable, one--but a bad boy nonetheless. From “Public Enemy” in 1930 and onward through a handful of crime pictures, Cagney etched his screen persona.

He took a screeching right turn in 1942, the year “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (which screens for free at the Cypress Senior Citizen Center on Wednesday and July 8 afternoons) came out. In this sentimental Michael Curtiz-directed picture, Cagney portrays George M. Cohan, Broadway’s red-white-and-blue darling during the early 1900s.

Cohan made his reputation by writing musicals with homey values and often bulging with patriotic songs. Among others, he penned “Over There,” the unofficial anthem of World War I. “Yankee Doodle Dandy” begins at the triumphant end of Cohan’s career, in a White House meeting with F.D.R., where a series of flashbacks takes us through the many ups and few downs of his life.

Curtiz sets the tone by dwelling suggestively on Cohan’s birthday on the Fourth of July. We know right off that the plucky Cohan (played as a boy by antsy child actor Douglas Croft) is destined to be America’s sweetheart, whether dressed in a kid’s short pants or the numerous costumes he sheathed himself in as an adult.

There’s mawkish romanticism in Curtiz’s and screenwriters Robert Buckner’s and Edmund Joseph’s hero-worship, but it rarely annoys as much as it should. Credit Cagney’s performance with literally dancing us over these rough passages.

Audiences of the day tended to forget that Cagney started in theater as a song-and-dance man, but they were soon reminded of it in “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” He’s a thrill to watch, jumping, wiggling and lurching through some of the most athletic and idiosyncratic steps ever captured on film. When the movie starts to fade, Curtiz just puts Cagney back on stage, and our interest is revived.

His latent edginess, which made him the consummate gangster, is here too. Even when Cohan is trying to be gentle and generous, the quirks in Cagney’s personality spit through. That deflates enough of the arch melodrama and keeps us wondering what Cohan is all about.

Of course, “Yankee Doodle Dandy” is short on answers--picture biographies from the ‘40s tended to ignore facts, opting instead for more emotional entertainment--but that doesn’t dissuade us. Curtiz and Cagney make their point, that dreamland America can be a helluva place, especially for gutter snipes (like Cagney) turned glitter stars (like Cohan).

Who: Michael Curtiz’s “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

When: Wednesday, July 6, and Friday, July 8, at 12:45 p.m.

Where: The Cypress Senior Citizen Center, 9031 Grindlay St., Cypress.

Whereabouts: Take the San Gabriel River (605) Freeway to Lincoln Avenue and head east to Grindlay Street, then go right.

Wherewithal: Free.

Where to call: (714) 229-6776.