[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Mera, Radio Entertainment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hicks, Nicks, sticks, picks.
[SPEAKER_00]: A podcast about Rob's movies with your hosts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rob's UAC and Josh Sroka.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, ladies and gentlemen, let the show begin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, fake Billy Big Voice AI guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, I announce her works.
[SPEAKER_01]: You like him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's back.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're back.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is episode two of your new favorite podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think everybody really likes it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's called Hicks Nick sticks picks.
[SPEAKER_01]: We actually had a few more downloads for episode one than we expected.
[SPEAKER_01]: So thank you everybody that really shocked and surprised and delighted me.
[SPEAKER_02]: And especially those of you outside of the micro-marish show.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like the people in Great Britain?
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, if you enjoy this, also check out the micro-marish show.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do, please, watch every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it's a good stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: But thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And thank you for head on an over two Apple podcasts.
[SPEAKER_02]: I already saw some reviews coming over there.
[SPEAKER_02]: So give us five stars and give us a little review and share this show and subscribe to this show separately than the micro-marish show.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the like button if you catch us on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like share everywhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: The reviews that are over there.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I go see them, will they make me sad or will they make me happy?
[SPEAKER_02]: Um They will make you happy.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Good five star here's five stars love it great show can't wait for the next episode
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sign Josh Sproka.
[SPEAKER_02]: FH Orlando or F Orlando.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: But thank you, F Orlando.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we need more F Orlando's.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, we do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And speaking of YouTube, there was a little bit of discord and the fact that we tried to be the world's first black and white podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: And people were dissatisfied with the monochromatic presentation.
[SPEAKER_02]: we don't have to do black and white.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we want to do black and white.
[SPEAKER_01]: We really do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, well, I don't know that Josh does.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Josh likes because it's like, it shows off what we can do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to do it because I love black and white.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you have maybe, yeah, that or if we really want to stick it to these people that don't like black and white, we stop using Apple podcasts and we will mail you a cassette tapey tweak.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was thinking a super eight real of movie an actual film and if black and white is good then we could be not just the first black and white podcast as a salute to the founding fathers of Hollywood the first silent podcast will just run a music bed in the background and you and I can a mode what we'll about the for the captions on of course we'll show that you understand what we're moving.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that the moving on, the compromises, we'll try this, that black and white movies when we cover them on the show, we will do the podcast and black and white.
[SPEAKER_01]: Color movies, for example, last week we did return to Oz, we could have done that in color because it's a color movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that will be our method moving forward thus preserving the black and white.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's why we are still black and white.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today we are indeed black and white.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I just want to say thank you to everyone who checked out the show last week.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope you bring along a friend this time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now this week's movie, before I tell you and announce what it is, although we already told you, um, I don't know if you know this Josh, but back in the 1930s and 40s, the motion picture studios and Hollywood, they all made all kinds of movies, but they all had sort of a reputation where they shined.
[SPEAKER_01]: For example, MGM was sort of the top of the pops that was the big money they had Clark Gable they had all the stars their motto was more stars than there are in the heavens.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you saw a big budget movie with a lot of really, really famous people in it, likely it was MGM.
[SPEAKER_01]: On the other side of the scale there was monogram pictures ultra low budget you got a lot of cereals like Charlie Chan and low budget stuff that were great for fill in double
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... under the tutelage of a harry cone had uh... frank capra who was a great director for sort of more cozy uh... homespun type uh... classic films they also had the three stewardes it was a big money maker for them over Columbia paramount was known for comedy paramount had the marksbrothers and many other classic comedy acts universal monsters
[SPEAKER_01]: Frankenstein and draping somewhere will that they were all that but Warner Brothers had the corner on gangster pictures that was their deal going back into like really when sound first began the really you know like pretty hard to make out a soundtrack with all the static and stuff they were making gangster pictures in the late 20s to 19th century.
[SPEAKER_02]: It makes sense that each studio would have their specialty because they beg the employees around that know how to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: They got good at it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so before Yankee Doodle Dandy, that's our movie today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Before it came out, and by the way, it is a Warner Brothers film.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we start with the Warner Brothers fanfare, which always makes me happy.
[SPEAKER_01]: They had Jimmy Cagney, James Cagney, under contract, along with a lot of other great gangster players, but he was known as a gangster actor.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a tough guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had made one musical prior to this.
[SPEAKER_01]: He would do another one or two after it, but for the guy that was known for shooting people and robbing banks and pushing a grapefruit and make Clark's face.
[SPEAKER_01]: He loved to do musicals.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'd like to be a song and danceman.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yankee Dulldandy was his favorite movie that he made for his entire career.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he got to one best actor for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that maybe has something to do with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was sort of a little bit out of left field to have this come out with a guy that was known for gangster pictures to be the star.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it almost didn't happen because Jack Warner, one of the Warner Brothers,
[SPEAKER_01]: Hated James Cagney.
[SPEAKER_01]: He made him a lot of money, but he hated him.
[SPEAKER_01]: His nickname for him back then and Hollywood was, and he called this, and Jimmy Cagney was represented, his agent was his brother, William Cagney, and so they would, you know, sort of team up against the studios, and Jack Warner called him a professional against her.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said no matter what I suggest, he's against it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he did not work well,
[SPEAKER_01]: with the studio as far as that goes, but come 1941 when they're making this movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: James Cagney realized he had sort of a bad reputation, not just with Jack Warner, but with the world in general, because he was really politically active in the 30s.
[SPEAKER_01]: He loved, loved, loved, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the New Deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he was very, very outspoken and defending it, and it put some people off, because I think then, as now, people don't necessarily want to see performers and actors speaking out on politics.
[SPEAKER_01]: So their idea was this.
[SPEAKER_01]: William Cagney said, we need to make
[SPEAKER_01]: the biggest flag waving, I love America movie ever and put you in it and that will save your reputation as an American.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were able to sell that to Jack Warner.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, it's all, you can feel that in the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: You really can, it's over the top, flag waving stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that was the method to get it made.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now one thing you talk about sometimes movies.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's an ego project.
[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of, yeah, but that's how it began, but even though America in 1941 was seeing the world war happen overseas, we weren't yet involved.
[SPEAKER_01]: This movie began production and began filming before Pearl Harbor was bombed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now when you talk about...
[SPEAKER_01]: right place, right time.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people cite the the Tiger King coming out right at the beginning of COVID as being a perfect release time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because everyone watched it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, by the time this movie came out, the boys were actually heading overseas and we needed as a country to sort of fuel our patriotism or we craved it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever it was, it was a massive hit.
[SPEAKER_01]: for Warner Bros.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think that it would have been as big a hit if it hadn't been released at that time.
[SPEAKER_01]: The news was sort of developing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I know the name Epstein is not real popular right now, but Philip and Julius Epstein were known as script doctors back then.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as the war sort of progressed during production, there were rewrites every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: building up to the end of the soldiers in World War II.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's, it has a backstory and it fits very well into sort of the history of the United States in this century.
[SPEAKER_01]: I see that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It opens up, this is the story of George M. Cohen, probably the go ahead.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, now as you tell the story of George M. Cohen, I will tell you, I have a hand.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not Kohan, I hate George M. Kohan.
[SPEAKER_02]: He has a dick, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: He is the biggest, dicksy and tire movie.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's cocky to the point that, he's dad's deathbed, it's still all about him.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know, it's about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that reflects the real co-hand, although,
[SPEAKER_01]: They apparently softened him up and made him more likable.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he is an absolute jerk face in this movie.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was on a, I bought it, rendered it from Apple.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was like 399.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it lives listed as a biography.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's which may me say, wait, so George Cohen is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Am I saying the name wrong?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's co-han, AJ and Cohen, Ian is, that's actually a joke in the movie where they assume it's subtle.
[SPEAKER_01]: They assume he's Jewish.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I wrote that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he's a joke is, and they call it's co-han.
[SPEAKER_02]: Got it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it is vaguely a biography.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, to the point that he was involved in the first script right in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, about himself, but he didn't throw in things like he got married twice not once and his second wife wasn't even named Mary, which is why he said he wrote this song, Mary, for a girl named Agnes.
[SPEAKER_02]: This, this, well his middle, her middle name was Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was Agnes Mary, but still her name is Agnes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Agnes would not be a good song.
[SPEAKER_02]: We all know that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It does not work.
[SPEAKER_02]: My mom was named Angus, so she named me Angus, of course, that doesn't work.
[SPEAKER_02]: But he's a Dick's entire movie.
[SPEAKER_02]: He wrote a little kid to the end of the movie, to the whole point that the movie starts with the President calls him.
[SPEAKER_02]: So just a list of random guys, all the president needs to see you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you're too good for taking a car, so you have to walk there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know it only takes a train down from Broadway to and I think it's about 16 blocks from Union Station right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would be a long, long walk, but just quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: He starts the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's in a musical on Broadway called I'd rather be right that makes fun of Roosevelt.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when he gets the note to see the president as you mentioned, he's scared.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's scared because he thinks he's in trouble because America's at war and he's making fun of the president.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he goes down, per the president's request, by the way, had you feel about the White House security in 1942 when he just sort of goes up to one guard.
[SPEAKER_02]: I missed the pre 9-11 days.
[SPEAKER_01]: so true though.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he gets in to see the president because he's expected this is the first time a living president was represented in a film.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they do a pretty good job with the president they show him from behind.
[SPEAKER_02]: You only see the back of his head and I did see when doing research about if Cohen was real and if he really got this award and stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: That
[SPEAKER_02]: They only shot them behind because it's not that actor's voice.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it's voice over.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is, it's a bunch of great pains to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: They went to someone that looks like Roosevelt, and then a voice that sounds like Roosevelt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think actually it's pretty effective.
[SPEAKER_01]: The, uh, the overall office looks a little tiny to me, but that's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, Cohan starts telling his life story to the president, we meet in Flashback, his father, played by John Houston, an amazing actor, Rosemary to Camp as his mom, who, by the way, when the movie was shot was 11 years younger than the guy who played her son.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lots of makeup in this film, and we meet his sister, Josie, who was actually played by his sister, Jean Cagney.
[SPEAKER_01]: We see them as young performers.
[SPEAKER_01]: We see an unfortunate
[SPEAKER_01]: black face routine that has an age very well that was all about that folks I did not put that in there um and then they get visited they have a big chance because they had a show called pecs bad boy now I want to go back to co-hand being a dick yeah how fast would you have killed that kid well even before the kids a dick he gets beat up by he gets beat up by
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's so funny.
[SPEAKER_01]: As he don't hit his hand, he has to play the violin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't hit his face.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has to sing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So a crowd of street urchins literally beat him up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then this movie, I'm sorry, Broadway producer comes to offer them a job.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's a dick all over again, like within 10 minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's an absolute jackass.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's acting in one little play as a kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he wrecks that chance, but they continue to perform, continue to perform.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they end up, I believe, in Buffalo, I could be wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's where he meets his first wife.
[SPEAKER_01]: His only wife in the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you like the scene where she thought he was an old man?
[SPEAKER_02]: She looks like she was about 30 years old.
[SPEAKER_02]: Saying she was 18 and the other girl was 17.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know that Joan Leslie was 17.
[SPEAKER_01]: She made the movie, which is, I think ages were different back then.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they were.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I want to middle school hour ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: It looks like high school kids coming out.
[SPEAKER_01]: She, um, she goes to meet him and in the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: James Cagney is Georgian Cohen is in old age makeup.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she thinks he's old.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is the first time we get to see James Cagney dance crazy because he is an amazing dancer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Watch this sequence and imagine the fact that this girl thinks he's an old man.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'll tell you what you do.
[SPEAKER_06]: You should write here.
[SPEAKER_06]: You should write here and I would give you an idea of what I mean.
[SPEAKER_06]: It may not be much.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm not the dancer.
[SPEAKER_06]: I used to be.
[SPEAKER_06]: But then who is?
[SPEAKER_06]: Now watch carefully.
[SPEAKER_06]: Now.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh no, no.
[SPEAKER_06]: Looks like it.
[SPEAKER_06]: What's your heart?
[SPEAKER_06]: My heart is every good.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's good.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's never washed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Love the dancing.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's just so good.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's got it.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's got like one dance move.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just the kickers legs around.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but it's good at it.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're going to be at be good at it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it turns out as we walk over it.
[SPEAKER_01]: George, I'm going and being a dick.
[SPEAKER_01]: No one wants to work with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: They love the act of the family, the forecohands, but no one wants to work with them because George is a dick.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he bales out on them, sends them out to do their own, and it's pure nepotism.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's in this, it's because his dad built this like travel and play.
[SPEAKER_01]: yeah exactly so they send them out and he threw a sort of mix up meets a great Broadway producer who actually his name is still known on Broadway you see his name around Broadway Sam Harris and then the greatest I think my favorite scene in the movie is when they're both not able to sell the play and they go into the saloon
[SPEAKER_01]: and they sort of dive bomb a producer and talk them into a movie as part of a film.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, our grifters, they trick them because they're not partners, but they say they've got this play and they absolutely sell it and they nail it and that movie is called Little Johnny Jones.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's probably the greatest Broadway musical about a crooked jockey ever done, but we do get to see him, we see a long sequence, give my regards to Broadway and all that.
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, so doing that sequence.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why?
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: So everyone's cheering for the his jockey to win.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he loses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then they accuse him of rigging the throwing the race.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Throwing the race.
[SPEAKER_02]: How?
[SPEAKER_02]: Why?
[SPEAKER_02]: What is he?
[SPEAKER_02]: We there was.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was showing the thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did we miss very.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully there is one line where it says he seems to be losing his lead.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's holding him back when the announcer says so there's really no proof that he did it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's just
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're gonna accuse him, did he bad against himself?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, now that was missing and suddenly it's like like a Pete Rose thing Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then it's like, goes to the scene where they're on the dock and he's like, well, stand on the dock and uh Oh, he's caught the rocket.
[SPEAKER_02]: He caught it something for I guess.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna shoot a flare in the air if I find you not guilty It is the flimsy as plot device
[SPEAKER_01]: I think in any movie ever, and it's based on a flimsy pot device in a Broadway show, I don't know what evidence he could find on a boat after it takes off to prove a jockey didn't throw the race.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think in the original show, it was probably because it was exciting to see a skyrocket.
[SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, I think that's it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe so.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I guess this was a, these were based on real plays.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, these were real plays.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we just saw bits of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and they tried to recreate the choreography, and again, as you said before, the stiff leg
[SPEAKER_01]: But I know that you say he's limited in his dance skills, but you have to admit, I would think that for a guy that was known as a dramatic actor up to this moment, he shows all he shows himself pretty able as a dance.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, Teng.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I totally put in a great performance.
[SPEAKER_02]: A real person's a dick.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, I agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's also great that Cagney does not hold back on making him be a dick to everyone around him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And somehow there's still a shred of like ability in co-hand even though he is the double dick.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, there's no like ability.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you don't like it at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I look forward to it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Biggest thing on my notes is that I hate him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you like in Little Johnny Jones when all the fancy lad jockies came out?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they're hopping around on their stools.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I thought that was like, well, that makes sense because you can't have real horses to dance with because of the stage production.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then they bring out real horses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, so for that.
[SPEAKER_02]: So then it's even more stupid of you never even sat on the saddle.
[SPEAKER_01]: So after this success of Little Johnny Jones, the family gets back together, he writes a song called Mary that's going to become a massive hit supposedly wrote it for his wife.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gives it away.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's okay with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the only, I'll tell you, I think that's the only scene that made me laugh was that scene because he said, I gave it away and she said, I know he did.
[SPEAKER_02]: When I saw the flowers in the candy, so that did make me laugh, I think that was the only chuckle through the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, there is a good little piece of showbiz tidbit when he is on the street in front of one of his theaters and he runs into Eddie Foil, or someone portraying Eddie Foil, who was another huge star at the time.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've got questions about him as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, great.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he, this is in this movie he's played by Eddie Foil Jr.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to this day, Eddie Ford, the fourth, is still working in show biz booking.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you look for it, that's it.
[SPEAKER_02]: What's with this smile?
[SPEAKER_02]: The entire scene, the guy had this smile that it was way to the point that I took this photo of my TV to be like, I need to talk about this smile.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that is kind of the way Ford looked, although, you know, it's before we have film or movies of him, he did,
[SPEAKER_01]: He did, uh, spit and list when he talked.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was so that was real.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's a talk about, I know, it's over the top.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a way away over the top.
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so he writes another play.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I forgot.
[SPEAKER_01]: the family organization the family act breaks up and it's all well and good and when dad retires he gives him half of his his holdings which is a very that's not really a dick move that's fairly good right there's a good move yeah his mom cried yeah very good world war one rolls around I was wondering if it was to convince his dad to not retire though
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've never thought about that.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's because I thought I thought the next scene was going to be him dragging his dad back out there because he didn't want to keep the family together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, he probably wanted the money of the act.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if he wanted the family together.
[SPEAKER_01]: World War I rolls around.
[SPEAKER_01]: He writes the great song that was a rallying cry in America.
[SPEAKER_01]: Over there, it's a massive hit.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's back in the public eye.
[SPEAKER_01]: His dad passes away at this point.
[SPEAKER_01]: Great death scene for his father.
[SPEAKER_01]: He breaks up with Sam Harris.
[SPEAKER_01]: Travis.
[SPEAKER_02]: That death scene was his father?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the last word from his dad is how amazing you are as an actor that you know one could be like you.
[SPEAKER_02]: No one could get these roles as a kid like you.
[SPEAKER_02]: His dad's dying words are his blowing more sunshine up this guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now did you did you get any emotion at all from that scene?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I got irritated.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just some needs to be thinking about the old man that's dying.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I guess it was written the other way.
[SPEAKER_01]: So then he gets back in show business because Sam Harris calls him and he goes back and he's back on Broadway and it's a huge head and now it's worldward to and he gets the metal it's I think it's the metal they call it the congressional metal of honor
[SPEAKER_01]: that's really not what he wanted.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like the metal of freedom or something and he gets that from Roosevelt and he leaves the White House and joins up with a marching, marching contingent of soldiers singing over there and you realize that in all of this he has been a part of America for three four a dozen wars and that's the end of the picture.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's the plot.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of
[SPEAKER_02]: what did you if anything like about it i like i thought uh... cagony was a good actor i think like him as a actor i hated the character he was playing can you see that as a success as an actor then by making a character that you hate oh totally okay good good i totally saw this i know he's doing good because i have
[SPEAKER_02]: But in that I hate this guy, you have to, it's not, it's over the top, but it didn't feel over the top fake.
[SPEAKER_02]: It felt over the top, this guy is a horrible person.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right, right.
[SPEAKER_02]: But at the same time, he's got that quality where he can suck up to anyone and get anyone on his side.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I liked him as an actor.
[SPEAKER_02]: I also liked enjoyed seeing the different period.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a period piece.
[SPEAKER_02]: I liked seeing the old White House layout.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, one thing that I think is neat is that the, all there, there's a lot of really remarkable recreations of stage performances because he was a stage actor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every stage scene was filmed in the same sound stage.
[SPEAKER_01]: They would just change the prasinium.
[SPEAKER_01]: of the theater to make it look like a different theater.
[SPEAKER_01]: So all of those stage shots are actually shot in the same sound stage.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought it was pretty cool and they did a good job of differentiating them throughout the year.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I found it interesting that we talked all the time.
[SPEAKER_02]: We talked nowadays and here, well, that's a Republican website or TV show.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is a Democrat one and it was the same way back then.
[SPEAKER_02]: Where he brings the new movie review to Roosevelt and he says, well, that's a, that's a Republican paper.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've always been a good Democrat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, um, so I found that in a rest in that back then it was still the same divide.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it's, uh,
[SPEAKER_02]: But because we always like to think it's always now that this is the worst ever, it's divided ever, it's always.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't feel, but it didn't feel as, I can't say it because I wasn't alive in 1940.
[SPEAKER_01]: They represented in the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: It seems like it might have been not quite as severe back then.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, I know that that did exist.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: This presented as, what's interesting is this presented as the Democrat party waving all the flags and the pro-American.
[SPEAKER_02]: and which is kind of the republican party nowadays tries to present themselves that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I see that.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's, it's, we're really just all America and things fluctuate.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just funny how there's always, it's always been a divide in the country.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think you're right.
[SPEAKER_01]: What did you think of the overall look of the film?
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a beautiful black and white film.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I was the copy that I had streaming look great.
[SPEAKER_02]: I liked, well, I didn't like the black face.
[SPEAKER_02]: That threw me off.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, no, I mean, and that's really unfortunate because that weird segment of the American entertainment history rears its head.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and let the 30s and 40s.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's just, it mind, it's mind boggling to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, and then it made me notice later that after that point that it took until like an hour and 20 minutes
[SPEAKER_02]: in the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I didn't put two and two together and twice on the black face and then that made it stand out to me and then I was just waited.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that is a sadly dated portion of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, I have an idea and I know we're talking about things you like, but I was really sensitive to this this time.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of music that I don't think needs to be in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like when he gave Templeton to do his show, which was a big deal and gave her the song, Mary, we could have seen like a portion of that play.
[SPEAKER_01]: We didn't need to see three full numbers from it.
[SPEAKER_02]: but don't you realize George Cohen wrote it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you have to hear the whole thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: George, I'm going to go hand, go hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm speaking to the way the film looked at had an amazing director of photography, James Wong-How, who worked on many, many great pictures.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the movie has an incredible movie.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's something else I like, very under the movie.
[SPEAKER_02]: The credit, the credit slide.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Two slides.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like 45 seconds.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: When you go to a movie nowadays, it's 20 minutes of a movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: It gets you to the car.
[SPEAKER_01]: It really does.
[SPEAKER_01]: The producer of the movie was How Wallace, who was absolutely Hollywood royalty, just off the top of my head, Casablanca, Robin Hood, King Creole, White Christmas he produced.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the director, of course, Michael Cretis, did Casablanca, the Maltese Falcon, true grit.
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... Beckett and all the martin and Lewis pictures back at that time what's funny is that he always said that the only true money maker and show business as an Elvis Presley film and because their garbage films admittedly but he would make them and take the profits to make his prestige pictures so if you ever watched the great uh... epic film Beckett know that it was paid for by live a little love a little i always thought that he was just using
[SPEAKER_01]: So, anything else that you can bring out that you like about the film?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love that you take notes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm checking my notes.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I enjoyed that back then.
[SPEAKER_02]: There were 48 states.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not that I don't like Hawaii or Alaska.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just again, setting in that period where they talked about 48 states.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's, I think, a misstep in one of the productions where they had the wrong number of stars on the flag because we didn't have Oklahoma.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love the fact that I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know what the president said.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to go to 47 other states.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's what that to mean that there's 48.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, by 48 by that time, but I was referring to the flashbacks.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, right, out of that right, because he's a kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, there is some really, the movie is filled with Warner Bros.
[SPEAKER_01]: stock actors that are in like every Warner Bros.
[SPEAKER_01]: movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Were there any like little walk-ons or bits, did you like the characters of Deeds and Goff, the producers that missed out?
[SPEAKER_02]: I enjoyed the guy that they drifted.
[SPEAKER_02]: I like, um, I enjoyed all, I enjoyed all those little side characters, all the other business guys and the behind-the-scenes guys.
[SPEAKER_02]: I enjoyed them all.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's, it's a very well written, and a lot of that has to do, I think, with the constant rewriting, I think the script probably got tighter as things went on.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so I'm pleased that there's things that you like.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I'm sure there are things you don't like, and we will address those
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it and I hope I can defend it, but it is a small part of me wants to agree with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll be right back with this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it is?
[SPEAKER_01]: Nix.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is Hicks Nix.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sticks Picks.
[SPEAKER_01]: You love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll be right back.
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought we were going to make it through.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now very close.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hicks Nix sticks Picks back after this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, we are back on your new favorite podcast, Hicks, Nick, Sticks, Picks.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we are discussing Yankee Doodle Dandy from 1942.
[SPEAKER_01]: Josh had some things he liked, which please is me greatly.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's one of my all-time favorite films.
[SPEAKER_01]: What did you have trouble with?
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, we have to start with how much I hate George M. Co.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ham.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, let's go back.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I pointed out some of his things because it was constant.
[SPEAKER_02]: I like he was born on the 4th of July.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's also a lie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then one time when I was going to say it, I looked it up because I was like, there's no way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was born on July 3rd.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's very close.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a lie to make all of America about George.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: The whole premise of the movie is that Roosevelt calls him in to the presidency.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he goes in to the old office.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the security guy knows who he is because he's the biggest celebrity in the country.
[SPEAKER_02]: and takes him up and takes him to right into the overall office.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a man.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now the president of the United States wants to sit there for two hours and hear this guy's life story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Precisely, you know, it makes no sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a clip from the end where you get to see a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: You hear a little bit of the president.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he talks about the fact, and if you look at the clock on Roosevelt's desk, it actually is in proper time with the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here's that scene, and it ends with my favorite moment in the film.
[SPEAKER_04]: Today we're all soldiers.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're all on the front.
[SPEAKER_04]: We need more songs to express America.
[SPEAKER_04]: I know you and your comrades will give them to us.
[SPEAKER_04]: Mr. President, I've just begun our in this metal.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's quite a thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, it's the best material we can find, what with priorities and all.
[SPEAKER_05]: Goodbye, sir.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I want you to know that I'm not the only one that's great for her.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm whether thanks you, I'd rather thanks you, my sister.
[SPEAKER_05]: about this country, why were you?
[SPEAKER_05]: We've got this thing leaked.
[SPEAKER_05]: Where else in the world did they go to playing guy like me?
[SPEAKER_05]: Come in and talk things over the headman?
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, that's about a good definition of America as Penny I've never heard.
[SPEAKER_04]: Good by I'm Mr. Gohan.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm good luck, advisor.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm good luck to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, because look what he's doing.
[SPEAKER_02]: He is sitting here.
[SPEAKER_02]: He just told Roosevelt that only in America can you have a guy like me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right now he sits here and he stared way too long at the portrait in the White House of George Washington.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because you know what's going through his head is I'm as important to this country as George Washington.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now this dance
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because it's it's a precarious dance.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's I mean you're dancing down.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll show you in a second according to Turner classic movies It was an ad lib.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was just supposed to walk down the steps, but when I see how precise it is, I can't I can't make myself
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Those are tall steps.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're tall steps.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're hard.
[SPEAKER_02]: He would break his tailbone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, but loose his metal is what he do.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: What else did you hate about this?
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, all right.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we met with the president.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: there's a spot where everyone's signing up to go to war and the draft yes and he goes in there that's for world war one i think yeah and he's too old he knows he's too old he does not plan on going to war that was a PR move if ever there was a PR move to go in there and pretend like he wants to go to war and then just dance for the troops and then everyone in there is then praise and him again as if he went to war they told him
[SPEAKER_02]: You, it's it's important for you to stay here into your duty as going to war.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, I can't believe you have such a decidedly anti-showbiz look.
[SPEAKER_01]: At this movie, he was so important, Josh, he kept the spirits high, but you're right.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, he was too old.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knew it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I guess before Facebook, if you want to be talked about, you go down to the draft board because that's the way rumors get started.
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, you get to see him dance stiff like it in that.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the same dance.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, same dance.
[SPEAKER_02]: We talked about his death bed already.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then he's then he's retired.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: So when we get to the retired him and the the travel montage, the travel, kids, the, oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Travel montage now he's retired.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's in his little hammock.
[SPEAKER_01]: Before we get to the hammock I have to ask in the travel montage where you bothered by the stereotypical Asian music of Yankee Doodle Dandy when he's in charge.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't even notice.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really, it sticks out for me like a sword.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, they're playing the Yankee Doodle Dandy, the whole movie.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I kept... Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: So on the hammock when he's at the farm, we're talking.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he's at the farm.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he's at the farm.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he gets ticked that these kids in their jive talk doesn't know who he is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he goes in and to talk to his wife and complain about the kids that don't know who he is, and he's completely disrespected that the kids don't know who he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: And she's got this idea for him to go to perform again with Sam and Sam's going bankrupt.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he's going to save Sam.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it all sounds good like he's doing a favor for Sam, and it's really not.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's all about his ego.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's all about him, him, him.
[SPEAKER_01]: and also remember he had talked to Sam earlier in the day so he made her go through that whole exercise.
[SPEAKER_01]: Praise him to before he did that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean and that's that's pretty that's not only crooked and dishonest.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is that's some ego Jews right there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm on your side about him being that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: However, I just have to wonder if that's a proper characterization of the way
[SPEAKER_02]: He is portrayed this way in the movie and he was involved with making the movie about himself.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he signed off on the movie portraying himself this way because he didn't see it as a problem.
[SPEAKER_02]: Even after he leaves the White House and there's a parade down the, what's the parade for?
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the, I don't understand what the parade's for?
[SPEAKER_01]: During World War II, they're probably raising awareness or something.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a Hollywood parade.
[SPEAKER_01]: But is what it is.
[SPEAKER_02]: and they're singing his song of course right and he gets in line and sings along because of course he's going to march with the shoulders he says important is that he's the leader he's important is the war he might as well be the president and also bothers me that he puts his cane on these shoulder like it's a gun that's also yes yes I forgot about he's part of it he's not you're not part of it no but he thinks he is when he gets in line like that
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you're right.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the hell don't know these words, old man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, and my favorite one of my favorite lines, it seems to me, I do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like when James Cagney really starts acting and he's doing it.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's one more time point out that I wrote this song and 40 years later, people are still singing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to know, are you troubled by the length of the movie when you watched it?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know that you sent me a picture of two hours, uh, uh, do you think it's like two I think it's like two hours and 14 something like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Two hours and six minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Six minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: What would be your ideal length for Yankee Doodle Dandy 90 minutes?
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, it didn't, but if that's for you, it did a drag for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh no, it felt like four hours.
[SPEAKER_02]: They went by so slow for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, well I appreciate you watching it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what they're showing about.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I watched, I did take a break around an hour and a half in.
[SPEAKER_02]: I took a break and went and took a break and went and took a break and went and took a sentence.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I had my own animation and came back and finished it.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it felt really long.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I was not watching it.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, she, I wrote down, she walked in while I was watching the movie today.
[SPEAKER_02]: And she said, this is what he likes and then walked out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell her what I say.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has a name, at least give me a name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every fourth of July, I watch it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I also watch the movie 1776.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll spare you that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Carrie comes in and she sees me watching it.
[SPEAKER_01]: She says, Good God again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then one time when I was down helping Mike build his studio about a year and a half ago, we were killing some time before we went to dinner and I popped
[SPEAKER_02]: You might watch this together.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I'm watching it alone in his living room.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Carla comes in and says, what the hell are you watching?
[SPEAKER_02]: I agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I tried to explain it to her, but it was a, it was a no go.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, so in this guy died, the real George co-han died like six months after this movie came out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he did get to see the movie and why would he love it, because it was like, it was a beautiful H.J.
[SPEAKER_01]: from Hollywood for it.
[SPEAKER_02]: the whole thing was.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I know, it's sad.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think it's like the thing they put in a son of Frankenstein, which was when the Frankenstein features started to decay in quality.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the beginning of the credits, it says inspired by the book.
[SPEAKER_01]: Frankenstein.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you think about this movie wasn't really a biopic as much as it was inspired by a guy who wrote a lot of songs and a lot of shows.
[SPEAKER_01]: All the shows that they show on Broadway of his are real.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's probably 30 or 40 of them in the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: And many, many hit songs for him.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I can see this movie coming out and being popular at the time because you want to know more about these people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, even if he's a dick.
[SPEAKER_02]: You want to know about him and there's no internet back then, there's no real biopics or biographies.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it was also a great way to revisit songs that at that time or only 20 or 25 years.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like now doing a musical that was set in the year 2000, where you could listen to the songs that were really big hits.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, they weren't being sold at that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think back then, they were really just sort of represented by sheet music.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how it is.
[SPEAKER_02]: What it is.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's what we spent this week in doing.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's watching the Charlie Sheen by our biopic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's watching the guy and shows that we knew from years and years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, I think the theme of the movie, so anything else you want to dice on it because this is your form.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I think I think we are good.
[SPEAKER_02]: I hate George M. Cohen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, okay, we can go with that.
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the M stand for?
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael, that's explained in the birth scene.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I remember I did think George Michael was a...
[SPEAKER_02]: George Michael Washington, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, George Washington.
[SPEAKER_01]: George Washington.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael, not that much shorter than Washington.
[SPEAKER_02]: Which then, you know what, that spins all the way back to him, staring at George Washington.
[SPEAKER_02]: That the George Washington important at the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I will put any amount of money down in bed that his parents really weren't considered in Washington as a middle name.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_02]: That he made that up to compare himself to George Washington.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK, so I think the theme of the movie, I mean, above all the flag waving is sort of buried in the middle.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's right before we go to World War I, I believe.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he says, it seems whenever we get too high hat and too sophisticated for flag waving, some thug nation comes over and decides where a pushover all ready to be blackjacked.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it is long before you're looking up at the mighty skies anxiously to be sure that the flag is still waving above us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do think that that's the reason this movie landed with the smash that it did.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's what America needed at that time.
[SPEAKER_02]: yeah I can see that yeah and whether or not you appreciate the fact that he's a jerk or he's a dick or he's a good guy or that he married a 17-year-old actress who played 80 I think it just landed right no and your time in your time in fits that makes sense it's just like as you said Tiger King or or top gun coming out right when people were comfortable to go into theaters at the same time where you need a big blockbuster like that makes sense
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, the fact that I love is that even though James Cagney loved Roosevelt, Torjum Cohan hated Roosevelt.
[SPEAKER_01]: hated him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they don't obviously portray that in the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the truth is he did get that metal, that metal of appreciation.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was awarded to him in 1936.
[SPEAKER_01]: He picked it up in 1940 and only because he was trying out a show in DC.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't travel to get the presidential honor, the congressional honor.
[SPEAKER_01]: He got it on his scale.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's not allowed.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think she'd be fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: It did do very well at the Academy Awards.
[SPEAKER_01]: As I said, he won Best Actor.
[SPEAKER_01]: First time a musical performance, one Best Actor.
[SPEAKER_01]: It also won Best Picture, Best Scoring, Sound Design.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I wouldn't classify this as a musical, even though it had all these, because it had all this music, but the music was never storytelling.
[SPEAKER_02]: The music was some pieces.
[SPEAKER_02]: When I think of a musical, it's the actors and actresses, as their characters.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was always playing another character when singing the song.
[SPEAKER_01]: like Lala land where the music is part of the plot and it's built into a door or see that you know fiddle on the roof yeah and the dad just started singing like he's the dad this is almost like a jukebox musical in that way where the music is there but it's not it's part of the story but it doesn't advance the story correct
[SPEAKER_01]: It is John Travolta's favorite movie of all time, which I think is something that makes me wonder about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's one of mine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, and you know how John Travolta and I always line up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was the first movie ever to be colorized, which was that Ted Turner fiasco.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it was a good choice because the whole movie is about the Red White and Blue.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if it's a black and white movie, in fact is it looked horrible in color, but I think it was a good notion.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is a deep color as an option for my wife.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't, I think it's mostly buried.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can find clips of it on the tube.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the thing that amazed me, I think, is that in 1942, it's box office in DC, I'm sorry, in America and Canada was $11.8 million, which is sounds like a good amount of money.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know that in 2025, that would mean,
[SPEAKER_01]: It's first run took in 235 million dollars.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's almost like still more as money.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's...
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but I this is where you can't they do this thing in sports to where you try to compare different decades in generations and you can't do it because They didn't have the competition.
[SPEAKER_02]: They didn't have Other.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I don't think competition is as valid here because more movies were coming out then.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll not more movies, but no, but there wasn't TV at home.
[SPEAKER_02]: There wasn't.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know you, it's 1942 and Josh says no, I'm going to see Mrs. Menover.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly, and this colored version does look horrible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's ancient in ancient all right So that's how we feel about this film right here Yankee doodle dandy Josh I have to ask you how to test out of a possible 10 how many grand old flags do you get oh I'm so glad you went flags.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was so afraid you were going to do how many black faces No, no, no, I don't approve of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, not dare you Out of 10.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I want to give it a three
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, it's better, it's better than return to Oz.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, what do you give Oz?
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought you gave Oz like a three.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, maybe I did.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, then this gets a four.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll pop it up to a four.
[SPEAKER_02]: Better.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't give it anymore because Cohan is such a jerk.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that that's your take on it, I know that that's his character, but I've never ever heard that take on the movie and I love it.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, he's a horrible man and the fact that it's a biography about him that he was involved in making just irritates me so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: I, with hesitance, I have to go nine because when I, when I, when I, when I, when I really want to, when you're giving out a nine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, it is one of my favorite films of all time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've seen so many times, but when I really, this has been the first time in a while that I like sat down with something to drink and on my sofa and I just watched the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't like a background project.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a real viewing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And
[SPEAKER_01]: the plot construction creeks a little bit and i think it also would have been much well received better received in an era where people were remembering those songs of the era like they were hit records which is essentially what that was so um and you are right i gave you right i gave us a three so this will be a four this is better than return to us
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you advise anyone watch this for any reason?
[SPEAKER_01]: Historical, import, music, dancing, whatever?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's worth watching because it's one of those classics.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, all right, all right.
[SPEAKER_02]: I will advise you, it's one of those classics that's impossible to put on in the background because you have no clue what's going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have to pay attention.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a very hot centric, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's actually recalls and callbacks throughout the movie that you need to be aware of.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I think it's it's worth watching.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just don't know who I'd recommend it to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Recommended to Mike.
[SPEAKER_01]: The thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The one before I reveal next week's movie, one little Easter egg that I love because I love the story behind it is about 13 years later, Bob Hope starred in a biopic about Eddie Foie, who's in this movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Eddie Foie Jr.
[SPEAKER_01]: playing Eddie Foie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was called The Seven Little Foies.
[SPEAKER_01]: And because of this guy,
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's the guy, but in the movies played by Bob Hope, and so to make the movie have some more cashier, Bob Hope called James Cagney and said, would you play Georgian Cohen in a small role in the seven little boys?
[SPEAKER_01]: And here's where Cagney is great.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, I'll do it, but we're going to have to do it right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he says, well, what does that mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, that means I want to see you in the dance studio ready to work with me and practice and dance
[SPEAKER_01]: we have to do it right now keep in mind this is also he stayed in character has a dick pretty much pretty much but here's a little bit of the older cagney playing against eddy foi in the seven little
[SPEAKER_02]: I do like that he came back to play the same character.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's kind of thrilling.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a really cool nod to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And while you talk about his stiff leg of dancing, you can see other instances of Cagney where he doesn't dance like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was actually coached by a guy who coached co-hand a million years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's trying to ape the style of George M. Cohen and he's like if he saw James Cagna in a wedding.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think he danced.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I assume it's the Cohen dance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: So folks, Josh says don't go see it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I say no.
[SPEAKER_01]: I see it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just not sure who I'll recommend it to.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hold in my hand the movie for week three.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's see what happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been an envelope, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ah, big surprise, movie number three, the natural from 1984, try Star Pictures.
[SPEAKER_02]: You randomly picked this out the day after the star passed away.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I had another movie planned, but we got into talking about the natural today.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I thought, and you'd never seen it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We realized the trend.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I realized I've never actually seen the movie.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've seen clips of the natural and no to classic.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I am so excited for this one because it looks like it is a Danny and it's cheap, but I sure you can stream it as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm kind of stream it.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I don't have a player.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's saddens me.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I sure one of these video games plays it, but still, I'll stream it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, America, make sure you see Yankees do it with any.
[SPEAKER_01]: Make sure you join us next week as we do the natural.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I appreciate it very much, Josh.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you kindly for being on the show today.
[SPEAKER_02]: Of course.
[SPEAKER_02]: Make sure you go there, subscribe to the, to the Hicks, Nick sticks, picks in your favorite podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: And on YouTube, just everywhere you see us hit like and we will certainly appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's it for this week.
[SPEAKER_03]: See you in color next week.
[SPEAKER_01]: Living color for Hicks and X sticks picked.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Rob Spuack for Josh Stroke is saying, so long everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hicks is a mix, sticks, picks.
[SPEAKER_00]: A podcast about Rob's movies with Rob Spuack and Josh Stroke.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you for watching!