The one thing that I did find a little odd - and one thing isn't much in a two plus hour long movie - is that it is hard to spot the actual point in the film where Mary becomes George's wife. recount his life story to FDR, receiving his Congressional medal in the Oval Office, and then dance joyously down the White House stairs and into the streets joining a group of marching soldiers in a chorus of "Over There" was probably a great way to bridge Cohan's patriotic past with what was then an uncertain time that certainly needed a dose of his optimism. However the plot device of having George M.
Also, Cohan received his Congressional Medal in 1936, not as WWII began as shown in the film. The film has Josie marrying when she would have been close to forty, when she actually married at the beginning of the 20th century and thus was the one to break up the four Cohans, not George.
Instead Josie was a year older than George. Cohan's sister did die young - she was only 39, dying in 1916, plus she was not his little sister. When Cohan's father died in 1917, he was only 69. Cohan's mother outlived his father by eleven years and Cohan's father was not "very old" when he died as is said in the film - at least by today's standards. Cohan was born on July 2 or 3, not July 4. If you're "date conscious" as I am, there are some matters of plot that might bother you. Several people criticize Cagney's dancing here, but that eccentric style was Cohan's, who always considered himself more of an overall entertainer than a dancer in the first place. Astaire was a great talent, but I don't think he could have conveyed the combination of mischief, optimism and energy that was Cohan the way that Cagney ultimately did. It's hard to believe that Fred Astaire was Cohan's first choice to play himself. The more I learn about Cohan the more I realize that Cagney was perfect to play him - both Irish Americans, both about the same size and build, and George Cohan's style of dancing and singing were about the same as Cagney's. Oddly enough, it was Cohan who said he wanted as little romance in the film as possible. There's nothing in the way of real conflict or even much heavy in the way of romance between Cohan and his fictitious film wife "Mary", who was modeled after Cohan's actual second wife in some ways. It's just a joyous musical costume piece from start to finish with nice comic touches balanced with some sentimental moments (supposedly Walter Huston's deathbed scene had even taskmaster director Michael Curtiz crying). When the film opened people on the home front badly needed some morale boosting, and this film gave it to them. The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred the day before shooting began. began work on this biography of entertainer George M. The amazing piece of timing here is when Warner Bros.
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