Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Catherina If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

funkyfry I didn't know what to expect from this movie at all; I never really heard of it or saw it anywhere and I bought it on a $1 DVD. I think it's a very enjoyable late 30s film, really hampered only by the sometimes painful singing of Evelyn Daw. I didn't know Cagney had made a musical this early in his career, five years before "Yankee Doodle Dandy." In fact this one came out before "Angels with Dirty Faces" so I think it's fair to say he wasn't a very big star yet and his tough guy persona hadn't been cemented yet. He looks great doing his tap dance numbers early in the film. It's a shame they didn't have him do more dancing as the film progressed instead of concentrating quite so much on the situational comedy.Cagney plays a "hoofer" who goes by the stage name of Terry Rooney. He goes to Hollywood to make a film and the producers very foolishly try to convince him that he's bad so that he won't demand a lot of money. The foolish part is that they don't sign him until after the movie is released, so then they have to track him down and try to sign him without his knowing about it. By then he's married his sweetheart Rita (Daw) and the studio wants to keep the marriage a secret.I've never really heard of songwriter/director Victor Shertzinger; looking at his credits I see he wrote the famous song "I Remember You" from the great Alan Ladd/Veronica Lake film "The Glass Key" and was kind of a big shot at Paramount in the 30s. None of the music in this particular film is very memorable unfortunately. It's not bad music, the main problem is that they let Daw go into a very high range that the music just doesn't justify. More Cagney dancing and less Daw singing would have made this a more satisfying musical film. But the comedy is very good, I was laughing out loud at a couple of the scenes. Cagney is a very funny guy and he seems more free in this movie without the burden of the "tough guy" that he later needed to either live up to or run away from. There's a wonderful scene with Cagney showing his wife how he made all these different faces when he was acting. There's also a funny scene where Cagney beats up a couple stuntmen and then trashes the entire set of the movie. Every James Cagney fan should see this movie because it's a bit like seeing what his career might have been like if he had stayed more in the musical comedy realm. No, it's not a masterpiece like "Yankee Doodle Dandy", but it never tries to be. It's just a very light piece of classic entertainment that goes down very smoothly.

Terrell-4 James Cagney wanted to do more than play gangsters, and he loved dancing. Warner Brothers was having none of it so Cagney successfully got out of his contract and signed to do two films with Grand National Pictures. Something to Sing About was the first. The movie's a great look at a singing, dancing Jimmy Cagney. That it's only a so-so film is almost beside the point. The story is amusing most of the time. It gives us several musical numbers, including two full-blown productions with Cagney. It's also takes a lot of gentle pokes at the movie business. Terry Rooney (Cagney) is a Broadway nightclub song and dance man. He's happy and ambitious. He's got his band and he has his cute, adoring fiancée, Rita (Evelyn Daws). When he's offered a chance to star in a movie, he grabs it and heads west. But the studio boss realizes Terry is a potential big star, so instructs everyone not to praise him. He doesn't want Terry to get a big head. Terry, finally fed up, finishes the movie and heads back to Rita. They marry and take a long cruise on a freighter for a honeymoon. But wait. Terry's movie is a smash. The public want more of Terry Rooney. When he and Rita return, the studio boss, Bennett O. "B.O." Regan (Gene Lockhart), and the studio's press head, Hank Meyers (William Frawley), convince Terry to sign a seven-year contract. All Terry has to do is keep secret his marriage. Rita, loving Terry, agrees and becomes his secretary. He starts a second movie as a star, but there are misunderstandings, more Hollywood press shenanigans, a co-star who wants more attention, more Hollywood columnists who want scoops about phony romances. Finally, Rita has had enough and returns to New York and the band. Terry, seeing how all the Hollywood razzmatazz is separating himself from Rita, follows her...and they reunite in a production number on the stage of the nightclub before a sell-out crowd. The best things about this movie are Cagney, his song and dance numbers and the fairly gentle but pointed pokes at Hollywood movie making. Cagney gets two big numbers and they're a lot of fun. One opens the movie with his nightclub act, singing, dancing up and down stairs and obviously enjoying himself immensely. The second is on the freighter. He joins crew members for an evening's entertainment of tap dancing, tumbling and cross- dressing. How do you describe Cagney's dancing? It's unique. He goes at it with great energy, stiff- legged, straight backed and with his rear out. He combines tap, some ballet moves and old- fashioned hoofing. And he's fast. Gene Lockhart does a great job as "B.O.," the studio boss, pompous and petulant, a man who sees yes-men as essential to success. Evelyn Daws plays Rita. Daws was a young singer with a trained soprano; she was a discovery of the director, Victor Schertzinger. She sounds like Jeanette MacDonald's little sister and can hit high notes that'll cause nose bleeds. Daws made one movie after this and was never heard from again. After Cagney, Philip Ahn is one of the most interesting characters in the movie. He plays Ito, Cagney's gentleman's gentleman, with ludicrous pidgin-English...until we learn he speaks better than most everyone else in the movie. For fans of Cagney, the movie is probably a must.

loza-1 The plot of this film is very simple: a provincial band leader goes to Hollywood, in spite of his success, he returns to his old band. But we do not watch this film for its intricate subplots. It's song and dance time, which was director Victor Schertzinger's forte.In one of Cagney's dance sequences, there is stepping on a keyboard which reminds me of the Penny Marshall directed toy department scene in "Big." Some excellent performances here. Cagney of course. William Frawley is excellent too. I remember him as Bub in the TV series "My Three Sons". Schertzinger directed Damita in a couple of films, so he has Mona Barrie play a Damita-type leading lady with a foreign accent, Damita's vocal flourishes and arm-throwing. It's an utter disaster. Otherwise Schertzinger's direction is much improved compared with his earlier RKO work.

rsoonsa Weary of railing against Warner Brothers for the studio's mishandling of him, James Cagney moves to small Grand National, which produces for the star this sprightly musical compote. Cagney brings along all of his vigor and verve, and the little-known studio supplies a substantial budget for this tale of a Manhattan hoofer and bandleader, Terry Rooney (Cagney), and his sweetheart/wife (Evelyn Daw), who journey to Hollywood when Rooney is offered a film contract. Down-to-earth Rooney is resistant to receiving the prescribed "star treatment" and the head of the studio, Mr. Regan, (Gene Lockhart) construes his attitude as hauteur; when the initial film made with Rooney unexpectedly becomes wildly successful, the studio boss tries to keep the compass of his triumph from the budding star to prevent the latter from becoming more arrogant. Meantime, Rooney places his film experiences behind him by taking his bride on a lengthy cruise in a tramp steamer to the South Seas, and when they return and discover his exploding fame, comedic complications ensue. Cagney displays his customary class in his every scene with the musical production numbers being particularly effective, his dancing skill being a prominent element. True soprano Evelyn Daw performs beautifully throughout, and the classically trained singer makes for a comely female lead as well, while William Frawley as a press agent, Mona Barrie as the studio diva, and Philip Ahn, who plays Rooney's houseboy, all provide enjoyable turns. Director Victor Schertzinger utilizes his own Academy Award nominated score to a liberal extent throughout and the product becomes a tuneful and rather undervalued musical comedy.