Yankee Doodle Dandy

Yankee Doodle Dandy is a 1942 musical drama from Warner Bros. that tells the life story of George M. Cohan, the Broadway performer, songwriter, playwright and producer. Raised on the stage, Cohan tours with his parents and sister as a family act before making the move from small-time venues to Broadway. He goes on to write, produce and star in his own shows and becomes a celebrated national figure, with his patriotic song "Over There" tied closely to the American war effort. The film presents his career as a series of memories, including his partnership with writer and producer Sam Harris and recreations of numbers from his stage shows.

Directed by Michael Curtiz, the film was released in 1942 and runs 126 minutes. It is the fifteenth of the twenty-five films he directed in chronological order, between Virginia City and Casablanca. James Cagney plays Cohan, with Joan Leslie as Mary, Walter Huston as Jerry Cohan, Richard Whorf as Sam Harris, Irene Manning as Fay Templeton and George Tobias as Dietz. William Cagney produced from a screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Robert Buckner, and the credited cast numbers thirty-six.

On IMDb the film holds a critics' rating of 8 out of 10 from 32 reviews, while on TMDB it has a rating of 7 out of 10 from 238 votes. The gap suggests critics have rated it more highly than the wider audience has.