Yankee Doodle Dandy, and Footlight Parade

Today it was back to work. I spent most of the day in a customer meeting, which was fairly informative, but probably moreso to the developers than to me (a QAer), though I did come away with a few ideas. I'd be interested in seeing a similar presentation by a very different WebObjects customer to get a differing viewpoint.

One interesting thing I discovered is a Window app called WinBrowser, which is, essentially, the NeXT Workspace file browser for Windows. I've pretty much loathed the Windows Explorer ever since Windows 95 was released (every browse tree is in a separate window so I can't ALT-TAB to bring them all to the fore at once? Lame!), so anything would be an improvement. Unfortunately, this app has an expiring license unless you pay for it, but it'll be nice to try it out at work for a little while.

Have I mentioned before how I know ex-NeXTies who love the Workspace and hate the Mac Finder, and then know long-time Apple partisans (like Ceej) who think the Finder is just fine and the Workspace is clumsy. My feeling is that the Finder is a bit more polished - unsurprising since it's both older and has had a larger and more demanding customer base - but that otherwise the two are basically equivalent. I'm happy to use either one. Of course, the Workspace - still present in Mac OS X Server - seems to be on its way out.

Tonight we resumed our movie-going at the Stanford Theatre. Subrata, Mark, Rollie and Kelly, Yvette and I (they're pretty much all gaming buddies, if those names don't ring a bell) got Chinese food, and then went to see a couple of James Cagney films.

First up was Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), which is a "bio-drama" of the life of playwright, composer, actor and dancer George M. Cohan. Born in the late 1800s, Cohan got his start with his family (parents and sister) on the Vaudeville circuit, doing Irish-themed song and dance numbers. But Cohan longed to make his own mark, and managed to break into show biz on Broadway, where he became a huge success until he largely shut down his career after his father died circa 1930.

Cagney plays Cohan as a young adult until he's an moderately old man (in his 60s; this was the 1940s, after all!), and turns out to be a fairly impressive dancer (I've read that he was considered second only to Fred Astaire in the era). More heavily built than Astaire, he actually looks like an older Gene Kelly, and his style is a bit stiffer than Kelly's (and, by extension, far more so than Astaire's). The Kelly comparison is actually pretty apt, as he plays his role very flamboyantly and has a penchant for mugging at the camera. All-in-all, though, he does a good job in the role.

The story, overall, is perhaps overly-rosy. Cohan seems to lack many serious obstacles once he makes his name on Broadway, and his one apparent failure serves only to show what a swell guy he is in owning up to his own shortcomings (which mostly revolve around a colossal ego). He's got a seemingly perfect family life - both his birth family and his life with his wife - and a terrific business partner. It's definitely a "feel-good" film. But then, it's good to watch one of those every once in a while. It's also peppered with much of Cohan's music, most of which is Americana by this point (such as "Over There").

One intriguing historical note is Cohan's performance as Franklin Roosevelt toward the end of the film, whom he plays as an energetic, dancing figure whose mannerisms remind one of Groucho Marx (if you can picture that). What's interesting about this, of course, is that Roosevelt was wheelchair-bound by this point, but I believe this information was still largely hidden from the public, this being the middle of World War II. The sequence seems anachronistic, now, but the filmmakers surely either didn't know the truth about FDR, or deliberately maintained the fiction (for whatever reason).

The back half of the twinbill was Footlight Parade (1933), which is yet another film which looks back at the years 1927-28, when talking pictures emerged. Cagney plays Chester Kent, a silent film producer who adapts to the new era by producing "prologues", or short (live action - this was before cartoons gained popularity) sketches aired before and between films to entertain the audience. If this film is to be believed, this was big business at the time (which makes sense, given the later popularity of Looney Tunes cartoons).

The film begins with the surreal, as it cascades from one scene to another, slowly setting up the premise (Kent's business partners are hiding profits from him, and the company is slowly failing) and putting the characters in place. There's quite a cast: Kent's secretary, who's in love with him, an acquaintance of hers who gets engaged to Kent, and another woman on the lot, who falls for one of the new male dancers. Said dancer is the nephew of one of Kent's partners' wife, whose brother is also around the set. The stage trainer also has major speaking parts (mostly for comic relief), and there are a couple of unscrupulous types around the company as well. Eventually, it all settles down to producing three key prologues to win a big contract, as the romantic entanglements work themselves out.

Those prologues are almost by themselves the reason for the film, for this is a Busby Berkeley film (you may recall I saw 42nd Street a year ago), which means his choreography takes center stage for much of the film. The final three prologues feature the extended pieces "Honeymoon Hotel", "By A Waterfall", and "Shanghai Lil", the second of which is a stunning synchronized swimming performance, where some of the patterns the performers create are amazing even today.

The film is also remarkable for its sheer raciness (for what I'd expect in 1933) at times. For instance, when King introduces his secretary to his fiancee, Miss Rich (whom she already knows), she replies, "I know Miss B... Rich." There are several other similar lines, although they don't come immediately to mind.

So, it's not a great film - like 42nd Street is sort of muddles around before petering out - but it's all about style, baby, and this one keeps you engaged until the end, once you figure out what's going on.