Well, the snow finally melted and I was able to attend an antiques show last weekend. One of my purchases at the show was a DVD of The West Point Story, a 1950 musical starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, and Gene Nelson. Oh, and Jack Kelly shows up for a moment (literally) near the end of the film.
Although it has plenty of singing and dancing, The West Point Story is no Yankee Doodle Dandy. Cagney plays "'Elwin 'Bix' Bixby", a down-on-his luck Broadway director who agrees to help stage a show written by and starring a cadet (MacRae) at the West Point Military Academy. Bix spends a lot of time yelling--at the cadets, at his girl (Mayo), and even Doris Day (who plays his former protégée).
Day's character, "Jan Wilson", has become a movie star and after Bix gets her a part in the show at West Point, she falls in love with MacRae's character, "Tom Fletcher". Tom goes AWOL to pursue Jan, intending to resign from the military and marry her. Realizing that both his and her career are too important to throw away, Jan rejects his proposal and prepares to return to Hollywood. Bix and cadet "Hal Courtland" (Nelson) return the dejected Tom to the Academy.
When Tom, Bix and Hal arrive back at West Point, JK (as the "Officer-in-Charge") informs Tom that he is under arrest for being AWOL.
JK has only a few lines and is shown only in left profile--but, hey, that's enough for me. ;)
What's next in TDS? Please stay tuned and find out! :)
Another awesome read!
ReplyDelete