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Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

When previewing a performance for the musical show being put on, Cagney says "Wouldn't hiss, wouldn't cheer." That about sums it up perfectly, except that I am hissing - some. This movie musical about Cagney helping West Point cadets put on a musical revue, simply just lays there. Despite his energetic presence and the talents of Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, and Virginia Mayo, it comes across as lifeless. The musical numbers are upbeat and Cagney uses his whole body to show disgust for incompetent amateurs (if you've seen it, you know what I mean,) but the songs are not original or grand enough to really stand out. It may seem pleasant enough at the time, but after nearly two hours, you feel worn out. See another Doris Day or James Cagney film first.

He spits out lame dialog like it was Shakespeare, he talk-sings with a verve that could give Rex Harrison or Robert Preston lessons, he stomps up and down, he uppercuts, he dances up a storm. There's plenty of A-list talent in this uninspired Warners musical, but a 51-year-old Cagney is pretty much the whole show, and he appears to believe in the hole-filled plot so much that you buy it, too, despite the many lapses of logic. I find his teaming with Virginia Mayo a little distasteful--he's plainly too old for her--but she lends a lot of enthusiasm, too, as does Doris Day, given some middling Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn ballads to warble (and some very unattractive gowns to model), and Gene Nelson, tapping exuberantly, and Gordon MacRae, with his fine natural baritone. Cagney felt he did his best dancing in this film, and it's worth sitting through the dated, hit-you-on-the-head patriotism and weird plot mechanics to get to his virtuosic numbers--he even taps a bit with Day, who started out as a dancer and keeps up brilliantly with him. It's not a good movie, exactly, but I'd trade a lot of neater, better-crafted musicals for this one's dumb liveliness, and for Cagney's genius. I mentioned Robert Preston above; Cagney was, in fact, considered for Professor Harold Hill before Preston was hired. I think he'd have been terrific.

This has to be one of the most dismal entries on all the principal's CVs. It's also good for a trivia question: What major songwriter used the same title twice in the same decade with different collaborators? Answer: Jule Styne, who included in this score, written with established partner Sammy Cahn, a number entitled Long Before I Knew You and then, following his break-up with Cahn a couple of years later, wrote another melody with the same title as part of his score for Bells Are Ringing, with Comden and Green. Other than that - and the fact that Cagney and Day would co-star a couple of years later in Love Me Or Leave Me, or the fact that Day, McCrae and Nelson would also work together again, Tea For Two, etc - the least said a bout this turkey the better. For West Point read DISAPpoint.

Starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, and Alan Hale, Jr., "The West Point Story" is a very enjoyable musical comedy, even if the plot is somewhat convoluted. It's about a Broadway song & dance man named Elwin "Bix" Bixby (Cagney), who lately has been down on his heels, if you'll forgive the pun. Bix and his tart-tongued but faithful assistant Eve Dillon (Mayo) make a trip out to the famous military academy at West Point in order to help cadets Tom Fletcher (MacRae) and Hal Courtland (Nelson) put on their spring musical known as the 100th Nite Show. Tom is a great singer and Hal is a marvelous dancer, but the show definitely needs some doctoring up. For one thing, there are to be no women in the show; all the female parts are to be played by the male cadets(!!). The crafty Bix solves that problem by finagling spots in the show for not only Eve but also a successful Hollywood star named Jan Wilson (Day).My favorite scenes from "The West Point Story" include the following (DO NOT read any further if you have not yet seen this film). Bix is quite amusing with all his kinetic energy as he jumps up & down to voice his displeasure at a dance routine, or when he decks a theatrical producer (Roland Winters) in order to close a deal. At the cadets' Saturday night hop, Jan thrills the dancing crowd with her lively, bouncy, head-bobbing rendition of "The Military Polka". Hal does an unbelievably fascinating dance (featuring a fine orchestral accompaniment) before getting pelted with straw hats. The West Point glee club sings "The Corps" as Tom solemnly recites a patriotic monologue about the history of West Point and of the heroic Americans who dreamed to make this outstanding military academy a reality. Bix and Eve are a singing/dancing sensation with "It Could Only Happen in Brooklyn", and they are equally wonderful with the quirky "By the Kissing Rock", of which Tom Fletcher & Bull Gilbert (Hale) only give an adequate performance moments earlier. And finally, upon Jan Wilson's first appearance in this movie, she sings the delightfully swinging novelty number "Ten Thousand Four Hundred and Thirty-Two Sheep".Featuring music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Sammy Cahn, "The West Point Story" was apparently an attempt to recreate the success of James Cagney's Oscar-winning performance in the musical "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942), but at this I don't think the film succeeded. Nevertheless, despite the incomprehensible plot and the inappropriate romance between Jan Wilson & Tom Fletcher, I still find "The West Point Story" to be highly entertaining. I especially admire the delightful performances of James Cagney, who gives his role of Elwin Bixby every bit of the gusto it needed, and Alan Hale, Jr. as "Bull" Gilbert. (Who would have thought that a skipper would begin his seafaring career portraying a princess in the musical theatre?!)