25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
james cagney classics-DVD-Genius-AMC, March 9, 2004
This review is from: AMC Movies: James Cagney Classics (DVD)
i am a big cagney fan, and i am accustomed to AMC playing quality prints of classic movies, so you can understand my disappointment in seeing these poor quality transfers, especially since it says "digitally remastered" on the front cover. save your money and hopefully a remastered set of cagney movies will appear soon.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Forget Maltin's review, November 23, 1999
If you appreciate James Cagney for the quality and spunk of his dancing, this film is for you!
Sure, the plot is nothing to sing about, but this film is to be watched for Cagney alone.
He has several hilarious episodes as he enters Hollywood as a small time bandleader from NY. He is measured, analyzed and critiqued by a voice coach, hair dresser and tailor, and his reactions to all the poking and prodding show him as one of the underrated but awesome comedic actors. (Anyone who doesn't recognize Cagney as a great comedic actor hasn't seen enough of his films.)
Another great scene is when he does some great Vaudevillian slapstick facial pantomimes of "the take, the double take, and the double take with the fade-away."
Now the dancing! Cagney, who always billed himself as a song and dance man, never danced enough in his movies. But this has four great scenes of him him at his best -- a combination of down-to-earth hoofing and ballet. He does one scene with Johnny Boyle and Harland Dixon, the former who danced for George M. Cohan and helped Cag choreograph dancing sequences for "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Much of Cagney's dancing style is taken from Boyle.
No one could say that Cagney is the greatest dancer, but he injected a street attitude into his dancing along with exquisite grace that made him incomparable.
A must see!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
One Star for the Quality not the Movies, June 12, 2007
This review is from: AMC Movies: James Cagney Classics (DVD)
These are some more great Cagney films as always, but I do not suggest purchasing this version since they look terrible. It seems like they have recorded the original negatives without them being cleaned, not even VHS quality, it's best to buy them by themselves, there are much better quality copies. I've seen Blood on the Sun on VHS, then saw it in this set and was amazed at how much worse the quality was. They are great films, just get them in a different set or by themselves, trust me.
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