The nominees were ...
- James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy
- Ronald Colman in Random Harvest
- Gary Cooper in The Pride of the Yankees
- Walter Pidgeon in Mrs. Miniver
- Monty Woolley in The Pied Piper
... when they should have been ...
- Jack Benny in To Be or Not to Be
- James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy
- Joseph Cotten in The Magnificent Ambersons
- Cary Grant in The Talk of the Town
- Joel McCrea in Sullivan's Travels
And the Oscar went to ...
George M. Cohan himself had proposed the idea of a film about his life, starting with his years performing with his family in vaudeville and following his rise to become a major songwriter, playwright, and performer. He took the idea to Sam Goldwyn, who talked to Fred Astaire about playing Cohan. Astaire, whose style as a performer was worlds away from Cohan's, quite sensibly turned it down, so Cohan went to Warner Bros., pitching it as a movie for Cagney. Like most Hollywood biopics, Yankee Doodle Dandy sentimentalizes and sanitizes its subject, glossing over, for example, Cohan's acrimonious battle with Actors Equity, which as a rich and powerful producer he tried to block in its struggle to become a Broadway bargaining agent. But thanks to Cagney, who sings, dances, and acts superbly, it's one of the great Hollywood musicals, with marvelous re-creations of Cohan's routines. As a boy he had seen Cohan on stage, and he shared Cohan's Irish roots, modeling his own style as a dancer on Cohan's stiff-legged strut. Cagney called it his favorite film, as well he might, for he dominates it as few performers have ever dominated a movie. He's on screen virtually throughout, blazing with energy.
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