FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

HotToastyRag After James Cagney won his Oscar for Yankee Doodle Dandy, he acted in a few other show biz films to continue to show off his tap dancing talents. His performance in The West Point Story was so awful, I can only suppose he was sick and tired of being cast in musicals and wanted to embarrass himself so much the studios would never cast him in one again. His character was supposed to throw frequent temper tantrums, but he spent the entire film over-acting, over-gesturing, and over-yelling. If I wasn't convinced of his ulterior motives, I would have felt very sorry for him.In the movie, James Cagney is a washed-up theater director put in charge of a rinky-dink variety show at West Point. He brings his best gal, Virginia Mayo, along, but despite his horrible treatment of her and the sudden appearance of dozens of handsome uniforms, she only has eyes for Jimmy. It doesn't make any sense, but neither does the rest of the screenplay. The romances are contrived and uninspired, and the obstacles are resolved in unrealistic, far from poignant paths. When James Cagney "sang" the production number "B'klyn," my mom and I groaned and buried our heads in our hands. "I'd rather listen to 'The International Rag'!" my mom lamented, referencing our favorite love-to-hate song from Call Me Madam. Even with Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, and Virginia Mayo rounding out the supporting cast, there isn't even one good number to make the movie worthwhile. There's no reason for you to rent this one, unless you have a low opinion of James Cagney and want to keep it that way.

jhkp Cagney plays Elwin "Bix" Bixby, a formerly successful showman with a very bad temper, reduced to staging the numbers at a hole-in-the- wall Manhattan nightclub, assisted by his long-suffering fiancée, Eve (Virgina Mayo). Bix is more or less blackmailed into accepting a job directing the 100th Night show at West Point by a Broadway producer. The catch? The producer wants Bix to persuade his nephew, Tom (Gordon MacRae), the star and co-writer of the show with his friend Hal (Gene Nelson), to give up the Army for a singing career. So Bix (who hates West Point, based on past Army experiences) ends up at the Academy along with Eve, directing the show but temperamentally at odds with the lifestyle.Somehow the solution to this is to make him a cadet (don't even ask, it makes no sense). And in the course of events, he persuades a movie star acquaintance, Jan Wilson (Doris Day), who is on a press junket in New York City, to travel up the Hudson to attend a formal dance at the Point as Tom's "drag." I forget why, but who cares? The plot just gets more incomprehensible as the show goes on, but the fact is, this movie is still a lot of fun. I disagree with some of the people here because I think the original songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn are terrific. None were hits, but there are just a lot of really good songs here. And the arrangements are in the best Ray Heindorf style. Cagney is fantastic, more dynamic and committed than 10 other actors. The singing, by Day and MacRae, is top-notch, and Doris in particular elevates every scene she's in, she's like a human antidepressant. Gene Nelson, an excellent dancer, has a few good numbers, and Virginia Mayo is sincere and funny as Cagney's girl and a very good dancer as well.If you choose to focus on the positives and if you can manage to ignore some of the plot holes, you should have a good time with this one.

marcslope 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.

edwagreen Average musical where James Cagney goes to West Point to get graduating senior Gordon MacRae out of the military so that he can pursue a show business career.Virginia Mayo and Doris Day are 2 ladies or cohorts in this scheme and go know that Day falls for MacRae causing many complications.As always, the musical productions are nicely staged as Cagney dances away 8 years after his Oscar-winning turn in "Yankee Doodle Dandy."There is some uneven moments as Cagney is castigated for being out and then is promptly honored. In fact, he gets "honored" several times in the film and it can be annoying.The songs Military Polka and the ending Brooklyn are memorable.Mayo and Cagney proved that they could dance up a storm here. When Day gets excited with Cagney, would she ever think that 5 years later the two of them would be in probably the best picture of their respective careers-"Love Me or Leave Me."Due to the weak plot, some may have wanted to leave West Point prematurely.