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Something to Sing About (1937 film)

Something to Sing About
Something to Sing About poster.jpg
original theatrical poster
Directed by Victor Schertzinger
Produced by Zion Meyers
Written by Victor Schertzinger
(story)
Austin Parker (screenplay)
Starring James Cagney
Evelyn Daw
William Frawley
Music by Myrl Alderman
(score–uncredited)
Victor Schertzinger
(songs)
Cinematography John Stumar
Edited by Gene Milford
Production
company
Zion Meyers Productions
Distributed by Grand National Pictures
Release date
  • September 30, 1937 (1937-09-30) (United States)
Running time
93 minutes
89 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $900,000
($14.8 million in 2015)

Something to Sing About, (1937), re-released in 1947 as Battling Hoofer, is the second and final film James Cagney made for Grand National Pictures – the first being Great Guy – before mending relations with and returning to Warner Bros. It is one of the few films besides Footlight Parade and Yankee Doodle Dandy to showcase Cagney's singing and dancing talents. It was directed by Victor Schertzinger, who also wrote the music and lyrics of the original songs, as well as the story that Austin Parker's screenplay is based on. Cagney's co-stars are Evelyn Daw and William Frawley, and the film features performances by Gene Lockhart and Mona Barrie.

The film, which is a satire on the movie industry's foibles, flopped in theaters, causing the just recently started "Poverty Row" independent Grand National, which had gone significantly overbudget making the film, to close its doors in 1940.

When, at 80 years of age, Cagney was asked which of his films – outside of Yankee Doodle Dandy – that he'd like to see again, this was the film he chose. Since the copyright on the film was not renewed in 1965, the film is now in the public domain in the United States.

"Terry Rooney" (James Cagney) is the stage name of Thaddeus McGillicuddy, a popular New York band leader and hoofer with a radio show, who gets an offer to go to Hollywood to make movies. He leaves behind his fiancee, the band's singer, Rita Wyatt (Evelyn Daw), and finds himself in the hands of studio boss B.O. Regan (Gene Lockhart), who sets a team of studio professionals to mold Rooney into a star. Regan, after struggling with another new talent who quickly developed an uncontrollable ego, also secretly insists that no one praise Rooney's work, on pain of being fired.


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