Fighting 69th, The (1940)
Directed by William Keighley, with an original screenplay by Norman Reilly Raine (The Life of Emile Zola (1937)), Fred Niblo Jr. (The Criminal Code (1931)), and Dean Franklin, this average World War I features an all star cast led by James Cagney, in a somewhat against type role as a street tough loner who turns "yellow" in combat. Pat O'Brien plays Father Francis Duffy (naturally), who refuses to give up on Jerry Plunkett (Cagney); George Brent (also somewhat against type) plays the platoon's hard driving Major "Wild Bill" Donovan. Evidently, the real Duffy was memorialized with a statue, posthumously. Jeffrey Lynn plays the company's famous poet, and Sergeant Joyce Kilmer. In a group loaded with Irish Americans from New York, primarily, Alan Hale plays Sergeant "Big Mike" Wynn, who has several scraps with the tough young Private Plunkett in his regiment. Frank McHugh provides comic relief (as usual); Dennis Morgan appears briefly as a Lieutenant, as does "the Singing Cowboy" Dick Foran. William Lundigan, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Sammy Cohen, William Hopper, and Tom Dugan also appear as recently enlisted men in the famous unit. Foran, Hale, and Lundigan plays three members of the same family (brothers), descending in rank, within the group. Once the inductees are ready for battle and shipped "over there", Henry O'Neill and John Litel appear as the Colonel and the Captain, respectively. John Ridgely, whom I recall seeing, and George Reeves, whom I don't, also appear uncredited (among MANY others) as soldiers in this film.
The story is a bit sappy, perhaps, released well before our involvement in the conflict brewing in the East, but it's watch-able nonetheless. Despite the plethora of Warner Bros. stars in the cast, it's only Cagney, O'Brien, Brent, and Hale who are charged with carrying the load. The focus of the plot is on Cagney's character, perhaps one of the least likeable he ever played - a coward, the first ever in the famed unit. Brent and Hale are ready to through him out, which takes ever increasing forms as the film progresses to the front lines of battle, while O'Brien tries (quite literally) to "save" him. The battle scenes are nothing spectacular, but realistic enough to give one at least a feel for the chaos that might cause one (like Cagney's Plunkett) to flinch when faced with the reality of such terror. It probably comes as no surprise to anyone (lest this be a spoiler) that there's a change in our protagonist at just the right time, before the film's conclusion.
Purchase this DVD now at
Most Recent Additions:
Casanova Brown (1944) - full review!
I Want You (1951) - full review!
A Bill of Divorcement (1932) - full review!
Patterns (1956) - full review!
Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) - full review!
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) - full review!
Hour of the Gun (1967) - full review!
To Sir, with Love (1967) - full review!
You'll Never Get Rich (1941) - full review!
The Actress (1953) - full review!
Mannequin (1937) - full review!
All My Sons (1948) - full review!
Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) - full review!
State Fair (1945) - full review!
Billy Budd (1962) - full review!
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) - full review!
The Bachelor Party (1957) - full review!
The Glenn Miller Story (1954) - full review!
The Southerner (1945) - full review!
The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966)
Never on Sunday (1960) - full review!
The Arrangement (1969) - full review!
A Summer Place (1959) - full review!
Miracle in the Rain (1956) - full review!
Love Letters (1945) - full review!
The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) - full review!
The Absent Minded Professor (1961)
20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Come and Get It (1936) - full review!
The Prize (1963) - full review!
This Is the Army (1943) - full review!
Home from the Hill (1960) - full review!
Hangmen Also Die (1943) - full review!
The Shop on Main Street (1965) - full review!
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) - full review!
A Gathering of Eagles (1963) - full review!
This Happy Breed (1944) - full review!
Red-Headed Woman (1932) - full review!
Waterloo Bridge (1931) - full review!
Baby Face (1933) - full review!
Titanic (1943) - full review!
Cover Girl (1944) - full review!
Saratoga Trunk (1945) - full review!
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
The Young Philadelphians (1959) - full review!
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
Pocket Money (1972) - full review!
Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)
Judge Priest (1934) - full review!
Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) - full review!
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Angel Face (1952) - full review!
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) - full review!
Dallas (1950) - full review!
Springfield Rifle (1952) - full review!
Gaslight (1940) - full review!
The Gazebo (1959) - full review!
Passage to Marseille (1944) - full review!
The House on 56th Street (1933) - full review!
Annie Get Your Gun (1950) - full review!
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
Lonelyhearts (1958) - full review!
Good News (1947) - full review!
Wild Rovers (1971) - full review!
Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) - full review!
Topper Returns (1941) - full review!
[Home] [Hitchcock] [Oscar's Best] [Essays] [Essential Films] [TCM Picks] [Obscure Films] [Links] [Other Reviews] [Academy Awards] [Silent Films] [Movie Index]
