IN FULFILLING HIS obligations with small Hollywood Studio, Mr. James Cagney opted for a return to his ancestral, musical roots. Portraying a now successful Band Leader & Radio personality, Terry Rooney (nee Thadeus McGillicuddy).THE OPENING SCENE toys with the audience by having others dub in both falsetto and a deep, gruff voices done over Cagney's lip-singing the film's title song, "Something To Sing About." The gag is soon revealed to be just what it is; as this is announced to be Terry's last radio program. He is moving on to the green pastures of Hollywood.AFTER INTRODUCING OTHER members of the cast, the locale changes from NYC to Sunny Tinseltown. And it is here that the bulk of the story remains, such as it is.THE MAIN TOPIC is and remains throughout; that being the experiences of an outsider-newcomer's experiences in this new, totally different world of Movieland. We follow the band leader through Studio Front Offices, Acting Lessons, Dancing, Wardrobe Department and Make up.ALL OF THIS business is interspersed with pleasant, but forgettable musical numbers.AS WITH SO many other small pictures, SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT boasts of a great cast membership. With Evelyn Daw as the romantic interest, they were supported by such capable hands as: William Frawley, Gene Lockart, Phillip Ahn, Dwight Frye* and Johnny Arthur.** IF YOU LOOK around the local video or chain store, you will find a highly inexpensive VHS or DVD copy of this movie, which along with Mr. Cagney's other Grand National production, GREAT GUY both long in Public Domain.AS SMALL AND insignificant as this movie is, it proved to be a powerhouse of sorts at the box office; being the one to finally sink the studio, forcing Grand National to close its doors forever.NOTE * Yes, yes! It's the same guy who portrayed so many grotesque and horrifying characters in those classic Universal horror pictures of the 1930's. (In FRANKENSTEIN, Dracula, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, et al.)NOTE ** Johnny Arthur was formerly a Hal Roach Contract Player (portraying, among others, Spanky McFarland's Father), who would later create the role of Imperial Japanese Agent and Emperor Hirohito look-alike, Mura Sakima in THE MASKED MARVEL Serial (Republic, 1943).

Some movies try to do too much. This is a good example. The first hour has Cagney doing a wonderful satire on his own career in Hollywood. This works fine and if they had expanded this part of the film by adding one or two more dance numbers for Cagney, it would have been a comedy classic. Unfortunately, the movie was also trying to make a star out of newcomer Evelyn Daw. So the last half hour has a plot where Cagney is married to Daw, but being a new star, has to hide the fact from the public. The story of a movie studio trying to make a natural born actor into a Hollywood actor is funny, a story about a movie studio fooling the public about the marital status of a star is not so funny. This silly second plot seems tacked on and tacky.Daw was strikingly beautiful and had a lovely operatic voice. She certainly could have been a movie star with the right material, but this wasn't the right material. Her voice was simply inappropriate for the swing numbers she had to sing in the film. Unfortunately, the fact that this, her first film, and it flopped financially, ruined her career. She only made a single film after this.The film certainly has a lot of fun moments. The three gay assistants who try to re-mold tough guy Cagney into a Hollywood star are hilarious. The fake stage fight that turns into a real fight also is memorable. Cagney is as natural and delightful as ever. The three dance numbers he does are too short, but they show off his unique dance style well.For Cagney fans it is a must. For others, I think it will be a pleasant diversion.

Hollywood was really turning the cameras on itself when it made this 1937 movie. This is a very good take-off on why so many Hollywood marriages fell apart-mainly the studio system. So many stars of the past blamed Hollywood for their marriages falling apart. Right off the bat, I can think of Judy Garland and David Rose.Cagney proved what a great hoofer he was 5 years before his Oscar win in "Yankee Doodle Dandy."This wonderful Hollywood plot concerns itself with Cagney making it big in Hollywood and then running away and marrying his sweetheart, well played by Evelyn Daw. Too bad we never heard much from her.William Frawley, the future Fred Mertz, of I Love Lucy Fame, steals the picture as a publicity agent hell-bent on getting Cagney stature no matter what the cost.There is that accidental item that could cause a fatal rift between the married couple but Hollywood knew how to settle that so well in a final staging of a song and dance number.

I didn't know what to expect from this movie at all; I never really heard of it or saw it anywhere and I bought it on a $1 DVD. I think it's a very enjoyable late 30s film, really hampered only by the sometimes painful singing of Evelyn Daw. I didn't know Cagney had made a musical this early in his career, five years before "Yankee Doodle Dandy." In fact this one came out before "Angels with Dirty Faces" so I think it's fair to say he wasn't a very big star yet and his tough guy persona hadn't been cemented yet. He looks great doing his tap dance numbers early in the film. It's a shame they didn't have him do more dancing as the film progressed instead of concentrating quite so much on the situational comedy.Cagney plays a "hoofer" who goes by the stage name of Terry Rooney. He goes to Hollywood to make a film and the producers very foolishly try to convince him that he's bad so that he won't demand a lot of money. The foolish part is that they don't sign him until after the movie is released, so then they have to track him down and try to sign him without his knowing about it. By then he's married his sweetheart Rita (Daw) and the studio wants to keep the marriage a secret.I've never really heard of songwriter/director Victor Shertzinger; looking at his credits I see he wrote the famous song "I Remember You" from the great Alan Ladd/Veronica Lake film "The Glass Key" and was kind of a big shot at Paramount in the 30s. None of the music in this particular film is very memorable unfortunately. It's not bad music, the main problem is that they let Daw go into a very high range that the music just doesn't justify. More Cagney dancing and less Daw singing would have made this a more satisfying musical film. But the comedy is very good, I was laughing out loud at a couple of the scenes. Cagney is a very funny guy and he seems more free in this movie without the burden of the "tough guy" that he later needed to either live up to or run away from. There's a wonderful scene with Cagney showing his wife how he made all these different faces when he was acting. There's also a funny scene where Cagney beats up a couple stuntmen and then trashes the entire set of the movie. Every James Cagney fan should see this movie because it's a bit like seeing what his career might have been like if he had stayed more in the musical comedy realm. No, it's not a masterpiece like "Yankee Doodle Dandy", but it never tries to be. It's just a very light piece of classic entertainment that goes down very smoothly.