Product Description

Warner Home Video will honor one of America's greatest motion picture stars with the release of James Cagney: The Signature Collection. The Oscar® winning screen icon comes to life in this collection that includes five new-to-DVD films - The Bride Came C.O.D., Captain of the Clouds, The Fighting 69th, Torrid Zone and The West Point Story. Cagney's versatile talent is on display opposite a star-studded array of screen favorites including Bette Davis, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Virginia Mayo, Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien. Special features on each title in the Collection include the entertaining "Warner Night at the Movies" short subject galleries with vintage newsreels, vault treasures and classic cartoons.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7034 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2007-04-24
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 5
• Dimensions: .85 pounds
• Running time: 489 minutes

Features

• Warner Home Video will honor one of America's greatest motion picture stars with the release of James Cagney: The Signature Collection. The Oscar? winning screen icon comes to life in this collection that includes five new-to-DVD films - The Bride Came C.O.D., Captain of the Clouds, The Fighting 69th, Torrid Zone and The West Point Story. Cagney's versatile talent is on display opposite a star-stu

Amazon.com
Spanning a lively decade in the career of one of Hollywood's greatest stars, The James Cagney Signature Collection highlights Cagney's versatility beyond the gangster roles he was best known for. You won't find any of Jimmy's hard-boiled classics in this five-disc set, but you'll find plenty to enjoy, with each film given the care and respect we've come to expect from Warner Bros.' archival DVD releases. From the World War I heroism of The Fighting 69th to the musical extravaganza The West Point Story, these five films represent fully one-third of Cagney's movie output from 1940 to 1950, and they're all above-average showcases for Cagney's enduring appeal. For sheer entertainment value, the best of the bunch is 1940's Torrid Zone, a still-delightful comedy teaming Jimmy with his best pal Pat O'Brien and Hollywood's "Oomph Girl," Ann Sheridan, in a savvy send-up of tropical adventure. Cagney loved working with O'Brien (who also costars in The Fighting 69th), and this collection also highlights Cagney's generous penchant for surrounding himself with some of Hollywood's best-loved character actors, like George Tobias, Alan Hale (Sr. and Jr.), George Brent, and others. And while 1941's The Bride Came C.O.D. teamed Cagney and Bette Davis for the second and final time (resulting in a breezy comedy that shows both stars at their most endearing), 1942's Captains of the Clouds is a standard-yet-sturdy example of Hollywood's wartime patriotism, with Cagney (in his first Technicolor feature) as a seasoned pilot recruited into the Royal Canadian Air Force. The latest film in this batch, 1950's The West Point Story, was conspicuously promoted to capitalize on Cagney's Oscar-winning role in 1942's Yankee Doodle Dandy, and while it's the most dated movie in this set, it's still got plenty to offer in terms of Cagney's unique style of showmanship.

As with previous Signature Collections, Warner Bros. has done a spectacular job of bringing these films to DVD. Picture and sound quality are uniformly superb throughout, and each film is accompanied by a variety of "Night at the Movies" short subjects, specifically organized to approximate the experience of seeing these films in their original theatrical context. Vintage newsreels, Warner Bros. cartoons (both "Looney Tunes" and/or "Merrie Melodies"), documentary shorts, and movie trailers are all included here, some seen for the first time in decades and chronologically corresponding to the feature presentation. No other studio cares for its library as passionately as Warner Bros., and The James Cagney Signature Collection is further proof that there's a wide and appreciative audience for DVD sets that showcase great stars while honoring Hollywood's history and the nostalgic pleasure of "a night at the movies." --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Gangsters, Tough Guys and now one of his own!
After the successful release of the Warner Bros Gangster Collection and then the Tough Guys Collection we now have a collection of 'just Cagney' films on their way. A brief description of each film:

Torrid Zone -
Banana Company executive Steve Case on a Caribean plantation group tries to convince his former co-worker Nick Butler to take over the plantation No 7. But he is on his way to Chicago, to take over a job as a manager for another company himself. He has also troubles with US night-club singer Lee Donley, whom he wants aboard a ship back to the US, and rebel Rosario. He is able to get Nick to the plantation, but is he able to keep him there or will he leave it in a few days with Gloria, the wife of the former exectutive of No 7, Mr. Anderson ?

The Fighting 69th -
"The Fighting 69th" is a First World War regiment of mostly New York-Irish soldiers. Amongst a cocky crew, perhaps the cockiest is Jerry Plunkett, a scrappy fellow who looks out only for himself. The officers and non-coms of the regiment do their best to instill discipline in Plunkett, and the chaplain, Father Duffy, tries to make Plunkett see the greater good, all to no avail. Behind the lines or in the trenches, Plunkett acts selfishly and cowardly, eventually costing the lives of many of his fellow soldiers. A final act of cowardice leads to terrible consequences, but Plunkett sees in them a chance to redeem himself...if only he can.

The West Point Story -
Broadway director Bix Bixby, down on his luck (thanks to gambling), is reluctantly persuaded to go to West Point military academy (with Eve, his gorgeous assistant and on-and-off love) to help the students put on a show. Ulterior motive: to recruit student star Tom Fletcher for Harry Eberhart's new production (Eberhart just happens to be Tom's uncle). Then, Bixby finds that he himself must live as a cadet. Of course, sundered hearts come into the story also...

Captain of the Clouds -
Brian McLean is a ruthless bush-pilot in Canada. He offers some other pilots an opportunity of earning a lot of money, but he marries the girl-friend of one of them. After listening to Churchill's famous "Blood, Sweat and tears" radio address he and some other pilots decide to join the RCAF - and his superior is always the pilot who's girlfriend he has married. Due to this and the fact, that McLean doesn't like to obey he gets troubles.

The Bride Came C.O.D. -
Oil heiress Joan (Bette Davis) is going to elope with bandleader Allen whom she's known four days. Out-of-money pilot Steve is going to fly them to Nevada but makes a deal with her father to deliver her home unmarried. He flies off with her, an apparent kidnaping, but is forced down in the desert. The bandleader arrives with a preacher, but their marriage (in California, not Nevada) is not valid. Pilot Steve will marry her because her father is a millionaire.

Here's hoping we find as many interesting and relevant extra features on this set as we've now come to expect from the Signature Collections.

What about the other Cagney films by Warner that aren't even on VHS?
I'm happy enough with this collection, but this is not the top tier of Cagney films. The best of the bunch is "The Fighting 69th" and "Torrid Zone", which just happens to feature the on-screen rapport of Cagney and Pat O'Brien. "Captains of the Clouds" is a good enough if uneven film with a very good performance by Cagney taking his tough-guy persona into war. "The Bride Came C.O.D." and "West Point Story" would be pretty forgettable story-wise if it were not for Cagney's performances. "West Point Story" is actually a musical. With the exception of "West Point Story", these films were all made around 1940, which doesn't give you as good a view of Cagney's evolution as an actor as this set could have if the selection had come from the full twenty year plus period that Cagney was making films now under the control of Warner Home Video.

The problem is, as others have mentioned, that many of Cagney's best known films controlled by Warner Brothers are already boxed up in The Warner Gangsters, Warner Legends, Tough Guys, and even the Busby Berkeley (Footlight Parade) and Henry Fonda Signature (Mr. Roberts) collections. However, there are many great Cagney titles that I'm pretty sure Warner Bros. still has the DVD rights to that we havent seen yet. Among the ones I'm looking for are Cagney's pre-codes including "Blonde Crazy", "Picture Snatcher", and "Taxi!". "Picture Snatcher" and "Taxi!" aren't even on VHS. From the 1950's Warner Bros. controls the rights to "Come Fill the Cup" and "These Wilder Years", neither of which are on VHS, but are great showcases of Cagney's talent in more mature roles. Warner Bros. also controls the already mentioned and essential "Oklahoma Kid" and "Strawberry Blonde". The only thing I can figure is that (a) The pre-codes are perhaps going to be part of the next planned "Forbidden Hollywood" collection and/or (b) there is a volume two of Cagney's films planned. I just hope that in the case of Cagney films put on DVD by Warner Home Video in the future that commentary is included. The lack of it in this set is really my chief complaint.

In summary, if you are a Cagney completist, then by all means get this set. If you are looking for more definitive Cagney films and a better introduction to the actor's work, then start with the Warner Gangsters and then the Tough Guy collections.

A Collector's Find
I'm a serious collector of movies. Not only does this collection contain movies not available before on DVD, it also contains many cartoons and short subjects which were not previously available on DVD. I highly recommend this collection.