What Price Glory

Its most defining characteristic is its weirdness. Sometimes that's great - the first act is phenomenal and the battle sequences vacillated between ridiculous and poetic - but just as often it's a bust. All the same, I'm glad a movie this bizarre happened.

Attractive but tonally erratic Ford pitches itself rather awkwardly between drama and comedy, and it is not particularly successful in either mode or register. Cagney is amusingly over the top, and there are picturesque moments that only a master could create. Nonetheless, beyond its odd tonal clashes, there isn't much to recommend here, not even to diehard Ford fanatics.

Tedious remake of the silent original. Ford encourages Cagney and Dailey to overract, and they do not disappoint him.

56.000

When Dan Dailey shows up, James Cagney ducks a swung punch and grounds him with an uppercut to the jibs. Then he takes his hand, lifts him to his feet and says, "You're the best sergeant I know." I liked this movie.

stupid movie

Wanted to give this one a higher rating, but it's so damn sappy.

Why is Cagney even here? It seems this was meant to be a musical remake of Walsh's silent drama, and it was headed that way after an early number featuring Robert Wagner. However, Ford apparently had other ideas in mind. As the original film is more about the futility of war, a perspective not consistent with Ford's military leanings, this ends up being a mish-mash: honor the troops despite the futility, move from comedy to drama. The result is one of Ford's strangest pictures.