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Cagney |
List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $10.17 |
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Reviews |
Description:
If you're looking for an impersonal, gossipy, take-no-prisoners account of James Cagney's life, this is not the book for you. Author John McCabe is in love with his subject. After ghost-writing Cagney's autobiography in the 1970s, the two remained close until Cagney's death in 1986. But his bias toward the actor, whom McCabe describes as "a great artist and an even greater man," has opened many doors. In particular, it has allowed McCabe to collect an immense repository of quotations and testimonials from Cagney's friends and from the actor himself. Dipping frequently into his archive, McCabe has fashioned a book that makes for a thrilling, revelatory read. Many readers find the section devoted to the actor's impoverished childhood the most riveting, but I was just as captivated by the account of his professional career. McCabe recounts Cagney's many successes at Warner Brothers studios, his Oscar for Yankee Doodle Dandy in 1943, his tussle with the beloved S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall during the shooting of that film, his command of the Yiddish language (picked up on the streets of New York and a great help to him when negotiating with Jack Warner), his escape (just barely) from the seductions of gorgeous actress Merle Oberon, his decision to retire while still at the peak of his power, and many other wonderful stories and anecdotes. I love the section, late in the book, where the author and Cagney meet, and biography suddenly becomes autobiography. --Raphael Shargel
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