THE FIGHTING 69TH (1940) B/W 90m dir: William Keighley

w/James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, George Brent, Jeffrey Lynn, Alan Hale, Frank McHugh, Dennis Morgan, William Lundigan, Dick Foran, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

From The Movie Guide: "Enough fighting Irish blarney for a dozen St. Patrick's Days. A showcase for the wisecracking, swaggering antics of Cagney, playing a would-be hero from Brooklyn who joins the all-Irish 69th New York Regiment after the US enters WWI. ...

"One of the rare Hollywood films without any women or romantic angles whatsoever, THE FIGHTING 69TH was, not too surprisingly, an enormous hit with an American public about to enter WWII. Cagney gives such a galvanizing performance that one almost doesn't care that the film's one-note patriotism and Irish sentiment are as high as the corn in late summer. O'Brien fares less well as yet another priestly paragon of virtue, but the supporting cast is extremely proficient. Keighley's direction is very zippy, and the technical merit of the enterprise quite exhilarating."