Word: cagneys
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...Maltese (and composer Carl Stalling and versatile vocalist Mel Blanc) was their development of the Warners' stock company. Porky Pig was the harassed middle-management type, Elmer Fudd the chronic, choleric dupe. Bugs Bunny (introduced by director Tex Avery in 1940's A Wild Hare) became the cartoon Cagney--urban, crafty, pugnacious--and then the blase underhare who wins every battle without ever mussing his aplomb; one raised eyebrow was enough to semaphore his superiority to the carnage around...
...only part of the explanation. Remember that musicals were song-and-dance shows. There were dance stars, like Eleanor Powell, who didn?t sing, didn?t really act, only danced. And just about everyone else - Gable, Sinatra, Garbo, Welles - was asked to dance a little. Many of them (Cagney, Stanwyck) were quite good at it, having made a living as Broadway hoofers before they went west. Broadway and vaudeville were training grounds for a lot of 30s stars, and for the early talking picture format as well. The idea was to give the movie audience a little bit of everything...
...smile, the professional good nature, the go-getting optimism that defined showbiz in the 20th century?s first half. The second half, led by Brando, was serious, surly, studiously indifferent to giving pleasure or generating affection. Kelly was impudent but not arrogant. His real movie siblings are James Cagney - who had the same low center of gravity, the same relentless forward movement - and Douglas Fairbanks, the chunky fellow with the big smile and the grand stunts. Kelly?s "The Pirate" and "The Three Musketeers" are both tributes to and evocations of the hardworking Fairbanks-ian derring...
Brown eventually became one of the most decorated members in the history of the department. Women were attracted by the face, the Cagney voice and the "hero" who made the papers--including the time he chased down a mugger in Central Park during his workout. But he was restless. Brown, who never married, gave up drinking and late nights to read up on religion, get a black belt in karate, learn yoga. He volunteered as a self-defense teacher for the blind. The honors and citations didn't mean what they once did, as he watched mentors and proteges...
...fantasy language of film, it was the most natural thing for a fella and a gal to burst into song. Just about everybody sang: Cagney, Gable, the Marx Brothers, every cowboy from Gene Autry to John Wayne. And when the stars didn't sing, they danced. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers not only taught the nation new steps but, dancing cheek to cheek, they put love in motion. They defined la belle, la perfectly swell romance...