Right, which is why I wasn’t comparing Cagney’s overall skills of dancing to Kaye’s, only the posture. And the style I’m referring to, Cagney’s unwatchable (to me) stiffness, is always present, and is not peculiar to YDD. I’ve seen a great number of Cagney’s movies–including Footlight Parade–and the stiffness is always there. Just watched *Taxi! *the other day. In one scene Cagney’s character does a quick little step to show off to his girlfriend, and the marionette affect is present. This was 10 years before YDD.
To acknowledge Bridget’s thought about Irish step dancing, this seems highly likely: you can’t get much more Irish than James Cagney. (Although he speaks Yiddish like a native* in Taxi!.)
I believe the Disney version being referred to by JThunder is the great animated version from the early 1970s, voiced by a dreamy Brian Bedford as Robin. On whom I still have a crush, animated fox or no. (Also starred Phil Harris as Little John, Peter Ustinov as Prince John/King Richard, Roger Miller as Allan-a-Dale, and Terry Thomas as Sir Hiss.)
My favorite song was The Phony King of England, which went in part:
*Oh, the world will sing of an English king a thousand years from now,
And not because he passed some laws or had that lofty brow.
While bonny good King Richard leads the great crusade he’s on,
We’ll all have to slave away for that good-for-nothin’ John.
Incredible as he is inept …
Whenever the history books are kept,
They’ll call him the phony king of England.
A pox on that phony king of England!
He sits alone on the giant throne pretendin’ he’s the king.
A little tyke who’s rather like a puppet on a string.
And he throws an angry tantrum if he cannot have his way.
And then he calls for Mom while he’s suckin’ his thumb.
You see, he doesn’t wanna play.
Too late to be known as John the First,
He’s sure to be known as John the Worst!
A pox on that phony king of England!"*
But it was Brian Bedford’s speaking voice that made this movie for me. Ohhhhh yeah.
Of course, Errol Flynn was a bit of all right, too!
This is exactly what I was going to post. Two of my favorite movies, both starring Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, and Olivia de Havilland. It doesn’t get any better than that. Basil Rathbone was such a great bad guy. And Errol Flynn was one of the hottest of hotties around.
Maybe I will buy Captain Blood. It’s only $13.99 at amazon. Thank you very much for the suggestion.
Now how about the current Robin Hood series on BBC? Any comments? I’m rather enjoying it. Maid Marian isn’t a raving beauty in this version, but she does have an ineffable charm.
FYI (on the bare chance that you don’t know) the man who plays Gisbourne (or however it’s spelled) also stars in the PBS 3-part series, The Impressionists. He is Monet (as a young man), and does a wonderful job. I don’t know who has the part of Monet as an older man, but he is equally superb. Hell, the whole cast is great.
