What makes it different from others?

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Cagney plays Elwin "Bix" Bixby, a formerly successful showman with a very bad temper, reduced to staging the numbers at a hole-in-the- wall Manhattan nightclub, assisted by his long-suffering fiancée, Eve (Virgina Mayo). Bix is more or less blackmailed into accepting a job directing the 100th Night show at West Point by a Broadway producer. The catch? The producer wants Bix to persuade his nephew, Tom (Gordon MacRae), the star and co-writer of the show with his friend Hal (Gene Nelson), to give up the Army for a singing career. So Bix (who hates West Point, based on past Army experiences) ends up at the Academy along with Eve, directing the show but temperamentally at odds with the lifestyle.Somehow the solution to this is to make him a cadet (don't even ask, it makes no sense). And in the course of events, he persuades a movie star acquaintance, Jan Wilson (Doris Day), who is on a press junket in New York City, to travel up the Hudson to attend a formal dance at the Point as Tom's "drag." I forget why, but who cares? The plot just gets more incomprehensible as the show goes on, but the fact is, this movie is still a lot of fun. I disagree with some of the people here because I think the original songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn are terrific. None were hits, but there are just a lot of really good songs here. And the arrangements are in the best Ray Heindorf style. Cagney is fantastic, more dynamic and committed than 10 other actors. The singing, by Day and MacRae, is top-notch, and Doris in particular elevates every scene she's in, she's like a human antidepressant. Gene Nelson, an excellent dancer, has a few good numbers, and Virginia Mayo is sincere and funny as Cagney's girl and a very good dancer as well.If you choose to focus on the positives and if you can manage to ignore some of the plot holes, you should have a good time with this one.

The Pros: It's sorta fun! Cool watching James Cagney strut! Cons: The plot is far-fetched. But okay, this is a film to savor for the (as usual) slightly over-the-top performance of James Cagney, particularly in regard to his dancing. There's something unique and special about Cagney's hoofing. A Fred Astaire he ain't, but he's still darned entertaining. A friend of mine from Pakistan, having once watched a Cagney film, said he just didn't get it. Why did Americans think he was such a great actor? I didn't (and still don't) know how to answer. But Cagney was something special.Virginia Mayo is swell as Cagney's love interest. Gordon MacRae fine (and in fine voice) as the talented West Point Cadet. If you're watching for Doris Day, you might be a little disappointed. She's not even in the first third of the film (except for a photo in a frame). Alan Hale, Jr. is "cute" as a cadet who plays a princess, but apparently the studio didn't think he could talk well...he has few lines, despite his character being somewhat important to the story (he pales in comparison to his dad, but is likable enough).For quite a bit of the movie, it is lacking in...something. And then as you move into the second half of the film you realize what WAS lacking, but has suddenly developed...having a "heart". The music here is not particularly great, considering it's a musical, although there is one wonderful patriotic number. The dancing is somewhat better, and, as mentioned previously, watching Cagney dance is a wonderful experience because he did it differently...and he has one particularly good dance number (despite his voice) later in the film (in a zoot suit, no less).This is an entertaining film, though not a great film. Nice to see camera work actually done at West Point, although my guess is the stars went through their paces in Hollywood. Worth a watch, but perhaps not one for your DVD shelf.

He spits out lame dialog like it was Shakespeare, he talk-sings with a verve that could give Rex Harrison or Robert Preston lessons, he stomps up and down, he uppercuts, he dances up a storm. There's plenty of A-list talent in this uninspired Warners musical, but a 51-year-old Cagney is pretty much the whole show, and he appears to believe in the hole-filled plot so much that you buy it, too, despite the many lapses of logic. I find his teaming with Virginia Mayo a little distasteful--he's plainly too old for her--but she lends a lot of enthusiasm, too, as does Doris Day, given some middling Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn ballads to warble (and some very unattractive gowns to model), and Gene Nelson, tapping exuberantly, and Gordon MacRae, with his fine natural baritone. Cagney felt he did his best dancing in this film, and it's worth sitting through the dated, hit-you-on-the-head patriotism and weird plot mechanics to get to his virtuosic numbers--he even taps a bit with Day, who started out as a dancer and keeps up brilliantly with him. It's not a good movie, exactly, but I'd trade a lot of neater, better-crafted musicals for this one's dumb liveliness, and for Cagney's genius. I mentioned Robert Preston above; Cagney was, in fact, considered for Professor Harold Hill before Preston was hired. I think he'd have been terrific.

This one was a real disappointment. I mean with James Cagney, Doris Day, Virginia Mayo and Gene Nelson how could they go wrong! Somehow they did. Cursed with a dumb screenplay, clutzy direction, far too many stock shots of West Point and pretty sloppy rear screen projections, WEST POINT STORY just doesn't make it. Cagney is great as always, as is Doris Day, (and that the Academy has never seen fit to give her an honorary Oscar is a real crime!), but the songs they have, by Sammy Kahn and Julie Styne, no less are instantly forgettable. And to put the icing on the cake, the thing is filmed in not so glorious black and white!!! I can't believe that Jack Warner couldn't have sprung for color, but there you are! (Remember, this is the same man who passed on Julie Andrews for MY FAIR LADY!) Anyway, see it for Cagney and Doris, but otherwise give it a pass. A five..not horrible..not great...just "Bleh!"