Directed by: Victor Schertzinger (Oscar Nomination)
Starring: James Cagney, Evelyn Daw, William Frawley, Mona Barrie, Gene Lockhart
STORY

Before James Cagney became forever associated with Yankee Doodle Dandy, he was already reminding audiences that he could do far more than play tough guys. In Something to Sing About, Cagney gets the chance to sing, dance, romance — and poke some very funny holes in the Hollywood star-making machine.
Cagney plays Terry Rooney, a successful New York bandleader and dancer who is summoned to Hollywood for a shot at movie stardom. Terry arrives with talent, confidence and absolutely no intention of letting a studio manufacture a new personality for him. The studio executives, meanwhile, are determined to keep their promising newcomer from developing a movie-star-sized ego — so they deliberately refuse to tell Terry just how good they think he is. Convinced his movie career is going nowhere, Terry leaves Hollywood, marries his sweetheart Rita Wyatt and heads off on a honeymoon.
There is just one little problem: while Terry is away, his movie becomes a sensation. He returns to discover that he is suddenly a major star — and that Hollywood has plans for Terry Rooney that may not include admitting that Terry is already married. Cagney brings his trademark energy to a delightful combination of musical, romantic comedy and Hollywood satire, giving audiences the opportunity to see the dancing talent that existed long before George M. Cohan came dancing down those famous stairs.

AIN BACKSTAGE SECRETS & AINTOIDS
CAGNEY THE DANCER

Movie audiences often remember Cagney first as one of cinema's great tough guys, but dancing was part of his professional life long before gangster pictures made him a star. Something to Sing About puts that side of Cagney front and center, with both singing and dancing woven into the story.

A VERY PERSONAL DANCE

One of the film's dance sequences reunited Cagney with vaudeville colleagues Johnny Boyle and Harland Dixon. Boyle had helped teach Cagney the George M. Cohan dancing style that Cagney would later make famous in Yankee Doodle Dandy, while Dixon had been Cagney's dance instructor in New York. Cagney later remembered dancing with them in this film as an especially meaningful experience.

CAGNEY AWAY FROM WARNER BROS.

Something to Sing About was the second and final picture Cagney made for Grand National Pictures during his celebrated break from Warner Bros. His first Grand National film was Great Guy — another Cagney treasure in the AIN collection.

HOLLYWOOD LAUGHS AT HOLLYWOOD

The movie has plenty of fun with the machinery of the studio system: publicity departments, carefully constructed star images, studio executives and contracts controlling an actor's private life. Hollywood was already perfectly capable of laughing at itself in 1937.

AN OSCAR NOMINATION

The film's music received Academy Award recognition. Victor Schertzinger and music director Constantin Bakaleinikoff were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring.

CAGNEY'S OWN CHOICE

Decades later, when Cagney was asked which of his movies — other than Yankee Doodle Dandy — he would like to see again, Something to Sing About was reportedly the film he selected.

That makes this more than simply another Cagney movie.
It is a chance to watch one of Hollywood's most versatile performers doing something he truly loved: dancing.