JamesCagneyTheSignatureCollectionDVD [1]

“James Cagney: The Signature Collection” DVD From Warner Home Video

(January 15, 2007 - Burbank, CA) — On April 24, Warner Home Video will honor one of America’s greatest motion picture stars with the release of "James Cagney: The Signature Collection." The Oscar® winning screen icon comes to life in this collection that includes five new-to-DVD films – "The Bride Came C.O.D.," "Captain of the Clouds," "The Fighting 69th," "Torrid Zone" and "The West Point Story." Cagney’s versatile talent is on display opposite a star-studded array of screen favorites including Bette Davis, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Virginia Mayo, Ann Sheridan and Pat O’Brien. Special features on each title in the Collection include the entertaining “Warner Night at the Movies” short subject galleries with vintage newsreels, vault treasures and classic cartoons. "James Cagney: The Signature Collection" will be available as a giftset with superslim packaging for $49.92 SRP and the individual titles will sell for $19.97 SRP. Orders for all are due March 20. About James Cagney Although he never actually said, “You dirty rat,” these words evoke the essence of James Cagney, one of Hollywood’s top tough guys. In truth, the actor set the standard for gangster roles but was versatile enough to play Shakespearean drama and won his only Academy Award® for playing a song and dance man in "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Named #8 on AFI’s Greatest Screen Legends list, Cagney made almost 70 films over three decades. Raised on New York’s lower Eastside, Cagney made his first professional appearance at 21 in the chorus of the Broadway musical “Pitter-Patter.” After landing several more important Broadway roles, he scored in another musical, “Penny Arcade,” and then appeared in the film version (renamed "Sinner's Holiday") in 1930. A year later, after signing with Warner Bros., he played a ruthless gangster in "Public Enemy," in which he smashed a grapefruit into Mae Clarke’s face. It was his fourth movie and it made him a star. By 1938, he was the studio’s highest paid star, earning $234,000. Most noted as an arrogantly confident tough guy in films like "Angels with Dirty Faces," "The Roaring Twenties" and "White Heat," Cagney showed his versatility in other roles such as George M. Cohan in the above-mentioned "Yankee Doodle Dandy"; "Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream"; the crazy ship captain in "Mister Roberts" and as a captain of industry in Billy Wilder’s "One, Two, Three." In 1981, Cagney emerged briefly from retirement to star in Milos Forman’s "Ragtime" in which he was reunited with his frequent ‘30s co-star Pat O'Brien. As it happened, it was the final theatrical film for both actors. Cagney was one of the founders of the Screen Actors Guild and served as its president from 1942 to 1944. He received the American Film Institute’s first Lifetime Achievement Award in 1974 and a Kennedy Center Honor in 1980. In 1984, his longtime friend Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Films "The Bride Came C.O.D" (1941) Comedy comes from a mother lode of sources in this screwball farce headlined by the ebullient pairing of James Cagney and Bette Davis, scripted by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein ("Casablanca," "Arsenic and Old Lace"). Whether up in the clouds, or underground in a mine, the stars (in their second and final film together) spar with harebrained zest as a pilot hired to kidnap an about-to-elope heiress, and the happy result from start to end is C.O.D. – Comedy on Demand. DVD Special Features: • "Warner Night at the Movies 1941" short subjects gallery:

• Subtitles: English (feature film only) "Captains of the Clouds" (1942) One of the first war-themed films to hit theatres after America entered World War II tells the expansive tale of rugged bush pilots who bring their flying savvy to the Royal Canadian Air Force. James Cagney plays pilot Brian MacLean with grit and swagger. Michael Curtiz, who would next helm Cagney’s "Yankee Doodle Dandy," directs this two-time Academy Award® nominee cheered for vivid Technicolor® lensing of North Country lakes and forests. DVD Special Features: • "Warner Night at the Movies 1942" short subjects gallery:

• Classic cartoon "What’s Cookin; Doc?"
• Subtitles: English (feature film only) "The Fighting 69th" (1940) In the seventh of their nine movies together, off-screen pals James Cagney and Pat O’Brien play soldiers of the famed, largely Irish-American World War I regiment, the Fighting 69th. O’Brien is Father Duffy, the brave chaplain whose statue stands today in Manhattan’s Times Square. Cagney is Jerry Plunkett, a street-tough braggart turned yellow by the horror of No Man’s Land, but inspired to redemptive heroism by Duffy’s courage under fire. Special Features: • "Warner Night at the Movies 1940" short subjects gallery:

• Classic cartoon "The Fighting 69½th"
• Audio-only bonus: radio adaptation with Pat O’Brien, Robert Preston and Ralph Bellamy
• Subtitles: English (feature film only) "Torrid Zone" (1940) Off-screen pals James Cagney and Pat O’Brien team for the eighth time in this snappy action comedy set in a Central American “Banana” Republic. In a role widely cited as putting her on the movie fan’s map, Hollywood’s “Oomph Girl” Ann Sheridan portrays wisecracking chanteuse Lee Donley who’s the lure to keep the plantation’s best man (Cagney) from leaving the company. With superb support, zippy repartee, plus 950 banana trees planted over 5 backlot acres, the heat is on. Special Features: • "Warner Night at the Movies 1940" short subjects gallery:

• Subtitles: English (feature film only) "The West Point Story" (1950) "Yankee Doodle Dandy" Academy Award® winner James Cagney puts on his dancing shoes again for this merry musical comedy packed with spirited starpower and lively tunes by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. Cagney plays a Broadway showman down on his luck yet full of hotshot ideas. Brought to West Point to stage the cadets’ annual musical, he decides to make it a tryout for a Broadway transfer. But first, he must lure the show’s talented lead (Gordon MacRae) out of the military. He’s got just the right bait: a sweet-natured Hollywood star (Doris Day). Virginia Mayo and Gene Nelson also star alongside the irrepressible Cagney, who’s “in rare good form, singing, dancing and wisecracking in his most electrifying style” (Bosley Crowther, The New York Times). Special Features: • "Warner Night at the Movies 1950" short subjects gallery:

• Subtitles: English (feature film only) With operations in 90 international territories Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. Warner Home Video’s film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.# # #