Revealing mistake: In one of the last scenes of the movie when the Younger Generation visits George they drive into the scene in their old jalopy Chevrolet. The only problem is, from the front end shot, anyone can see that the body moldings and lines of the car body don't line up with the hood. Also the gas filler cap is visible, in the same shot, on top of the cowl right under the windshield, revealing they hung the front end of a Chevrolet on the front of a Model "A" Ford Deluxe Phaeton. The only car ever produced with a gas tank filler on the cowl right in front of the windshield - Model "A" Fords. Chevys had too much wood in them during the '20s & '30s. They all ended up being infested with termites. So when this movie was made just 10 or 11 years after they were all produced, no Chevys could be found for filming. Chevy Emblem is visible on the radiator shell, but it's a Ford Model "A". Also the four distinctive vent doors available on Chevys, from the day, are visible instead of the louvers of a Model "A" Ford hood. The Cowl Lamps (Parking Lights) are also Model "A". (01:52:00 - 01:54:10)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
1 revealing mistake
Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Starring: James Cagney, Walter Huston, Joan Leslie, Richard Whorf
Factual error: Although quite typical for biopics of this era, certain aspects of Cohan's life are glossed over. The movie shows him in a lifelong marriage to his first love. However, he was in fact married in 1899 to Ethel Levy, and after their divorce in 1907 he married Agnes Mary Nolan, who remained his wife until Cohan's death in 1942.
George M. Cohan: Thanks, Sam. It'll be great as long as those critics don't start to eat off my leg.
Sam Harris: Oh, don't worry about the critics! You got a smash hit! It's in the air, kid! It's in the air! You can't stop anything that's in the air.
Trivia: James Cagney won his only Oscar for his performance as George M. Cohan in this movie.
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