The West Point Story (1950)

Interesting facts

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The West Point Story is a 1950 musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo and Doris Day.

Production

The film project, with a working title of Classmates, was developed by producer Louis F. Edelman starting in 1948, with Irving Wallace writing the screenplay. The United States Military Academy in West Point, New York appointed a committee of four officers and 24 cadets to assist with the production, and Major Robert Bringham consulted with Edelman and Wallace in Hollywood.

In December 1948, Jack Carson, Gordon MacRae and Doris Day were slated as the stars of the film. James Cagney was announced as the lead in March 1949 after signing a contract with Warner Bros. Pictures, the studio for whom he had worked for many years, having departed after his Academy Award-winning performance in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).

Warner Bros. location head William Guthrie consulted with the Department of War in Washington, D.C. to receive the agency's approval. Songwriters Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne visited the U.S. Military Academy for inspiration, and Wallace and fellow writer Charles Hoffman traveled to West Point to review the script with the academy's leaders. The academy granted 40 cadets a leave of absence to appear in the film as extras.

Cagney reported to the studio long before production began for three weeks of intensive dance rehearsal, as he had not danced in a film since Yankee Doodle Dandy in 1942.

Director Roy Del Ruth supervised location shooting at West Point, which was completed in May 1950. Studio production began in June and wrapped by mid-August.

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