James Cagney: Top of the World (1992 TV Movie)

Michael J. Fox: Host

Quotes 

• Host : People that knew him said he was quiet, introspective. Others said he was a fighter. He fought against big things: poverty, injustice, this studio.

• Host : In one of his movies he said, "I don't take nothin' from nobody." With Cagney, that wasn't just a line. That was a way of life.

• Host : Was he really that tough? That's the first question everyone asks about James Cagney. Well, he didn't go around shooting cops and slugging women like he did here in the backlot of Warner Brothers. And this was a guy who cried if he had to spank his kids.

• Host : In just about all of his 63 films, one thing was certain. It was Cagney who set things in motion. Whether he was a vicious gangster, a hard-nosed G-man, or Broadway star George M. Cohan, Jimmy never sat around waiting for things to happen. He made them happen. And it was the same in his life.

• Host : James Cagney's first professional gig was in full drag.

• Host : Warner's had him fill out this questionnaire. Under pet peeves he wrote, "aggressive dumbbells and silly questions." This one's even better. Reason for going into acting: "needed a job."

• Host : In 1933, he finally got the chance to do something he'd been pushing for: a big budget Busby Berkeley musical, "Footlight Parade." With Ruby Keeler, movie audiences finally saw Jimmy as he saw himself: a song-and-dance man.

• Self - Daughter : My mother one day said, "Let's go see your Dad in a movie." Because, we'd never seen one. It was "Midsummer's Night Dream" at a theater in Beverly Hills. And I think I was five or six or something like that. And they come to the scene where Mickey Rooney, playing Puck, and when he spreads the stardust on Dad's head and he suddenly has the head of a donkey. And I - freaked out. And I started screaming, as loud as I could, "I don't want a donkey for a father!" You know, took off out of my seat, ran up to the screen, and I'm pounding on it. "I don't want a donkey for a father! I don't want a donkey for a father!" And they had to find my father and make me realize that he was not a donkey.

  Host : This was the only time Jimmy ever let the studio make an ass out of him.

• Host : In 1985 I was lucky enough to meet James Cagney. He was 86, but, when we shook hands his grip was so strong, it was like he was saying, "Kid, I could still knock you on your ass."