The Seven Little Foys **** (1955, Bob Hope, Milly Vitale, George Tobias) – Classic Movie Review 9203

Co-writer/ director Melville Shavelson’s 1955 Technicolor and VistaVision biographical comedy drama The Seven Little Foys stars Bob Hope, who is just the man to play the legendary vaudeville comic Eddie Foy, in this engaging biopic of the performing family known as the Singing and Dancing Foys.

Eddie Foy falls for and marries young Italian ballerina Madeleine Morando Foy (Milly Vitale). They tour the vaudeville circuit together and before long have seven little Foys, and Eddie eventually incorporates his seven children into his act.

The highlight of the movie is the bright work from Hope, both as actor and performer, in a sentimental, somewhat laundered showbiz tale. It is a career peak for Hope.

James Cagney does a cameo as fellow performer George M Cohan (reprising his Oscar-winning 1942 Yankee Doodle Dandy role) and his dance together with Hope, Mary’s a Grand Old Name (written by George M Cohan), is the film’s show-stopper. Cagney also dances Yankee Doodle Dandy.

The Oscar-nominated screenplay is co-written by director Shavelson and his writing partner Jack Rose.

Also in the cast are George Tobias, Angela Clarke, Herbert Heyes, Billy Gray, Richard Shannon, Linda Bennett as Madeleine Foy, as Lee Erickson as Charley Foy, Paul De Rolf as Richard Foy, Jimmy Baird as Eddie Foy Jr, Lydia Reed as Mary Foy, Tommy Duran as Irving Foy, Lester Matthews, Jimmy Conlin and Dabbs Greer.

Narration by Charley Foy.

Cagney played Cohan again unpaid as a tribute to Eddie Foy, who in Twenties New York provided meals for struggling young actors, including Cagney,

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9203

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