The West Point Story 1950

Elwin ‘Bix’ Bixby James Cagney is an unemployed Broadway musical director who agrees to stage the annual 100th Night show at West Point. He is hired by producer Harry Eberhart Roland Winters, a man with a hidden agenda: to pull his talented nephew Tom Fletcher Gordon MacRae out of the Corps of Cadets and turn him into a Broadway star. Desperate and nearly broke, Bix agrees to chart this scheme in exchange for $7,500 and a cut of the show’s gross.

Together with his loyal assistant and girlfriend, Eve Dillon Virginia Mayo, they head to West Point to transform the amateur Night Show, written by Tom and his friend Hal Courtland Gene Nelson, into a production worthy of Broadway. Soon Bix’s blunt manner collides with the academy’s strict rules—he clocks Bull Gilbert Alan Hale Jr. after a sharpmouth remark from the cadet playing the Princess, stirring confrontation with the Commandant of Cadets. Yet the cadets, led by Tom, persuade the Commandant to grant a rare concession: Bix may live among the cadets as a temporary plebe, a privilege the academy usually reserves for insiders. The Commandant’s decision is tempered by his knowledge of Bix’s wartime record—war stories that reveal both reckless breaches of discipline and extraordinary acts of valor, including the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, two Purple Hearts, and the French Medaille Militaire (one of France’s highest decorations awarded to foreigners). In the end, Bix accepts the odd honor and becomes a reluctant fourth-classman.

To get Tom out of the Army, Bix persuades his budding star Jan Wilson Doris Day, a chorus girl he discovered and mentored, to attend a West Point hop as Tom’s date. She soon finds herself drawn to the cadet, and, with Bix’s help, she steps into the role of the Princess in the show, a move that also opens the door for Eve to join in the performances. The budding romance between Tom and Jan—and the tension with Jan’s Hollywood commitments—creates a dilemma that must be resolved: Tom’s duty to graduate and be commissioned weighs against his show business ambitions.

Tom’s nerves fray; he resigns from the Military Academy. Bix, together with Bull Gilbert and Hal Courtland, go AWOL to track him down in New York and bring him back, but Jan’s feelings complicate matters. Upon their return, Tom, Bull, and Hal are arrested by order of the Commandant and confined to quarters, with the show hanging in the balance.

Desperate to salvage the production, the cadets and Bix arrange a mission to appeal to a visiting French Premier, who can grant amnesty under a West Point custom allowing forgiven offenses for dignitaries. Bix presents the Premier with his Medaille Militaire, and the Premier agrees to visit the Academy, promising amnesty at a ceremonial parade. The Superintendent approves, and the show is back on.

Eberhart arrives with the expectation of claiming Fletcher, but Jan’s choice to stand by Tom shifts the balance. She travels north to reclaim her romance, stepping in for Bull Gilbert as the Princess for the number “Flirtation Rock,” much to Bull’s relief, and the two seemingly reconcile, with a graduation-era marriage hinted at.

The Broadway producer’s fury is palpable backstage as he confronts Bix, hoping to take Fletcher back to New York. Bix’s blunt reply—Tom will graduate and become a second lieutenant, not a star—sparks a confrontation that leaves Hal injured and out of the show. Undeterred, Bix continues with Eve for the crowd-pleasing number “It Could Only Happen In Brooklyn.”

As the finale approaches, Tom reveals a turning point: instead of shelving the book and libretto, the material will be entrusted to him to spin into a Broadway show. The cadet cast, Bix, Eve, Tom, and Jan close with a triumphant reprise of the show’s major numbers, and the curtain falls on a music-filled victory that binds duty, ambition, and romance at West Point.