Charles Herold (cherold)
For Me and My Gal is a rather odd bird. Set during World War I, The film begins by positioning itself as a tribute to the days of vaudeville, with sweet singer Judy Garland meeting obnoxious dancer Gene Kelly on tour. The two predictably team up after doing an impromptu version of For Me and My Gal that is the best thing in the movie.Then the movie wanders into soap opera before pulling the various war- themed threads together into a typical WWII rah-rah boost for contributing to the war effort.The story is a bit of a mess. I suspect the U.S. entry into WWII happened after the film was greenlighted and parts of it were grafted on as part of the war morale-boosting that was an inevitable part of most early 40s movies. There is a lack of cohesion, most notably with George Murphy's character, who feels like the vestigial tail of the original script. The movie also feels a little self-serving in its emphasis on the importance of entertainment for the troops. I feel this movie would have been done better if it's story had been allowed to play out without worries about patriotic fervor.Kelly is likable in his film debut, but his character is unsympathetic, and apparently the studio had to do a lot of reshooting before audiences could leave the theater not hating him. Garland is charming as she leaves her juvenile roles behind, although I can never be totally happy with any Garland movie that doesn't include at least one ballad. They have good chemistry, but it is better featured in The Pirate, which they made later on.The reason to watch a movie like this is for the musical numbers, but while these are good, there isn't much that is memorable (surprisingly director Busby Berkeley didn't do any of his trademark synchronized- chorus-girl numbers). There are also big chunks of the movie where the musical numbers disappear in favor of the story, which just highlights its weaknesses.Overall this isn't a horrible movie, but it's not one I'd particularly recommend.
MartinHafer
Judy Garland and George Murphy are a dance team. However, Judy falls for another (Gene Kelly) and George steps aside so the other two can form a new team. The problem is, Judy soon falls in love with Gene and Gene is a heel and doesn't notice. Later, to avoid serving in the war, he deliberately injures himself! Can Kelly somehow redeem himself and can Garland manage to land the lug? I watched "For Me and My Gal" along with my wife, aunt and uncle. And, about 2/3 of the way through the film, they declared that they'd had enough and they left. I managed to finish it, but must agree, a bit, with them. Although MOST of the songs were pretty good, the story was one giant cliché and really wasn't all that good. Plus, there was a god-awful song by Kelly's OTHER love interest and her high-pitched singing made everyone threaten to leave in the first place. Aside from being Gene Kelly's first film, it's an otherwise adequate film with little else to recommend it.
weezeralfalfa
Perfect training material for prospective manic-depressives, as a series of emotional roller coaster rides punctuate this story. Short on comedy and relatively short on dancing and elaborate stage numbers, it features no new song, but plenty of standards of the early 20th century and WWI era, mostly sung by Judy, sometimes accompanied by others. The most memorable musical number is the one not performed on a stage:the title song, which became 'their song' for Judy and Gene. Their duet, followed by a dance, was a show stopper. Ironically, only a few minutes before this scene, Judy(as Jo) still has Kelly (as Harry) pegged as a fast-talking small-time bore of a stage comedian, with an over-sized ego and ambition. Especially in the first half of the film, Kelly's character clearly is largely taken from the lead character, Joey Evans, which Kelly had just played, in the Broadway production of "Pal Joey". Although Harry's first stage performance was as a costumed clown, who does a bit of dancing and gymnastics, there was little effective comedy in this production. Ben Blue, who showed up periodically,was supposed to be the main comic relief, but I found his limited physical comedy quite flat.We see part of Kelly's clown act repeated in "The Pirate", and I'm sure I heard a few bars of "Be a Clown" at the end of his act, but supposedly that wasn't composed until 6 years later! Kelly would provide much of the comedy in many of his subsequent films. He would also have much more effective comedic talents to partner with, including: Phil Silvers, Don O'Connor, Jules Mushin, Betty Garrett, Van Johnson, Dan Daily, and even Jerry, the Mouse!Vaudevillian George Murphy, who originally was slated to take Kelly's male lead role,got bumped to mostly a male shoulder to cry on, when Judy or Kelly was being blue or in trouble. Actually, he had two stage performance roles near the beginning. He is the male lead in the "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" stage production,within which Judy's "Don't Leave Me Daddy" is sandwiched. Again, he partnered with Judy in "By the Beautiful Sea", which was interwoven into Ben Blue's supposed comedic "The Ocean Roll" dance routine.I don't know what possessed them to cast Martha Eggerth, as Eve Minard, Jo's competition for Harry, at one point. Her operatic singing style seemed so out of place, like Judy had to compete against Dianna Durbin, all over again. Perhaps the point was that Harry was willing to do whatever it took to achieve his ambition of getting into acts at the Broadway Palace. In any case, the cordial exchange between Judy and Martha in Martha's apartment and the subsequent tense exchange between Judy and Kelly in Judy's room,is one of the melodramatic highlights of the film.Will Harry prove what Eve said about his character? Another melodramatic crisis occurs when Harry intentionally injures his hand to avoid being immediately drafted into the army, followed by a telegram saying that Jo's beloved brother has been killed in action. Harry now wants to get into the armed serves to avenge the death of Jo's brother, but nobody will take him with his crippled hand, and he can't perform his vaudeville act well with his hand, either. Jo joins the YMCA overseas entertainers unit, and is soon entertaining in France. Later, Harry joins this unit, along with Ben Blue. While near the front, Harry takes advantage of a situation to upstage Sergeant York, in cleaning out a German machine gun nest, and warning an Allied convey about a German patrol ready to ambush them. This was a very risky, illegal, action on his part, but this action has negated his anti-hero image. At a victory performance at the Broadway Palace, Jo is singing various songs, when she spots Harry in the audience. The band then plays "For Me and My Gal", and we know the film is about to end.I noticed that Kelly did a lot smirking at times, near the beginning. Maybe he told to cut this out. Also, in a few places, Judy's acting seemed awkward. Kelly was nearly 30, having spent years in various roles relating to stage productions and in dancing instruction. Before this introduction to film making, he seemed content with stage productions. Beginning with "Cover Girl", he would discover that creating and performing in film dances was the best use of his entertainment talent.Judy and Kelly wouldn't do another film together for another 5-6 years. By that time, Judy was in a bad mental state from her chronic insomnia and drug taking. Nonetheless , she finished the controversial "The Pirate", directed by her then husband. Unfortunately, she was still in this state of mind when she costarred with Kelly in her last MGM film, "Summer Stock". Thus, despite the limitations of the present film, many people find it the most endearing of the 3 films in which she costarred with Kelly.
