1942: For Me and My Gal

For Me and My Gal (1942, Berkeley) 7/10


For Me and My Gal is one of the highlights in the directorial career of esteemed choreographer Busby Berkeley. Shot on an $800,000 budget, the film was a popular box-office success: making six-times its original cost, as well as launching the career of Gene Kelly and cementing the adult career of Judy Garland in the process.

The film stars Judy Garland and Gene Kelly as Jo Hayden and Harry Palmer: a pair of travelling Vaudevillian performers dreaming of playing the ultimate venue: The Palace in New York. She is a top-class singer in a mid-level musical-comedy trio, while he is an opportunistic “animal” who lures Hayden from her group with promises of fame and fortune. But both the fame and the fortune never arrive for Hayden and Palmer. Instead while Garland’s former partner and secret admirer Jimmy Metcalfe (George Murphy) accelerates to the top, she is abandoned by a man who spends his off-hours pursuing a wealthy European singer Eve Minard (Marta Eggerth).

But unlike Kelly, Garland’s unscrupulous character never wavers: continually taking him back upon his promises of a better tomorrow. Oblivious to Jo’s needs, Harry Palmer’s selfish attitudes reach a breaking point literally when he conocts a scheme to avoid the wartime draft. Yet, for the emotionally tattered Hayden this is the final straw: resulting in Palmer realizing the error of his ways and embarking on a course of action designed to undo his guilt and win back Jo’s heart.

For Me and My Gal falls into the tradition of back-stage musical-dramas such as 42nd Street, Broadway Melody, Singin’ In the Rain, The Red Shoes and The Great Ziegfeld. While it may not have the complexity of the latter films, it is at times far more enjoyable than 1942’s Yankee Doodle Dandy. Like Curtiz’ film for Warners, For Me and My Gal employs the First World War as an allegorical setting for the Second World War in which key characters find their true patriotic calling and military imagery such as German helmets are anachronistically altered to convey the spirit of the proceedings

With its conservative messages and buoyant flag-waving, For Me and My Gal astutely fits into this category as it fills its 104 minute running time with themes of honour, loyalty and perserverance. Noticeably this film attempts to thwart war-time cowardice primarily through the promotion of alternative roles in the military. However, Kelly’s transformation from an unsympathetic selfish dancer to sacrificial soldier is flawed and contrived to say the least. Interestingly, aside from a late scene involving her character’s active participation in the war, Garland’s character is a model of traditional values connected to a woman’s duty and loyalty to her man throughout the film.

Not only does she continually support Kelly’s egoistic ambitions and flirtatious ways, but she also financially backs her brother (Richard Quine) through medical school. For the majority of the film, Hayden is unable to break from Palmer’s charming grasp to re-join Metcalfe or strike it on her own. Yet, when America begins to participate in the war, she re-emerges as an independent woman: taking initiative and eventually landing her own act during and after the fighting. However, as this is an MGM film any hint of social liberalism or risky content would certainly remain brief and subtle, if at all existent: a point further illustrated by the censor-enacted blurring of Marta Eggerth’s cleavage, which was deemed too provocative for 1942 tastes.

For Me and My Gal is also a film about fulfilling personal dreams and goals whether they be romantic or career-related. In the case of Murphy's Metcalfe, he consistently aids Garland in her moments of grief: hinting at his long-time crush on her, but failing to make any advances. In the case of Palmer and Hayden both have to persevere in order to fulfill their ambitions to play The Palace. Yet, there is a subtle message injected into Berkeley's film for war-time audiences: the ability to overcome tragedy. Repeatedly, characters in For Me and My Gal overcome personal and professional loss on the hope that through hard work, success is just around the corner; while for those who attempt to cheat and swindle their way from taking life's long and winding roads, only further sorrow, isolation and rejection will ensue.

For Me and My Gal is historically notable in ciinematic history for several reasons. First it was Gene Kelly’s Hollywood debut. After MGM’s inital candidate to play Harry Palmer (Dan Dailey) was drafted the studio searching for a “Pal Joey” type character landed Broadway ‘s “Pal Joey” star and choreographer Gene Kelly to play Palmer on the advice of legendary acting teacher Stella Adler. After signing with David O. Selznick, Kelly had sat languishing without work since arriving in Hollywood, but when on Freed’s instance the studio loan him, Selznick relinquished Kelly’s contract to MGM and the rest is history.And with his oily charm , Kelly comfortably fits into a role as the redeemable heel as though he has been a Hollywood regular for years.

The film is also notable in the career of Judy Garland for two reasons. For Me and My Gal would be the first film in which Garland’s name came before the title as the picture transformed her into an adult actress. In 1941, the tragic singer-actress married composer David Rose: proving to Louis B. Mayer that she did not belong in the “little girl” roles he and the rest of the studio insisted upon. Thus in For Me and My Gal, the naive Garland of The Wizard of Oz or the Berkeley directed Rooney-Garland cycle is replaced by a sensitive figure who yearns for Harry’s love and commitment: only to encounter a range of emotions when Harry proves to not be the idyllic soul she initially believes he is.

The drab, but likeable Murphy was ironically scheduled to take MGM contract-player Dan Dailey’s spot and play Harry Palmer until Kelly was sworn in. Certainly had Murphy been drafted as Dailey’s replacement, For Me and My Gal would have lost a lot its franetic energy and magnetic poise. Ironically, it would be this quiet bookishness about Murphy’s performance which would land him in the hot seat with studio boss Louis B. Mayer. When studio test screenings showed that 85% of the general public wanted Kelly’s opportunistic scoundrel to romantically re-unite with Garland, twenty-one days of additional shooting had to be scheduled in order to provide Kelly’s character a conscience: prompting Mayer to claim Murphy's timid and lovelorn performance “spoiled the picture.”

Although directed by Busby Berkeley, the artistic direction of For Me and My Gal (his seventh production for MGM) is often credited to lavish musical producer Arthur Freed. Yet, For Me and My Gal feels more like a Raoul Walsh picture for Warner Brothers (interestingly Walsh directed a wholly different, yet similarly named picture ten years prior called Me and My Gal) than something from Freed’s illustrious mid-period: compacted for maximum pace, time and budgetary reasons. The fact that Berkeley was a former Warner Brothers employee a few years prior heightens this fact. A key example of this is in the use of stock footage, rapid dissolves and newspapers to chronicle the change in time and thus the escalation in world events: methods Walsh used to similar effect during the period in The Roaring Twenties and Objective Burma! In For Me and My Gal, Berkeley utilizes newspapers placed over the head of a sleeping Gene Kelly to periodically remind the audience of external happenings and subsequently where the film is headed. Although Freed’s signature sophistication is evident, it should be noted that he allowed his players unprecedented autonomy in creating their energetic and lively films.

The acquisition of Gene Kelly to the MGM stable ignites From Me and My Gal. As dependable and warm as second-billed George Murphy is in this film, he lacks the charmisa and wit which makes Kelly’s character so appealing, yet so unsympathetic. Murphy’s characterization of Jimmy Metcalfe and his years of unrequited love cater to the audience’s hearts, but only their hearts. Kelly brashly makes the audience become Harry Palmer apologists for his aggressive personality. Garland’s performance has a warmth and an indelible richness: the antithesis to Kelly’s slippery sleaze. Kelly works best wittily reacting to sexual advances or presenting his stage routine. Garland’s best performances in this film on the otherhand come from quiet reactions: overhearing Kelly whistling Eggerth’s key song, reading a telegram from France about her brother or wallowing in misery on stage while singing about unrequited love.Both supplant the measly material offered to them, as does Nazi-exile Marta Eggerth in an unfortunately small, but memorable role as Palmer’s European love interest Eve Minard.

As for Berkley’s direction of the film: gone are the trademark mathematically aligned angles and shots which dominated films such as 42nd Street. Instead Berkeley employed William H. Daniels -a favourite of Garbo and later Anthony Mann- to create compositions that are at times Wellesian; a mesmeric blend of fluid long takes, craned shotes and peculiar angles ranging positioned behind wall fittings, shooting toward ceilings or snaking around doorways with barely a cut in sight. The sheer movement and sweep of his camera along with the diversity of points of view, elevate From Me and My Gal from simply being another run of the mill 1940’s musical.

The achilles heel of For Me and My Gal is in its simplistic motivations and characterizations: as characters throw off the shackles of their previous impressions or feelings without a whim. The film’s clunky storyline never really segues into a cohesive blend until the final thirty minutes or so: dragging the film down as Daniels’ elegant camerawork and the dynamic tandem of Kelly and Garland try to push the material to its breaking point.

Yet, as with other MGM films developed by the Freed Unit, this is not a film upon which its ethos and lifeblood rely on multi-dimensional characters and literary storylines. Yes, it is contrived, but this is a film all about the performance: gathering the best artists possible and exploiting their talent for maximum emotional, aesthetic and financial profit. And in swaying the emotions of an audience hungry for entertaining, yet patriotic films Busby Berkeley’s For Me and My Gal offers almost the right blend of laughs, music and a dose of moral conduct.

An underrated, but flawed classic.

* For Me and My Gal is released by Warner Brothers Home Video as part of their Judy Garland Signature Collection

Copyright 2007 8 ½ Cinematheque.