When you think of Judy Garland, what movie comes immediately to mind? The Wizard of Oz, of course, with a young and beautiful Garland tripping down the yellow brick road in her ruby slippers. In 1942, a mere three years after that film, the talented Garland, only 20 years old but already a true movie veteran, took a talented newcomer under her wing in For Me and My Gal.
The "newbie" in Hollywood was Gene Kelly, ten years Garland's senior. Although Gene was new to Hollywood, he was already well-known from his star turn on Broadway in Pal Joey. In later years, he would readily admit just how much he had to learn about acting, singing and dancing on film, and how much he owed to Garland's faithful and gracious tutelage during the making of this, his very first movie.
The respect the two stars had for each other is evident in every frame of this film. It's their incredible talent and obvious delight in working together that energizes what would otherwise look like a quaint museum piece of a movie. The Busby Berkeley directed For Me and My Gal may not really be the "outstanding role of Judy Garland's career" (as the theatrical trailer you get to see in the DVD extras dramatically proclaims) but it's a fine film that showcases her talent and introduced the phenomenal Kelly to a film audience for the first time. Fans of either of them should enjoy this film immensely, especially its first two-thirds.
The Bells Are Ringing...Over There, Over There
I say the first two-thirds because, in many ways, this film felt like two movies. The first part was a relatively light romance with a lot of dancing and some good humor thrown in. The second part was a patriotic ode to America, intentionally playing on its audience's heartstrings (and appealing to their pocketbooks...buy war bonds!). But you have to consider the time. It was 1942, and Hollywood was making these kinds of movies. I'd wager that few of them still stand up as well as For Me and My Gal.
The movie is set not during World War II, the conflict that was actually going on at the time the movie was made, but 20 some years previously in the World War I era. The idea was to give people an inspiring look back at the men who'd fought and won the first world war. I'm sure it felt easier to stir emotions based on history than on the current conflict, where people were actually still fighting and dying.
The war is only briefly alluded to in the first major section of the film, however. It main settings are the stages and dressing rooms of vaudeville theaters. Garland plays Jo Hayden, a talented singer and dancer whose career seems to be going nowhere. She works with a troupe of other performers under the direction of Jimmy Metcalf (George Murphy). Metcalf is a mediocre manager and the act is not doing well. Still, he's a "swell guy," a kind man who clearly is in love with Jo but has no clue how to tell her. I'm not sure he even realizes the depths of his feelings until he begins to realize that Jo is falling for the fast-talking Harry Palmer, played by Gene Kelly. Palmer is incredibly talented, and he's always been a one-man-show. That changes one day when he sees Jo perform. She lights up the stage in the mediocre act and Harry decides they have to work together. He's sure as a team they will finally make it to the pinnacle of a vaudevillian's career: the Palace theater in New York.
Jo isn't so sure. Harry's fast-talking ways drive her nuts, as does his seemingly selfish and shallow nature. She knows he's talented, but she can't stand him, and she doesn't want to break up Metcalf's act. In the film's best extended scene, Harry tries to convince Jo, trying every trick in the book from fast-talking flirting to fake humility to manipulative charm. Kelly is marvelous in these scenes, and he and Garland have such romantic chemistry, even as they squabble, that the audience roots for them from the very start. Jo finally succumbs, without realizing it, to Harry's charm, and they perform a song together in a coffee shop.
And it turns out Harry is right, of course. They're dynamite! It helps the plot along enormously that they really are. This is a black and white film, but Kelly and Garland are so explosively good in this first dance together that I promise you, you'll remember it in color. They sing and dance with tremendous energy and joy through the tuneful title number "For Me and My Gal" and by the end of it, it's clear they're meant to be together. Metcalf, swell guy that he is, smooths the way for Jo to leave the troupe to follow her dreams with Harry, even though it's clear his heart is breaking.
There Are Always Obstacles to Love...
Like every good relationship in the movies, Jo and Harry's has plenty of obstacles. Their working together turns out to be wonderful, but still doesn't land them their dreams. They labor in lots of small theaters, growing closer together through their performances and their trials. And they have to endure lots of challenges. Harry briefly falls under the spell of a talented, glamorous singer. It's during that period that Jo realizes she's fallen in love with the man she once declared she couldn't stand. It takes Harry a while to catch on to Jo's feelings and to realize his own, but he finally does. This leads to a wonderfully tender wow of a kiss that has officially made my mental list of all-time favorite cinematic kisses.
Great! Guy and girl now have each other, and they're still pursuing their dream. When does this turn into a war film? you ask. Well, right about now. Life gets complicated as Jo's little brother, whom she's been supporting through medical school, heads overseas to fight the Kaiser. And then it gets even more complicated when Harry, practically on the eve of their wedding and the eve of their first performance at the legendary palace, gets drafted.
This is the end of the line for the plot synopsis bus. That's mostly because from here, I must confess that I was a bit disappointed in the story choices. Kelly gets to do some interesting acting (and there's one surprising twist that provides some complexity to what could have felt like a too-simple pro-war message). The film was still enjoyable, especially a patriotic and well-put-together montage of World War I footage and songs. But it felt like the story started clunking in places, that it stopped working smoothly as a story so it could salute and be roped into serving AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE. The bells don't ring quite as merrily for me and my gal in the final third of the film, though there's plenty of other terrific singing and dancing.
Kelly and Garland would work together in two more films, but never would they shine quite as brilliantly as they did here. Young, vibrant, and wonderful to look at, their energetic dance moves seem to mirror one another and their voices harmonize sweetly. As a fan of both, I was very happy to have finally watched this film.
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