For Me and My Gal (1942)
Director: Busby Berkley
Judy Garland had long been the juvenile doll of the MGM’s
cavalcade of stars, corralled with a persona of the innocent teenage girl, and pure
and true. However here at age nineteen she is given her first mature role,
shedding her innocent childlike demeanor for a character with more depth and dimension.
Featuring as her co-star is a newcomer making his film debut whose talents as a
dancer beyond his acting would make him a foremost star in Hollywood. Directed
by the eminent musical filmmaker Busby Berkley is set to background of World
War I to enable to message to an audience in the thick of World War II.
For Me and My Gal
is a musical about a vaudevillian couple whose relationship is complicated with
the outbreak of The Great War. Jo Hayden (Judy Garland) and Harry Palmer (Gene
Kelly) are a gifted couple of the vaudeville stage with aspirations of one day playing
The Palace Theatre on Broadway in conjunction with the dream to marry
immediately following their first performance. After great effort and diligence
the two are signed to play out their dreams. However, just weeks before their
first scheduled performance at the famed theater Harry is given his draft
notice for the army.
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To avoid service time Harry intentionally cripples his hand,
but that same day Jo learns that her brother had died in battle and shuns Harry
for his cowardly act, breaking up the act and calling off the wedding. A
dejected Harry can only find solace in entertaining the troops on the front
lines to aid in the war effort after his handicap keeps him from being a
soldier. In a moment of great bravery Harry have a fleet from ambulance convoy
from a surprise attack, earning himself a name of a hero. Fallowing the war
Harry attends a performance at the Palace where he is spotted by Jo and the two
are reunited.
The film is a wartime morale building musical obviously constructed
for the audience of World War II Americans. It may not be cut from the same
cloth of Busby Berkley’s 30s musicals, where he coordinated lavish “armies” of
showgirls parading in over-the-top gowns or revealing costumes. Rather this
picture is a straight romantic drama with a series of musical numbers and
wonderful dancing performances by Garland and Kelly, showcasing the two talents
stars.
The movie is delightfully constructed and entertains on
various levels with moments of humor, a plot that would speak to a generation
caught up in the war effort as well as the draft, and beautifully executed song
and dance numbers that mixes in well with the overall tone of the picture. The
plot toes that fine line of the drama about the draft and those avoiding
service by drastic means. For contemporary audiences the film comes of very
lighthearted, but for onlookers during WWII this was a very real piece of sensitive
drama that some men had to fight with psychologically when they received their
draft notice. For some to be drafted was a right and/or privilege, to other it
felt as a death sentence. It was a delicate matter that is dealt with in a
lighthearted was in this musical.
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| Garland sheds her innocent look in this picture. |
Judy Garland stars in her first grown-up after years of
playing youthful teenage girls, most commonly across form Mickey Rooney in the
various Andy Hardy pictures. At the
still young age of only nineteen she was already sharp veteran for MGM finally being
allowed to take that step into a more mature role. She retains that youthful
brightness and charm, but delivers a performance that is serious enough to
allow her to begin to shed the overly-innocent juvenile persona. Still, this is
an MGM picture, where Louis B. Mayer was an architect of his own brand of
family morals motion pictures, so Garland’s role remains morally centered.
The role of Jo was originally intended as two separate
characters as Harry was projected to be involved to two women, a singer and a
dancer. Garland was to be the singer, but after reworking the story and
characters the two separate ladies became one and Judy Garland’s skill as a
dancer would been seen on screen to accompany her vocal talents.
Ten years her senior Gene Kelly was making his screen debut.
Judy Garland took a liking to her co-star and helped to guide him in his
transition from stage performer to movie actor. Kelly had been plucked from his
stage work by Hollywood producer David O. Selznick with intention to utilize
him in one of his pictures in 1941, but was unable to find the right vehicle
for him, sitting on his contract for a year. Producer Arthur Freed would attain
the rights to Kelly’s contract for the role of Harry, much to his MGM superiors’
objections as Kelly was yet untested in the movie world. With Garland’s aid on
set, especially when it came to working with Busby Berkley, with whom she did
not work well with, Kelly began his journey in the world of motion picture performing.
With the hiring of Gene Kelly the original actor casted for
Harry was pushed over to play the role of Jimmy Metcalf, somewhat the third
side of a love triangle in this film’s romantic plot. Actor George Murphy was a
performer that appeared in a number of musicals during the 1930s, but never
caught on as a star as Gene Kelly would have later on. Somewhat pushed off to
the side his character, Jimmy, is the lovable friend that has desires for Jo,
but loses out to Harry in the end.
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| Gene Kelly wins over Garland and the audience. |
In initial previews of For
Me and My Gal audiences found Harry unlikeable, especially for his draft
dodging ways. Script changes and reshoots were made to make Gene Kelly’s
character more lovable so that audiences would accept Judy Garland decision to
be with him. It was a difficult task to do so as Jimmy is so affable and Harry
brings with him more misplaced pride and emotional baggage. However, the
retooling allows for audiences to come to terms with Harry’s flaws, redeeming
himself as he becomes a hero that had grown emotionally in his journey through
the war.
George Murphy’s future was not be as a motion picture star
as his career in Hollywood moved him into a more executive role. A couple of
years after this feature he would ascend to President as the Screen Actors
Guild, then to executive positions at studios and other motion picture related
companies. Later in life he would move into politics were he became a US
Senator for California.
Despite all the issue the studio had with the picture,
especially with the decision of Gene Kelly, For
Me and My Gal opened to become one of the highest grossing pictures of the
year for MGM. The film was praised for its music, garnering an Academy Award
nomination for Best Score. Gene Kelly gained praised for his debut work, even
garning an award for his acting by the National Board of Review.
For Me and My Gal
remains a fine example of musicals for this period that tackles, in its own
entertaining way, the serious issue of man being drafted in the army and not
initially wanting to serve. Harry’s selfish act may have been for love, but provides
enough drama to make for a serious plot to be taken seriously in a period of
war. Through it all the movie proved entertaining enough to attract some of the
greatest movie going audiences in America during this wartime year, serving a
purpose for a notion coping with the hardship of the draft.
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