Blu-ray Review For Me and My Gal Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Busby Berkeley’s For Me and My Gal combines music, romance, and wartime drama into a satisfying package, one which introduces a new musical star to the world and crowns an already established musical star as one of the cinema’s great artists.



For Me and My Gal (1942)



Released: 02 Aug 1943
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 104 min




Director: Busby Berkeley
Genre: Musical, Romance, War



Cast: Judy Garland, George Murphy, Gene Kelly
Writer(s): Howard Emmett Rogers, Richard Sherman, Fred F. Finklehoffe



Plot: Two vaudeville performers fall in love, but find their relationship tested by the arrival of WWI.



IMDB rating: 7.0
MetaScore: N/A





Disc Information



Studio: MGM
Distributed By: Warner Archive
Video...

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[Virgoan]

Thanks, Matt! I am looking forward to getting this one.

 

[roxy1927]

And then after being sensational in this movie MGM doesn't know what to do with Kelly so he and Donen have to go to Columbia and make their MGM musical there with a sidetrack to a Siodmak film noir with Garland's frenemy Deanna Durbin who tells Hollywood to go to hell and outlives everybody.

Very nice review.

 

[Will Krupp]

Thanks for the great review, Matt! I can't wait for this one!

 

[Mike Frezon]

I've always thought the duet of Garland and Kelly on the title song was magical. There is just something very special about the simple arrangement (despite Garland's fakery at the keyboard ) and the upbeat spirit of the two performers.

Thanks for the review, Matt!

 

[Mark-P]

Thanks for the great review, Matt! I can't wait for this one!

Will, is the Technicolor short featuring "La Cucaracha" something you've talked about being available on another Blu-ray or DVD, or am I thinking of another Technicolor short?

 

[Will Krupp]

Will, is the Technicolor short featuring "La Cucaracha" something you've talked about being available on another Blu-ray or DVD, or am I thinking of another Technicolor short?

Hey Mark! I think you're thinking of La Cucaracha (1934) which I have mentioned before. A really good version of that is available on the kino blu-ray of Glorifying the American Girl (and truth be told, I really only bought that disc to get the restored short.) La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935) is different but the Gumm Sisters sing the song in it. I don't think I've seen it on blu-ray before. I didn't even realize it was going to be on this blu ray (in HD no less!) until Matt's review.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Fakery at the keyboard? That piano sounds just great to these oldish but very experienced ears. Some timbres there that even the great Sviatoslav Richter couldn't emulate. Onya Judy.

 

[[email protected]]

Ordered this film, along with the other two Judy Garland releases and all are due to arrive on Tuesday.

 

[Mark-P]

Hey Mark! I think you're thinking of La Cucaracha (1934) which I have mentioned before. A really good version of that is available on the kino blu-ray of Glorifying the American Girl (and truth be told, I really only bought that disc to get the restored short.) La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935) is different but the Gumm Sisters sing the song in it. I don't think I've seen it on blu-ray before. I didn't even realize it was going to be on this blu ray (in HD no less!) until Matt's review.

Silly me thought they were the same thing. I remember you talking about the short on Glorifying the American Girl and I thought it was the Judy Garland short!

 

[Steve Rothaus]

Hey Mark! I think you're thinking of La Cucaracha (1934) which I have mentioned before. A really good version of that is available on the kino blu-ray of Glorifying the American Girl (and truth be told, I really only bought that disc to get the restored short.) La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935) is different but the Gumm Sisters sing the song in it. I don't think I've seen it on blu-ray before. I didn't even realize it was going to be on this blu ray (in HD no less!) until Matt's review.

La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935) along with all the other extras (including Every Sunday) appeared on the original 2004 DVD release. Looking forward to seeing the Technicolor short in HD and the condition of the source material used for this (hopefully) new transfer.

 

[M90GM]

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Great review of an often maligned critically, but commercially huge film - sugar coated - best perhaps described as "gorgeous" and a great wartime flag waver ...and what is wrong with that? A great selection for a blu ray upgrade ..although the other Garland releases this month are hardly preferred to the hundreds of bigger & better (commercially and critically) M-G-M films that Warner are "locking up" and becoming "past their prime"?

 

[roxy1927]

Yes some of those Technicolor musical beauties that we have often mentioned would be so welcome before many of us have gone to our reward.

 

[RobertMG]

Yes some of those Technicolor musical beauties that we have often mentioned would be so welcome before many of us have gone to our reward.

Should have asked Mr Fricke was the filming a happy experience for Judy?

 

[AnthonyClarke]

I was thinking that although I'm really really happy about getting 'For Me and My Gal', I would dearly love also another favourite, 'The Harvey Girls'. Why hasn't that been released on Blu ray as well? It's positively mystifying.
Then I checked my shelves, and there it was, carefully stored inside the old original Snapper case.
Not must mystifying, but truly astonishing. How did it get there? My wife certainly would not have ordered it. If she had, it would have been the very DVD or Blu ray she has ever bought. Has anyone else experienced these occult Blu ray moments? Have I crossed over into The Twilight Zone?

 

[MarkA]

I was thinking that although I'm really really happy about getting 'For Me and My Gal', I would dearly love also another favourite, 'The Harvey Girls'. Why hasn't that been released on Blu ray as well? It's positively mystifying.
Then I checked my shelves, and there it was, carefully stored inside the old original Snapper case.
Not must mystifying, but truly astonishing. How did it get there? My wife certainly would not have ordered it. If she had, it would have been the very DVD or Blu ray she has ever bought. Has anyone else experienced these occult Blu ray moments? Have I crossed over into The Twilight Zone?

I own so many movies that I have re-bought several without knowing I already had them!

 

[ahollis]

I own so many movies that I have re-bought several without knowing I already had them!

Same here.

 

[Ethan Riley]

La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935) along with all the other extras (including Every Sunday) appeared on the original 2004 DVD release. Looking forward to seeing the Technicolor short in HD and the condition of the source material used for this (hopefully) new transfer.

It was on the DVD for another movie as well, don't ask me which. I wonder if my grandparents can be seen in the crowd in this film. They were both longtime entertainers at that Fiesta, and knew Leo Carrillo socially.

 

[benbess]

I saw for Me and My Gal previously about thirty years ago, renting it way back in the vhs era. I remembered that I liked it quite a bit, but I'd also forgotten that parts of it are rather dramatic.

Matt Hough writes in his perceptive review:

"And [Judy Garland's] dramatic scenes throughout the movie, not just with love interests George Murphy and Gene Kelly but also with Richard Quine as her brother Danny studying to be a doctor until the war intervenes offer her tremendous moments to show warmth and devotion, often on the edge of tears and fully convincing us of her brimming emotions. George Murphy is second-billed as the too-good-to-be-true Jimmy Metcalf, but his being the odd man out in the love triangle means he disappears for long periods of time from the narrative. Playing a heel was no stretch for Gene Kelly, fresh from his Broadway success in Pal Joey as the title character, an even more opportunistic go-getter than his Harry Palmer is here. His light Irish tenor and terrific dancing are given a generous introduction here and would pave the way for many MGM musical highlights to come. As Jo’s potential romantic rival for Harry, Martha Eggerth brings her luscious looks and soupy coloratura to two songs in the movie: ”Do I Love You” and the more effective wartime song “Till We Meet Again.” Ben Blue is on hand for some typical slapstick shenanigans, and Keenan Wynn scores briefly as an agent with a short fuse in dealing with the arrogant Harry."

What a good premiere for Gene Kelly this was, playing more of a heel that he normally does for quite a bit of the movie, but redeeming himself in the end. After watching the film, I listened to about a third of the audio commentary, and it has a lot of good behind-the-scenes insights. Picture quality is excellent for a movie of this era. This is a really good package from Warner Archive. Sure took me back in time. Recommended!

 

[roxy1927]

Don't know if this has been covered but didn't this movie have a different ending where Kelly remains a heel to the very end(and maybe Judy ends up with Murphy?) but it didn't play well in previews so they had to change the ending?