For Me and My Gal (1942)

Title: For Me and My Gal
Year: 1942
Director: Bubsey Berkeley
Country: US
Language: English

Gene Kelly's feature length motion picture debut, at the time film producers previously weren't sure the star was handsome enough for a leading role in one of their films. Judy Garland, one of the biggest actors in the world at that point, changed their mind. As a result Kelly found his career owed to Garland and would repay her later in her career, after she burned many bridgeswith infamous on-set meltdowns and found trouble finding parts. 

Palmer (Judy Garland) and Hayden (Gene Kelly) team up as vaudeville artists. The arrival of World War One tests their relationship. 

Though For Me and My Gal lacks Bubsey Berkeley's gradiose musical numbers that would make him immortal with 42nd Street, this picture is incredibly compelling. The real war footage, tightly edited montages and remarkable camera movements all help to keep its audience glued to their seat. I was quite impressed with the main musical number, as it has very few cuts and quite a smooth flowing long take. Kelly & Garland's dancing here is particularly impressive. 

The duo have remarkable chemistry. People dream to have someone who looks at them the way Garland looks at Kelly. As a male protagonist, Kelly is highly charismatic; he makes the characters' cowardice act (dodging the draft in order to pursue his musical career) quite forgiveable and, thankfully due to ordered reshoots, we urgently want to see the two together by the end of the film. 

For Me and My Gal is also part war propaganda. In real life World War Two dismantled Europe and the Pacific; on Dec 1941 the United States and they needed a great amount of troops. To dodge the draft was the most dispicable act a citizen could do & thus when Kelly does it in this film he loses everything. Though its done via a kind hearted "mistake" he is treated as an abomination.

Upon initial viewing I was turned off by the propaganda aspect; the film even ends with "Buy war bonds at this theatre!" but alas I can't shame a film because of the time period it was made in (unless its, say Birth of a Nation) Indeed For Me and My Gal accurately portrays the attitude of America at war. It is both escapism and reality.