“For Me and My Gal” stars Gene Kelly in his first movie after a successful run on stage with “Pal Joey.” His costar is Judy Garland, about which Kelly was very grateful. She was an old hand in Hollywood by this time and Kelly was heard to express gratitude to her for the way she showed him the ropes.
Kelly plays Harry Palmer, a song and dance man with amazing confidence in himself. Garland is Jo Hayden, also a fixture on the Vaudeville circuit, traveling with a small group of comedians and singers. When they are all booked to play in the same theater and meet up for the first time, Jo is not impressed with Harry at all. He’s a flimflammer, a smooth-talking no-good who is too full of himself to care about anyone else. He even steals a song that was supposed to be for her, paying $50 for it. Later that night, after they’ve all performed, he approaches her with the offer to team up with him, but she’ll have nothing to do with him. It’s only after he gives her the song and convinces her to sing it with him that she’s willing to give him the time of day, but even that is an angle. He’s all about getting ahead in the business.
Jo’s singing buddy, Jimmy Metcalf, cares deeply for her and has for some time. When he hears about the offer she’s received to work with Harry, he encourages her to go, knowing that it will be better for her career. Things take off from there, with bookings all over the nation, but they still haven’t received the invitation they’re looking for – to play at The Palace in New York City. When they do that, they’ll know they’ve hit the big time.
It seems they’re about to have their big break. They’ve realized they’re in love with each other (in a somewhat anticlimactic scene) and they’re on their way to performing at The Palace when Harry gets his draft notice – he has to go serve in World War I. They are both devastated, but Jo is the more logical of the two. There will be another chance.
Harry is too emotional to think about the future. Wanting to postpone his departure just long enough to give them time to appear on stage, he slams his hand under the lid of his trunk, and sure enough, he’s given six weeks to recoup before he’ll pass the physical exam. This is great news – except for the fact that Jo’s brother was just killed in the war. When she finds out what Harry has done, she thinks he’s a coward and she can’t believe that with all the young men over there getting killed, he would be so selfish. She tells him she never wants to see him again.
Harry is devastated. He didn’t think she would become so angry with him. But it gets even worse – he has permanently damaged his hand and will never regain full use of it. I didn’t know you could hurt yourself that badly with a trunk lid, but I guess I wasn’t supposed to think about it that much.
I won’t tell you the ending, but you can rest assured that they do all live happily ever after.
I found it very interesting that even though this was Kelly’s first film, he still came as a complete package. All the poses, facial expressions, and dance steps we have come to identify with him were present in this film and weren’t just something he grew into during his time in Hollywood. He must have developed them on stage. Wherever they came from, he was very much himself, and I like himself quite a bit even if the movie wasn’t necessarily his best.
Related Blogs: