For Me and My Gal (1942) is very much the "forgotten" Judy Garland classic. Although a big hit in 1942 (bringing in $4.8 million on an investment of just over $800,000), it is not as often revived as films like The Wizard of Oz (1939), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) or even her two other pictures with Gene Kelly, The Pirate (1948) and Summer Stock (1950). Nor is it currently available on DVD. Yet it plays an important part in her career, marking the first time she would receive billing above the title and her most ambitious dramatic role to that time. It also gave her two numbers that would become staples of her later concert appearances, the title song (usually done in concerts as a sing-along) and "After You've Gone." As icing on the cake, it marked Gene Kelly's film debut. His role as a heel who's reformed by his love for the leading lady would become a standby for the dancing star.

Like most of MGM's best musicals, For Me and My Gal was a product of Arthur Freed's production unit. Often hailed as the man who brought taste and sophistication to the film musical, Freed benefited from a strong eye for talent and stories and his openness to the advice of others. In this case, that openness would pay off big time. The original script, called "The Big Time," had unscrupulous song-and-dance man Harry Palmer involved with two women, a singer (the role intended for Garland) and a dancer, with the latter carrying most of the dramatic scenes as the woman he marries and betrays. At the time, legendary stage star and acting teacher Stella Adler was working at MGM as a production assistant, and Freed asked her to review the script. She suggested combining the two female roles and giving Garland, whose work she had admired for years, a chance at her most dramatic role ever. She also suggested that he cast the as-yet-unproven Gene Kelly as the leading man. Freed ended up going with both ideas, which meant moving contract hoofer George Murphy, originally scheduled for the lead, into a smaller role as the vaudeville star who loses Garland to Kelly.

Freed had actually been interested in Kelly since he'd seen him in William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Time of Your Life in 1939. At the time, however, Kelly wanted to establish himself with stage work. A year later, Kelly was the acclaimed star of the musical Pal Joey and had just choreographed Best Foot Forward, and MGM came calling again. This time Louis B. Mayer offered him a contract after seeing Pal Joey and telling him he didn't need to do a screen test. Then through a communications snafu, Kelly was told he would have to test, so he declined to sign the contract. Instead, he signed with independent producer David O. Selznick. With his limited production slate, however, Selznick had no projects in line for Kelly, who spent his first year in Hollywood doing nothing. When Freed pushed MGM to cast Kelly in For Me and My Gal, over the objections of studio brass who didn't want to take a chance on an unproven film star, Selznick simply handed over his contract to the studio.

Garland had also pushed for Kelly in the lead, and when he started on the film, she went to bat for him whenever he had a disagreement with director Busby Berkeley, whom she loathed. She also helped him adjust to acting for the camera. For her part, the role offered her a welcome chance to grow up. Her only prior shot at an adult role had been a few scenes as a woman who dies in childbirth in Little Nellie Kelly (1940). For the rest of the film, she had played the woman's teenaged daughter. Now she would spend an entire film as an adult, something she was already doing off-screen, where she had recently married composer David Rose. Garland also loved the film's patriotic elements. She had been touring military bases and raising funds for the Allies even before the Pearl Harbor attack that pulled the U.S. into World War II. Now she got to entertain the troops on screen in a series of classic pop numbers including "When You Wore a Tulip" and "Pack Up Your Trouble."

The biggest problem with the film, however, was the characterization of the leading man, who not only betrays his wife, but injures his hand to avoid service in World War I. Even before the U.S. entered the war, using a draft dodger as a romantic lead was questionable. After the start of the war effort, it seemed almost deluded. During production, Berkeley added a scene in which Garland sends her brother (future director Richard Quine) off to war to the tune of "Till We Meet Again," but that only underlined Harry's cowardice. When the film previewed, audiences overwhelmingly expressed their disapproval of Kelly's character, saying that Garland should have ended up with Murphy at the film's conclusion. Mayer blamed Murphy for being too likable and even told him, "You spoiled the picture." He ordered three weeks of re-takes that would give Kelly more of a conscience and cut down on Murphy's presence. He even had the finale re-shot, without Murphy (the original footage is lost, though the soundtrack is available on CD). As disappointed as Murphy was, For Me and My Gal became a hit, clearly establishing Kelly as a film star and paving the way for more ambitious roles for Garland.

Producer: Arthur Freed
Director: Busby Berkeley
Screenplay: Richard Sherman, Fred Finklehoffe, Sid Silvers
Based on the story "The Big Time" by Howard Emmett Rogers
Cinematography: William Daniels
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Gabriel Scognamillo
Music: George E. Stoll
Principal Cast: Judy Garland (Jo Hayden), George Murphy (Jimmy K. Metcalf), Gene Kelly (Harry Palmer), Marta Eggerth (Eve Minard), Ben Blue (Sid Simms), Richard Quine (Danny Hayden), Keenan Wynn (Eddie Milton), Horace [Stephen] McNally (Mr. Waring).
BW-104m. Closed captioning.

by Frank Miller