My Gal Sal (1942)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Irving Cummings

Writers:

Theodore Dreiser (story)
Seton I. Miller (writer)

Release Date:

30 April 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Musical

Plot:

Chronicles the early life of gay nineties-era songwriter Paul Dresser as he outgrows his job as carnival...

Plot Keywords:

1890s | Beautiful Woman | Character Name In Title

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Rita Hayworth	...	Sally Elliott
Victor Mature	...	Paul Dresser
John Sutton	...	Fred Haviland
Carole Landis	...	Mae Collins
James Gleason	...	Pat Hawley
Phil Silvers	...	Wiley
Walter Catlett	...	Col. Truckee
Mona Maris	...	Countess Mariana Rossini
Frank Orth	...	McGuinness
Stanley Andrews	...	Mr. Dreiser
Margaret Moffatt	...	Mrs. Dreiser (as Margaret Moffat)
Libby Taylor	...	Ida, Sally's Maid
John Kelly	...	John L. Sullivan
Curt Bois	...	Monsieur De Rochemont
Hermes Pan	...	Dancing partner

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck originally wanted Carole Landis to play Sally Elliot, but she refused to dye her hair red and declared she'd play it as a blonde. The movie mogul promptly moved her to a secondary role and borrowed Rita Hayworth from Columbia, since Alice Faye, expecting her first daughter, could not take the part.

Quotes:

Paul Dresser: Someday, I'll write a song. And she'll come begging to sing it.

Soundtrack:

HERE YOU ARE

A musical curiosity

"My Gal Sal" is not an unpleasant musical, but it gets a more lavish treatment than it deserves. It's a typically fictionalized musical biopic, with Victor Mature playing Paul Dresser, a popular Midwestern songwriter of the "Gay 90s." (For younger readers, that's what the 1890s were called, though the description had to do with high spirits, not sexuality.) Rita Hayworth is Dresser's love interest and the title character. Several of the songs in the movie were not even the work of Dresser, though the title song is. As the movie notes at the beginning, Dresser, born Dreiser, was the older brother of famed novelist Theodore Dreiser, author of that grim classic "An American Tragedy." The screenplay is supposedly based on Dreiser's reflective essay "My Brother Paul." But if it were, this film would be a bit of a drag: Paul Dresser's fame was fairly brief and he died young, and Theodore Dreiser never wrote anything light. Hollywood was wise enough to make up some harmless stuff, pick a beautiful leading lady and play it all for fun.