The Gang's All Here (1943)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Busby Berkeley

Writers:

Nancy Wintner (story) &
George Root Jr. (story) ...

Release Date:

24 December 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Musical

Plot:

A soldier falls for a chorus girl and then has trouble because he is posted to the Pacific.

Plot Keywords:

Chorus Girl | Soldier | Dance | Singer | Nightclub

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Alice Faye	...	Edie Allen
Carmen Miranda	...	Dorita
Phil Baker	...	Phil Baker
Benny Goodman	...	Himself
Benny Goodman Orchestra	...	Themselves
Eugene Pallette	...	Andrew Mason Sr.
Charlotte Greenwood	...	Mrs. Peyton Potter
Edward Everett Horton	...	Peyton Potter
Tony De Marco	...	Himself
James Ellison	...	Andy Mason
Sheila Ryan	...	Vivian Potter
Dave Willock	...	Sgt. Pat Casey
Bando da Lua	...	Themselves, Carmen Miranda's Orchestra

Also Known As:

The Girls He Left Behind (UK)

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Portuguese

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Brazil:12 | Australia:G | Finland:S | USA:Unrated

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The production number "The Lady In The Tutti-Frutti Hat" ran into problems with the censors. The Hayes office at first considered the way the gigantic bananas were held in front of the dancers as being too "phallic". The problem was resolved by having the dancers hold the bananas at waist level rather than at hip level.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the train station Edie calls Andy by his name but later is surprised to find out his name isn't really Casey.

Quotes:

Peyton Potter: I am a businessman. I go in for no foolishness. I'm entirely business.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Heavy Traffic (1973)

Soundtrack:

The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat

Musicals brightened the dullness of wartime Britain

It was called "The Girls He Left Behind", when first released in Britain in 1944. In this movie I think Busby Berkeley reached the pinnacle. It was his finest effort. Carmen Miranda, wearing that tutti frutty hat was a mouth-watering revelation; along with her ability to murder the English language. Roly poly Eugene Palette, trying to get the worrisome Edward Everett Horton's mind off his wife. Handing their hats to the hat-check girl, who was the lovely June Haver. (If you blinked you would have missed her). Alice Faye? A dream in Technicolour. James Ellison in the leading romantic role. Where was John Payne? He was the usual romantic lead in these Twentieth Century Fox musical capers of the early nineteen-forties.

Weak plot? Who the hell really cared! The Benny Goodman Orchestra; those songs, and the rich Technicolour, plus the Lanky Charlotte Greenwood, blindly reaching for the telephone and answering with the cat instead, brightened this teen-aged English boy's life in those wartime years of long ago. I have watched it on television more than once. The big question though. Why oh why, has it not been released on video or, better still, DVD? Can anyone explain?