IMDb > The Gang's All Here (1943)

The Gang's All Here (1943) More at IMDbPro »


Overview

User Rating:
7.1/10   446 votes
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Down 11% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.

Director:

Busby Berkeley

Writers:

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

View company contact information for The Gang's All Here on IMDbPro.

Release Date:

24 December 1943 (USA) more

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance more

Plot:

A soldier falls for a chorus girl and then has trouble because he is posted to the Pacific. full summary | add synopsis

Plot Keywords:

more

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. more

User Comments:

Yes, they have some bananas more (27 total)


Cast

  (Complete credited 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
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Additional Details

Also Known As:

The Girls He Left Behind (UK)
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Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Portuguese

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1 more

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)


Fun Stuff

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. more

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: Boom mic shadow on wall as Edie enters Vivian's bedroom. more

Quotes:

Dorita: [singing] Some people say I dress too gay, but every day I feel so gay, and when I'm gay I dress that way, is something wrong with that? Noooo! more

Movie Connections:

Edited into Heavy Traffic (1973) more

Soundtrack:

The Polka Dot Ballet more


FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
16 out of 18 people found the following comment useful.
Yes, they have some bananas, 9 July 2003
Author: skad13 from Jacksonville Beach, FL

I'll get to the plot of "The Gang's All Here" in a minute, because the plot isn't the most memorable part of this movie. The most memorable part is the bananas.

About 20 minutes into the movie, a towering hat of Technicolor fruit appears on the screen, followed by its owner--'40s "Brazilian bombshell" Carmen Miranda. She proceeds to do a number called "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat," accompanied by chorus girls who bear bananas. Six-foot-tall bananas that continuously droop and sprout until number's end, when the chorus girls, worn out by the burden of this mutated fruit, lay down for a long siesta on a stage dressed up like an island.

There's a reason this number occurs so early on: It takes you the rest of the movie to convince yourself you actually saw this in a 1943 movie.

But then, this is Busby Berkeley, a director who staged his musical numbers as though he was declaring war. And next to kitsch, war is pretty much the motivator here.

The wafer-thin story involves Andy (James Ellison), a soldier who woos and wins Edie (Alice Faye), a canteen dancer, the night before Andy goes off to World War Two. In what seems an instant, Andy gets decorated and returned home to a victory party thrown by the family of Andy's childhood sweetheart and fiancee--who, unfortunately for Edie, is not Edie.

Will the heartbreak be resolved? Do you really care? The plot is mostly an excuse for some snappy repartee between major '40s stars (in particular, Eugene Pallette and Edward Everett Horton are hilarious), and the kind of musical numbers that seem to drop out of thin air. (In a couple of scenes, Benny Goodman and his orchestra stroll by and do some songs just for the heck of it.)

"The Gang's All Here" is really a 1943 time capsule, but an eye-popping rouser of one. They don't make 'em like this anymore. They didn't make 'em much like this back then, either. It's not out on video or DVD, so look for its sporadic broadcasts on cable TV.





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Message Boards

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Acrobatic dancer in black bathing suit letsmisbehave
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The Gang's All Here (1943) MarkTobakMD
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