For Me and My Gal is a rather odd bird. Set during World War I, The film begins by positioning itself as a tribute to the days of vaudeville, with sweet singer Judy Garland meeting obnoxious dancer Gene Kelly on tour. The two predictably team up after doing an impromptu version of For Me and My Gal that is the best thing in the movie.Then the movie wanders into soap opera before pulling the various war- themed threads together into a typical WWII rah-rah boost for contributing to the war effort.The story is a bit of a mess. I suspect the U.S. entry into WWII happened after the film was greenlighted and parts of it were grafted on as part of the war morale-boosting that was an inevitable part of most early 40s movies. There is a lack of cohesion, most notably with George Murphy's character, who feels like the vestigial tail of the original script. The movie also feels a little self-serving in its emphasis on the importance of entertainment for the troops. I feel this movie would have been done better if it's story had been allowed to play out without worries about patriotic fervor.Kelly is likable in his film debut, but his character is unsympathetic, and apparently the studio had to do a lot of reshooting before audiences could leave the theater not hating him. Garland is charming as she leaves her juvenile roles behind, although I can never be totally happy with any Garland movie that doesn't include at least one ballad. They have good chemistry, but it is better featured in The Pirate, which they made later on.The reason to watch a movie like this is for the musical numbers, but while these are good, there isn't much that is memorable (surprisingly director Busby Berkeley didn't do any of his trademark synchronized- chorus-girl numbers). There are also big chunks of the movie where the musical numbers disappear in favor of the story, which just highlights its weaknesses.Overall this isn't a horrible movie, but it's not one I'd particularly recommend.

"Me and my gal" is another amazing wonderful Judy Garland film, just like "Strike up the band", " Girl crazy", "Little Nellie Kellie", "Babes on Broadway", " Meet me in St. Louis", " Easter parade", and "In the good ol summertime". Judy was wonderful in all of them. In " Me and my gal", Judy truly is a beautiful wonderful angel, in her acting and her singing. She plays a vaudeville actress who meets a partner, Gene Kelly and they both want to get their big break. They practice song and dance routines together. A couple of good numbers they did together before making the palace included "Ball and the jack". Judy also does a great number, " Oh, you beautiful doll" with George Murphy before she pairs up with Gene. There's also an interesting Popeye style number one of Gene's friends does. Gene keeps trying to get his agent to book them into The Palace, NY. Gene and Judy also start falling in love and talk about getting married, as soon as they've had their first booking at The Palace. When they finally get their booking, something unexpected happens, and Gene decides to make a very rash move which I won't spoil by saying here. He also makes a very redeeming move near the end to really win Judy's heart. Also, Judy's brother gets drafted and we then get a passionate tear jerking moment from Judy while "Till we meet again" is being sung by Marta Eggerth. Judy gave me more wonderful tearjerking moments at the very end when she sang "Me and my gal" again with Gene, this time while they were really falling in love, and earlier in the film when they first realized they were falling for each other. These are the moments that help make this film so special. "Me and my gal" is sung earlier in the film too between Gene and Judy in the soda shop, wonderful there too. Judy sings several other great songs when she is singing to the American WW1 soldiers such as "After you've gone", "Smile, smile, smile", and "How you gonna keep'em down on the farm". I love this film. I love Judy Garland. There's also a cute quirky little moment at Marta's dinner and dancing place where George says to Judy and Gene (right after finding out they didn't make the Palace yet) raising his wine glass and says " here's to..uh..to...uh..", and Judy says "here's to" sadly but cutely. So amusing the way it was done. Wow, I loved this film. Marta is also fabulous and she also sings great. Gene is great too. Judy is an angel. All wonderful gold from Hollywood's golden age.

Gene Kelly makes his film debut opposite Judy Garland in this film about vaudeville acts trying to make it big and falling in love too. They start off as partners in a vaudeville act but of course, they fall in love. The story takes place on the verge of American involvement in World War I. Judy's Jo Hayden is an aspiring singer who helps her kid brother study at medical school. When the war breaks out in Europe, he enlists. Just as things were getting good with a marriage and performing at the infamous Palace Theatre in New York City, bad news occurs which separates these two star-crossed lovers. World War I becomes a top priority as does cheering the spirits of the men who go off to battle. The songs and dance numbers are what makes the film. The story is weak but Garland and Kelly's acting talents bring it alive to the audience. The dance and singing sequences are worth watching for any Judy Garland fan. Supporting cast is first rate.

Very few people have as auspicious debut in film as Gene Kelly did in For Me And My Gal. After a big success on Broadway in Pal Joey, Judy Garland pushed for him to be signed to an MGM contract and he was given to her as one of her leading men in this film. Kelly proved to be such a success in film that he next went back to Broadway in 1957 as a director of Flower Drum Song. But even Judy or anyone else could not have predicted that Kelly would be the major creative dancing icon he became, the only real rival that Fred Astaire ever had in film. George Murphy who was Kelly's rival for Judy Garland in the film was a good song and dance man, but never created on the screen the way Kelly did.In fact Murphy in his memoirs says that in the original ending he was supposed to wind up with Judy Garland instead of Kelly, that it was changed midpoint during shooting. Of course he didn't like that idea, but looking at the film, it so much works out for the better.Still Judy is the star and she and the rest of the cast get to sing a whole bunch of songs from the teen years of the last century, some numbers identified with the World War I years. She plays a young aspiring Vaudevillian in an act with Murphy, Lucille Norman, and Ben Blue. Kelly is also an aspiring Vaudevillian who wants to rise in the profession, but he will do just about anything to insure that happens and even love for Judy can't quite put a curb on his ruthlessness.In 1942 there will people in the audience who remembered Vaudeville and could reference easily what playing in the Palace Theatre in New York meant. For today's audience it would be the equivalent of a spot on David Letterman or the Tonight Show.Busby Berkeley directed For Me And My Gal and while he did it with a sure hand, the really spectacular numbers he was noted for are strangely absent from this film. The musical scoring by Roger Edens and Georgie Stoll earned the film an Academy Award nomination in that category.Gene Kelly not only made a film debut, but also a debut on record. He and Judy cut a 78 with the title song and a flipside duet of When You Wore A Tulip. Judy was contracted with Decca Records at the time and both sides later came out on albums. The original 78 would be quite a collector's item today.For Me And My Gal is a nice period type musical, the kind that 20th Century Fox was more known for, but for which MGM did a fine job. The whole cast and crew took long bows for this one. In Vaudeville they would have gotten a whole lot of curtain calls.