My Gal Sal (1930) ** 1/2 (out of 4)The Fleischer Studio produced a number of these animated short films where the "bouncing ball" would have audience members singing together. Our story kicks off with two neighbors having a bitter fight with countless items being thrown around. From here we move to the bouncing ball and the song. If you're familiar with this series then you know that the animation was just a build-up to the actual song. In this case both are quite good, although there's really nothing here that's too overly special to separate it from the dozens of others in the series. Fans will want to check it out and those curious in the series should find it mildly entertaining.

This Screen Song version of Paul Dresser's annoying ballad is given a very soapy interpretation by a basso and then a barbershop group. It's tough to take any pleasure in the song itself, between its slow tempo and its trite, gawkily-phrased sentiments.Fortunately, Dave Fleischer seems to have felt just about the same way, since the gags in the portion before the ball starts bouncing out the lyrics are based on people's dislike of the song: someone is singing the song at the bottom of an air shaft and the apartment dwellers keep tossing stuff at him. The net effect is not particularly good for this series, which started in 1924, but it does make it intermittently bearable.