THE GANG'S ALL HERE

US, 1943, 103 minutes, Colour.
Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, James Ellison, Phil Baker, Benny Goodman, Charlotte Greenwood, Eugene Pallette, Edward Everett Horton.
Directed by Busby Berkeley.

The Gang's All Here is one of 20th Century Fox's cheerful contributions to the war effort. It was a lavish colour musical (even garish) that took up some of the regular musical comedy players contracted to Fox: Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, Charlotte Greenwood. June 11aver appears as a hat-check girl and Jeanne Crain is 'the girl by the pool' in starlet roles (soon to emerge as stars).

The film is a Busby Berkeley '40s musical. After moving from Broadway, he changed the style of the Hollywood musical with the focus on the dancers and their creative geometric and imaginative patterns. He moved the camera up and down, bird's eye view, all kinds of creative design. This is evident in this film - though it does not have the originality of his '30s features.

Alice Faye is Eadie Allen, a singer at a New York club, who falls in love with a soldier. She does not know that he is wealthy - thinks that his buddy is wealthy. By coincidences, the group has to give a performance at his parents' home and there are romantic complications of the Hollywood type. Needless to say, they are resolved.

This was one of Alice Faye's final films after a successful career for almost ten years at 20th Century Fox. Carmen Miranda had her bright idiosyncratic style. Phil Baker appears as himself as does Benny Goodman leading his orchestra. There is comedy with Eugene Pallette as the hero's father and an eccentric couple played by Edward Everett Horton and Charlotte Greenwood (who takes the opportunity to kick a leg in a comic way as she always did).

Songs include 'No Love No Nothing', 'Journey to a Star', 'The Polka Dot Polka', 'You Discover You're in New York', 'Minnie's In The Money'. There is also the famous 'Brazil' and Carmen Miranda's 'Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat' -commentators note that Busby Berkeley and Freud might have had an interesting conversation about the decor and the design of this number.

This 1943 film illustrates the popular musical of the time and the 20th Century Fox lavish, colourful style.