Main Cast: Rita Hayworth, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, John Sutton, Phil Silvers, James Gleason
Release Year: 1942
Country: US
Run Time: 103 minutes
Plot
A pregnant Alice Faye was forced to bow out of this colorful Fox musical, which instead went to Rita Hayworth, whom the studio borrowed from Columbia. Hayworth plays the highly fictitious Sally Elliott of the title, a musical star teaming up with Indiana boy Paul Dresser (Victor Mature), a runaway who after a brief stopover in a tank town medicine show arrives in Gay Nineties New York full of verve and vigor. There he composes the title tune for the fair lady and becomes the toast of Tin Pan Alley. There are the obligatory bumps on the road along the way, of course, but everything ends, as any Fox musical should, with a grand and glorious finale. Although Fox publicity claimed that My Gal Sal was based on a My Brother Paul, a biography by the composer's brother, Theodore Dreiser, it was actually concocted from an unpublished manuscript by Dreiser and his wife Helen Richardson. The film earned Oscars™ for art and set decoration and included such Dresser songs as "On the Banks of the Wabash", "I'se Your Honey, If You Wants Me, Liza", "Come Tell Me What's Your Answer (Yes or No)" and "Mr. Volunteer. House songwriters Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger contributed "Me and My Fella" and "On the Great White Way. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Review
20th Century-Fox, in its heyday of the 1930s and 1940s, enjoyed an special fondness for Technicolor and the sentimental songs of the "Gay Nineties" and not necessarily in that order. So what could be more apt than bringing back beloved song-plugger Paul Dresser, invent a girl named Sally to match the composer's most famous tune, "My Gal Sal," and drench the whole thing in bright hues? Add the equally eye-catching Rita Hayworth and the beefcake champion of the moment, Victor Mature and you have an almost irresistible confection. So what if Mature is about 120 pounds shy of the real Dresser (who had died back in 1906 anyway) and that Hayworth had to be dubbed by Nan Wynn? My Gal Sal is escapism of the highest order and remains as entertaining as it appeared when opening at New York's Roxy Theatre on May 1, 1942. Incidentally, Paul Dresser's even more famous kid brother, future novelist Theodore Dreiser, is portrayed here ever so briefly by boy actor Barry Downing. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Hermes Pan - Choreography, Val Raset - Choreography, Gwen Wakeling - Costume Designer, Irving Cummings - Director, Robert L. Simpson - Editor, Ralph Rainger - Composer (Music Score), Alfred Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Guy Pearce - Makeup, Richard Day - Production Designer, Joseph C. Wright - Production Designer, Ernest Palmer - Cinematographer, Robert Bassler - Producer, Thomas K. Little - Set Designer, Alfred Bruzlin - Sound/Sound Designer, Roger Heman - Sound/Sound Designer, Seton Miller - Screenwriter, Karl Tunberg - Screenwriter, Darrell Ware - Screenwriter, Theodore Dreiser - Book Author
Alice Faye was originally suppose to play the lead but got pregnant and had to drop out of the role. Betty Grable was next in line but she complained that Fox overworked her and so the role was given to Hayworth.
