"My Gal Sal" is a Hollywood biopic. And, like most biopics of the era, much of the story is fiction. However, even for a biopic, this one is mostly hooey and is nearly 90% fictional! After all, Paul Dresser's life would have been impossible to accurately portray and yet comply with the Production Code! After all, in real life, Dresser had a mistress who owned a brothel, slept with many prostitutes and later he essentially ate and drank himself to death at age 48! And, when he died he was broke...having spent everything he earned and then some! In fact, he was so broke it took years for him to be properly buried!
The story begins with Paul arguing with his father...something which was pretty accurate, as Paul and his father reportedly had almost no relationship because of this. He then makes his way as a singing at traveling medicine shows, though in real life he ALSO performed as a minstrel...though fortunately this isn't in the film.
His fortunes changed and after writing some successful songs and meeting Sally Elliott, he slowly gained fame. In real life, fame came slower, there was no Sally Elliott and he was in near constant trouble due to his own foolish choices. But in this one, he's a pretty standup guy whose biggest problem is his on again off again relationship with Elliott.
So what is to become of all this? And, is the film worth seeing? As far as whether it's worth seeing, it depends. If you accept that nearly all the story is fiction and just enjoy it for its color cinematography, nice costumes and lovely songs which were lip synched by the leads, then you'll no doubt like the film. As for me, the phoniness of the story made it hard to like...my problem probably because I used to teach history and actually like films to bear more than a passing semblance to the facts. I also didn't like the fictional relationship with Elliott for another reason...their fighting and cooing and fighting got very tiresome after a while.
The story begins with Paul arguing with his father...something which was pretty accurate, as Paul and his father reportedly had almost no relationship because of this. He then makes his way as a singing at traveling medicine shows, though in real life he ALSO performed as a minstrel...though fortunately this isn't in the film.
His fortunes changed and after writing some successful songs and meeting Sally Elliott, he slowly gained fame. In real life, fame came slower, there was no Sally Elliott and he was in near constant trouble due to his own foolish choices. But in this one, he's a pretty standup guy whose biggest problem is his on again off again relationship with Elliott.
So what is to become of all this? And, is the film worth seeing? As far as whether it's worth seeing, it depends. If you accept that nearly all the story is fiction and just enjoy it for its color cinematography, nice costumes and lovely songs which were lip synched by the leads, then you'll no doubt like the film. As for me, the phoniness of the story made it hard to like...my problem probably because I used to teach history and actually like films to bear more than a passing semblance to the facts. I also didn't like the fictional relationship with Elliott for another reason...their fighting and cooing and fighting got very tiresome after a while.