My Gal Sal (1942) User Reviews

He Left His Indiana Home

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 11 March 2012]

Darryl Zanuck loved doing these period musicals because the music of the time had by now passed into the public domain. For My Gal Sal, Zanuck didn't have any contemporary composers write anything original for the score on this one. Those original songs are what win Academy Awards as he would prove the following year with You'll Never Know.

My Gal Sal which along with On The Banks Of The Wabash was the most popular song that Paul Dresser ever wrote serves also as the title of this musical biography of Dresser. Paul originally named Dreiser was the oldest of nine children and the youngest was famed novelist Theodore Dreiser and Dreiser wrote a short essay in tribute to his older brother which was the basis for this film. Young Theodore only appears as a child at the beginning of the film.

But the title role is fictional musical comedy star Sally Elliott who is played by Rita Hayworth. She's got publisher John Sutton panting after her, but she's got this love/hate thing going on with Victor Mature as Dresser. The plot for Sutton must have seemed familiar, it's the same one that 20th Century Fox used in A Yank In The RAF where Sutton was in the same position as in this film only with Tyrone Power and Betty Grable.

If this were being made today we would get the real story which was that Paul Dresser was a man of large frame and large appetites. The 'Sal" he wrote this song for was in real life a bordello madame of a certain house that he favored and occasionally took aspiring novelist Theodore in for a quickie. He was also a man close to 300 pounds and the guy who could have played him for real at the time was on the 20th Century lot and that was Laird Cregar.

But Mature and Hayworth were just coming into their own and Zanuck got full use of them. Mature was his studio's property, but Rita was on loan from Columbia where Harry Cohn was starting to realize what a great find Hayworth was. Zanuck was developing his star with three films, this one, Blood And Sand and Tales Of Manhattan. They both looked real good and sang real good with dubbed voices.

A lot of period music, costuming, and sets is what My Gal Sal gets its best marks for. In fact the film won an Oscar for Best Art&Set Design. Rita looked and danced divinely even using someone else's voice as she always did.

It's not the best film of this type that Fox ever did, but if your taste does run into period musicals than you can't go wrong with My Gal Sal.

Pleasant music with a good story

[rjw999 · 6/10 · 7 October 2018]

I think I heard of Paul Dresser and wanted to hear his music. Only song I can say I knew - faintly- was the Wabash song, which turns out to be the Indiana State song. So, yeah, I didn't know much about this story. It was interesting to see the 1890s period sets. Mostly I watched this to see Rita Hayworth. Never saw anything of hers (but I probably did). She is actually a good actress and dances well. Victor Mature seemed to be an odd pick for the role of Paul. But their chemistry on screen was apparent.

It's interesting that Paul started out singing at carnivals before hitting the big time on Broadway. I suppose that's similar to singers/songwriters who toiled away in bars before getting discovered.

Anyway, the movie was comfortable, pleasant, relaxing to watch and gave me a glimpse into a seemingly simpler happy world, even if it's idealistically presented. Thank you TCM for keeping these flicks on the air.

For me and my gal

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 23 September 2004]

MGM musicals dominated the genre. No one could make musicals like they could, although a few studios tried with lesser success, as is the case with this one done by Fox in 1942.

Irving Cummings was a director that tried his hands at directing musicals with mixed results. "My Gal Sal" is the biography of Paul Dresser, an American composer who wrote tuneful, if somewhat bland songs. The screen play is by Theodore Dreiser, a writer on his own right, but who had nothing to add to make this film work better.

This is a musical that has a dated look from the beginning. The situation is preposterous, at best.

Rita Hayworth shines as the red headed Sally Elliott, a singing star of the musical theater of the time. She is responsible for the discovery of young and inexperienced Paul. She likes his songs and doesn't hesitate in stealing one to include in her show. Never did the technicolor loved anyone as it loved Rita Hayworth! She was a beautiful woman who lights up the screen any time we see her.

Victor Mature, as Paul, plays an unworldly Paul Dresser. He is a country boy and it shows. It is through his association with Sally that he gets the kind of sophistication he never had.

In minor roles James Gleason, as Paul's agent is excellent. This character actor graces with his presence dozens of films where he is always in the background. The great Phil Silvers appears briefly in a couple of key scenes. He was a talented actor of the stage and the screen and television that was always a welcome addition to everything he appeared in. Also, Carol Landis is seen in a small role.

See the film as a curiosity piece. The songs are tuneful, if forgettable.

A musical curiosity

[gerdeen-1 · 20 November 2008]

"My Gal Sal" is not an unpleasant musical, but it gets a more lavish treatment than it deserves. It's a typically fictionalized musical biopic, with Victor Mature playing Paul Dresser, a popular Midwestern songwriter of the "Gay 90s." (For younger readers, that's what the 1890s were called, though the description had to do with high spirits, not sexuality.) Rita Hayworth is Dresser's love interest and the title character. Several of the songs in the movie were not even the work of Dresser, though the title song is. As the movie notes at the beginning, Dresser, born Dreiser, was the older brother of famed novelist Theodore Dreiser, author of that grim classic "An American Tragedy." The screenplay is supposedly based on Dreiser's reflective essay "My Brother Paul." But if it were, this film would be a bit of a drag: Paul Dresser's fame was fairly brief and he died young, and Theodore Dreiser never wrote anything light. Hollywood was wise enough to make up some harmless stuff, pick a beautiful leading lady and play it all for fun.

Rita Hayworth outshines Victor Mature

[marthawilcox1831 · 3/10 · 16 August 2014]

Rita Hayworth is charming in this film which has flattering shots of her. She is quite good looking, and if nothing else the film is a masterclass in hair and make-up, lighting, costume and production design. The cinematography is good as well, but it's almost wasted on a mediocre story.

Victor Mature is average in this film, although there are some happy scenes between him and Hayworth. It's good seeing him in Technicolor before 'Samson and Delilah'.

I'm not particularly a Hayworth fan, but she does look beautiful in this film.

Beautiful 1890s costumes

[HotToastyRag · 5/10 · 17 May 2023]

For a movie that had to pass the Production Code, My Gal Sal has some pretty racy lines that passed through the censors. Victor Mature obviously has a physical relationship with Carole Landis while working in a travelling vaudeville show, and when he starts coming onto Rita Hayworth when he moves up in the world, he's very interested in in seeing her bedroom. He keeps pushing until she finally relents, and she's next seen in a disheveled appearance running late to her next performance.

The costumes in this movie are gorgeous, so if you like the time period of the 1890s, you'll love watching all the beautiful outfits parade across the screen. The songs are source music from the protagonist's collection, but if you aren't familiar with Paul Dresser's work, there will be new schmaltzy tunes for you to listen to. The love story, honestly, isn't that great. Victor's character is written to be selfishly ambitious with a big temper. Rita is rude, snobby, and also has a huge temper. You can't even imagine the depths of their fights, and it makes the audience wish they'd end up with calmer people who might soften their rough edges. Carole was a sweet, caring girl, and John Sutton is steady, stable, and puts up with way too much from Rita.

But hey, you can't have everything. If you like Rita, you can check out this early musical. It's pure escapism that fits right in with the backstage musicals of the WWII era.

A must for Rita's fans

[jjnxn-1 · 8/10 · 23 June 2013]

Amiable musical is loaded with good music and sprightly performances. Originally planned for Betty Grable whose pregnancy prevented her appearance, then Carole Landis who stubbornly refused to change her hair color and was punished by Zanuck by being relegated to a secondary part he then borrowed Rita from Columbia. She was in the midst of her climb to the top having made strides over the previous two years in a succession of spotlight parts and this continued her ascent.

As a biography it's worthless but as a showcase for Rita's talent and beauty it can't be beat. There are one or two occasions where she is so heavily made up and dressed in an unflattering pink that she appears corpse like but otherwise looks sensational in her period costumes and her dancing and singing are marvelous. Mature is fine as the male lead but is overshadowed by Rita.

Not a classic but a bright, pleasant entertainment. A must for Hayworth fans.

Dubbing and Dancing, Little More

[LeonardKniffel · 5/10 · 9 April 2020]

This biopic chronicles the life of songwriter Paul Dresser, played by Victor Mature, in the Gay Nineties, as he moves from carnival entertainer into New York society. Rita Hayworth stars and does the songs-dubbed by Nan Wynn. More a curiosity than a memorable musical.

Nostalgic gay '90s period musical...standard but fun...

[Doylenf · 17 October 2004]

RITA HAYWORTH and VICTOR MATURE make a pleasant co-starring team, although it's hate at first sight, proof positive that true love never does run smooth...at least not in these sort of backstage musicals where the paper-thin plot depends upon the boy-loses-girl-until-final-reel contrivances.

Rita has a temper to match her red hair and when she tears up all of Mature's clothes, he does the same to her. And so it goes. They fuss and feud all over the screen until the last moment--but it's all done with such style and charm that you can't resist it.

Alice Faye was supposed to do Rita's role but she was expecting a baby so Rita signed on. As usual, someone else dubs her singing but her dancing is a sheer delight and the technicolor costumes are showcased in all of the musical numbers.

Given short shrift in the cast is CAROLE LANDIS, with almost nothing to do after a bright start, and handsome JOHN SUTTON has a thankless role as Rita's would be suitor. Too bad Fox could never find a worthy starring role for him.

Fun to watch (if you like musicals) and easy to take.

A Zanuck bomb

[aberlour36 · 2/10 · 23 August 2007]

Zanuck made some fine films, of course, but he had a penchant for producing weak musicals. Here is a prime example. The script is extraordinarily weak. Wait until you see how the Indians cleaned up Victor Mature after a tar-and-feathering job administered by angry town folk! Aside from the film's title, the music is utterly forgettable. Wait until you see Victor Mature "playing" two pianos at once! Rita Hayworth is lovely and in her prime; this is the year of "You Were Never Lovelier." But she's given little of interest to do here. Her singing is obviously dubbed. The dancing is only average (Hermes Pan was a partner in one scene). Carol Landis is wasted entirely. No wonder Alice Faye turned down a chance to be in this film. It is a bomb. "My Gal Sal" is generally unavailable to the public. Lucky public.

"The Pity Of It All" That This Film Is Not On DVD

[Noirdame79 · 9/10 · 1 July 2006]

I managed to obtain a DVD copy of this wonderful Twentieth Century Fox musical that was recorded off the Fox Movie Channel. Rita Hayworth, loaned out from Columbia, is paired with Victor Mature in this wonderful Techincolor extravaganza set in the Gay '90s. Paul Dresser (Mature) is a poor country lad who wants to make it big on the stage with his music. After he meets the comely Mae (Carole Landis, who after the first thirty minutes of the film, vanishes from the scene), he makes his way to a stage production, only to have the gorgeous redhead star Sally Elliot (Hayworth) laugh throughout the entire act. In retaliation, he takes Mae to one of Sally's shows and they return the favor. She then steals one of his songs and uses it in her act. Paul and Sally continually bring out the worst in each other, tempers flaring, cutting up each other's wardrobe, fighting the strong attraction that all this aggression masks. Typically, they finally end up together, despite all the misunderstandings along the way.

I can't understand why this film is not commercially available; it has all the ingredients for a DVD release. As Fox is currently releasing many of its musicals, hopefully this one will follow suit. Hayworth (who looks beautiful throughout, her singing dubbed as usual, but her dance numbers are never dull), was romantically involved with Mature at the time of filming. Their chemistry is good, but not as strong as the electricity she shared with her five-time costar, Glenn Ford. Phil Silvers, in a small part here, would later costar with Hayworth in "Cover Girl" (1944).

This is a throughly enjoyable movie that deserves lavish DVD treatment.

Routine Musical Ennobled by Hayworth, Mature & Fox's Shimmering Technicolor!

[Kalaman · 11 October 2003]

The plot is silly & preposterous, as is the case most often when it comes to these eye candy extravaganzas, but it is kept alive by the irrepressible charm of Rita Hayworth & Victor Mature, not to mention Fox's customary glowing Technicolor (there are some moments that are not only gorgeous to look at, but also sublimely awe-inspiring and evocative of its Gay 90s milieu).

"My Gal Sal" is basically a nostalgic period musical, about 1890s songwriter Paul Dreiser (Mature) who leaves his country town in Indiana to find a big success on Broadway in New York. He meets and falls in love with a musical performer, a gal named Sally Elliott (Hayworth). They start hating each other at first but soon grow into one another. Their contrived romance is kept afloat by various passable numbers, including the title tune (written by Paul), "On the Big White Way," "The Convict and the Bird", "Liza Jane", and "Mr Volunteer".

Not a classic, but it passes the time. Try to watch it along with Hayworth's other musical of 1942, the gloriously carefree "You Were Never Lovelier" with Fred Astaire.

One of Rita's best musicals!

[calvertfan · 10/10 · 3 May 2002]

My Gal Sal is a simply splendid movie and it's a true wonder why it's not readily available to buy when some of Rita's less good movies (Lady From Shanghai, Salome) are in abundance.

Victor Mature plays Paul Dresser who's a song writer from the country who meets a gal called Sal (Rita) whom he hates, then eventually loves. She's a big time performer who laughs at his silly little show, so he gets his own back by going and laughing at hers! But they have to put their differences aside soon when her words and his music make a hit song, and he finally gets the break he needs.

Lovely that it was shot in technicolour, and the songs and dances are great fun to watch. Favourite part - where Sal looses her temper with Paul and cuts up all his clothes, leading him to do the same to her, and when he hires a quartet to sing outside her window in the middle of the night for three hours, not letting anyone in the building get any sleep, and they don't even stop singing when people drop potplants, or tip pitchers of water, onto them! 10/10

'Jack the Ripper' and la grande dame , in a love/hate quandary throughout this sparkling musical.

[weezeralfalfa · 9/10 · 9 September 2013]

Now available at You Tube and on DVD, I had no idea that Rita Hayworth starred in this lavish fun Technicolor Fox musical during her physical peak. Handsome personable hunk Victor Mature got to pursue both Rita and Betty Grable in 3 Fox musicals in '42! Apparently having no musical talent, here he portrays a slimmed down version of chubby Gay '90s song writer and theatrical performer Paul Dresser, in one of Fox's many nostalgic-themed musicals of this era. The singing of both Rita and Mature was, as usual, dubbed, which downgrades their credibility as musical performers, but doesn't materially impact their charisma as all around actors. Fox departed from its dominant star formula for musicals during this era, in casting Rita, borrowed from Columbia, as the sole female musical star. Thus, Rita gets to sing and dance in quite a few on and off-stage numbers. Meanwhile, Mature sometimes sang while playing the piano or banjo. True, his supposed playing of two pianos at once looks as fake as it was.

Mature's highly romanticized Dresser begins as a young man who runs away from home to avoid preparing for the ministry, and to begin a career as a musical performer and song writer. He hooks up with a crooked traveling minstrel, getting tarred and feathered when the crowd figures out they have been swindled. He is rescued by the flirtatious female companion(played by Carol Landis) of a traveling patent medicine salesman, and joins their entertainment show to attract customers. All this early part is loosely based on fact. Dresser did run away from his dictatorial father, and his minstrel employer did run away, at one point, leaving broke Dresser to pay their bills. He did later work for a patent medicine show, selling Hamlin's rather famous 'wizard oil'.

The 3 women portrayed as being romantically involved with Dresser are all fictional. Apparently, Dresser never married, although he had numerous affairs with women, including prostitutes. Reputedly, the Sal in his well received "My Gal Sal", was in reference to a previous lover: the madam of an Indiana brothel. In the film he didn't compose it until near the end, when it serves as the centerpiece of Rita's final stage performance and his excuse to rekindle their on-the-rocks romance. Phil Silvers doesn't show up until toward the end, when he plays a devious role in getting Dresser and Rita(Sally) back together.

British actor John Sutton plays Rita's rather stuffy manager and apparent fiancé throughout the film. With his initial adversarial relationship with the established musical star Sally, and his periodic escapades with the aggressive married Countess Rossini, it's an uphill battle for Mature to nose out the cultured handsome Sutton as Rita's 'significant other'. For some reason, Hollywood chose to typecast the likable, athletic, Sutton as 'the other man': sometimes a villain,or sometimes, as in the present film and the previous "Yank in the R.A.F.", just the eventual loser. In "Hudson Bay", he did play the romantic lead, to Paul Muni's and Liard Cregar's dramatic coleads, and is my favorite film role for him. As someone else pointed out, based solely on his girth, Cregar presented a much more realistic physical representation of Dresser than did Mature!

Why do I refer to Mature's character as 'Jack the Ripper' in my review title? At one point, he sarcastically identified himself as such after being jailed for shredding Rita's wardrobe, after she had entered his adjacent apartment and done the same. This was her reaction to an intercepted invitation from Countess Rossini

Several songs by Dresser are featured, but the only two that are likely to appeal somewhat to modern audiences are the title song and "On the Banks of the Wabash", which made him a millionaire, by today's standards. Based on the amount of sheet music sold, the latter was the second most popular song in the US in the 19th century! Unfortunately, the new century would not be kind to Dresser. Like Stephen Foster, his career would nose dive, and he would die penniless in NYC, far from his Indiana home....In addition, the team of Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin contributed several original songs(which I like better than Dresser's!), the best being "On the Gay White Way", "Oh, the Pity of it All", and "Me and my Fella and a Big Umbrella". Unfortunately, Rainger would die that year in a plane collision. He and Robin also composed most of the new songs for Betty Grable's big hit released the following year : "Coney Island". Lacking her former film dancer, Fred Astaire, famous choreographer Hermes Pan served as Rita's dance partner for part of the production number to "On the Gay White Way".

Poor Carol Landis, as Mae, after serving as Mature's rescuer and presumably lover for a while, gets left behind after Mature is attracted by the challenge of changing Rita's attitude toward him from very negative to positive. Unfortunately, this would be the story of her life, both as an actress and as a romantic partner, except for her many USO appearances, instigating her suicide before age 30.

HAYWORTH AND MATURE LIGHT UP THE SCREEN

[johnsonanswan-78830 · 10/10 · 24 August 2023]

I CAN'T EVEN BEGIN TO THINK OF A REASON WHY THE REVIEWER BEFORE ME CALLED THIS A BOMB- I HAVE A FEELING THAT THEY DON'T LIKE MUSICALS-IT WASN'T KNOWN THEN THAT RITA WAS DUBBED BECAUSE SHE COULD SING AND NAN WYNN'S SINGING VOICE WAS CLOSE TO RITA'S OWN-IB FACT IT WAS 20TH CENTURY FOX THAT STARTED THE WHOLE THING OF WYNN DUBBING HAYWORTH SIMPLY BECAUSE HAYWORTH HAD BECOME A HUGE STAR THE SECOND BLOOD AND SAND WAS RELEASED-SO EVEN THOUGH SHE RECORDED HER SINGING SCENES LIVE,SHE WOULD BE BUSY WHEN SHE HAD TO DUBB THEM, BUT DID RECORD THEM-MATURE DID HIS OWN SINGING TOO- HE WASN'T DUBBED- THIS WAS THE MOVIE THAT MADE RITA HAYWORTHA HUGE STAR,JUST LIKE SWEET ROSIE O'GRADY DID FOR BETTY GRABLE-SHE DANCE'S UP A STORM AND THE ONE THING SHE ALWAY'S DID WAS LIGHT THE SCREEN UP AND SAT ON FIRE - I LOVE THE BEACH SCENE WHERE SHE BECOMES THE CONDUCTOR OF A TRAIN AND WHEN SHE BENDS OVER AND STARTS MOVING LIKE A CHOO CHOO TRAIN-HER SMILE IS ABSOLUTE MAGIC-AND IT'S EASY TO SEE WHY SHE DROVE THE TROOPS CRAZY WHEN SHE DANCED BECAUSE SHE SEEMED TO LIGHT THE WHOLE PLACE UP-WHEN THE MAID TELLS HER THE MESSAGE FROM COUNTESS ROSSINI AND HAYWORTH SLOWLY TURNS FROM THE DOOR TO THE CAMERA WHILE GOING-OOOOOOO! YOU KNOW MATURE IS IN TROUBLE AND WHEN SHE'S AWAKENED BY THE SINGERS SENT BY MATURE-SHE IS ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS AND I WISH YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER HAD BEEN FILM IN COLOR AND THE SCENE OF HER SINGING DEARLY BELOVED WHILE CHANGING INTO A SHEER NEGLEGE AND THEN FALLING BACKWARDS ONTO HER BED TO FINISH THE SONG- IF THAT HAD BEEN SHOT IN COLOR IT WOULD HAVE MADE HER THE LOVE GODDESS LONG BEFORE GILDA-THIS IS A TRULY GOOD AND VERY WELL MADE MUSICAL THAT WAS AN OSCAR WINNER AND ONE OF THE BIGGEST MONEY MAKERS OF 1942- ENJOY HAYWORTH AND MATURE AND GET MAD AT THE SHOTTY WAY ZANICK TREATED THE BEAUTIFUL CAROLE LANDIS WHO ALSO LIT THE SCREEN UP FOR THE LITTLE TIME WE GET TO SEE HER-ENJOY MY GAL SAL - YOU WON'T REGRET.