Watch The Gang's All Here For Free

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The colour rendition is wonderful (at least on my Blu-ray copy) and the film looks incredible throughout. There is barely a pause and we go from one musical number to another (well, sometimes back to the same number) with for example coloured fountains spurting up to close one scene and move to another. I had hoped for more of the extravagant and surreal Busby Berkeley routines but the two we get are amazing and, as they say, worth the ticket price. There are more modest dances that work well and Benny Goodman is always on hand to keep things moving well. I don't share the enthusiasm of some for the antics of high kicker Charlotte Greenwood and partner in crime, Edward Horton and I was very underwhelmed with the leading duo of Alice Faye and James Ellison. Ellison would later appear in I Walked With a Zombie which was probably more appropriate and maybe Faye had sung better in her early years. Still worth it for the technicolour extravaganzas and a glorious performance from Carmen Miranda.

For some reason I've never seen this movie on television though it's reasonable to assume it's been shown over the years so when it surfaced as part of an 8 Fox Musicals boxed set at a silly price (£30, which works out at £3.75 a throw) I snapped it up, especially since 1) it was selling elsewhere at £50 and 2) out of 8 titles I only owned one (Daddy Longlegs). You can't copyright a title, of course, and this was the third movie since 1939 (the second appeared in 1941) called The Gang's All Here and since the other two seem to have sunk without trace this is probably the most substantial. I doubt if anyone went to see this, either at the time or subsequently, looking for a solid plot; chances are they went to see Alice Faye who was just about to abdicate as 'Queen' of the Fox lot, and hear the score though in 1943 they wouldn't necessarily have been aware of Harry Warren and Leo Robin. What Faye did was warmth - as opposed to glamor laced with cynicism (Betty Grable, her immediate successor as 'Queen') or dumb (Marilyn Monroe, who succeeded Grable) - which is not to say she was chopped liver, in fact she was lovely rather than beautiful and the warmth embraced not only her personality but also her voice which she put to good use in her nine-year musical career at Fox during which time she introduced 23 'hits', in fact in the same year (1943) as The Gang's All Here she had already introduced another Harry Warren hit song, You'll Never Know in Hello, Frisco, Hello, a song which, of course, went on to win the Best Song Oscar. She supplemented 'Know' with two more fine ballads in this movie, A Journey To A Star and No Love, No Nothing and the score also included Paducah, Minnie's In The Money - a solo vocal for Benny Goodman? and two typical Busby Berkeley Production Numbers, Carmen Miranda's The Lady In The Tutti-Frutti Hat and Faye's Polka-Dot Polka in which everyone joined in as a grand finale. June Haver popped up as a hat-check girl and Jeanne Crain had one line but the support included - apart from Benny Goodman and his band - Charlotte Greenwood, Eugene Palette and Edward Everett Horton all of whom contributed to a pleasant diversion. Faye, who was pregnant at the time, made one more film two years later, it was a 'straight' role in Otto Preminger's Fallen Angel and in the wake of what she considered Darrell Zanuck's inept editing of what Faye herself considered a fine acting performance she retired from the screen resurfacing some twenty years later in the remake of State Fair. As swan songs go The Gang's All Here isn't bad at all.

Basically plot less, and a vehicle for some mind-boggling Busby Berkeley numbers ... those bananas!!! ... and two leading ladies at 20th Century Fox, Alice Faye and Carmen Miranda. Both ladies have strong personalities and buoy this film up. It needs it, as there is no story to speak of, the characterisations are slight, and even Benny Goodman stretches the goodwill a bit.Family rivalries, chequered pasts, wartime romances, and a show of shows, and you have 'The Gang's All Here' in a nutshell (or a banana skin).Berkeley chorus girls were of course known for partaking of outlandish formations and musical numbers shot from all angles including above, but those rising and falling bananas, and Carmen Miranda cavorting about covered in fruit ... absolutely preposterous!

In 1943, the United States was in the middle of World War 2, and the entire country was involved one way or another in the war effort. Many who didn't serve in the military did their share at home working in war-related production. Entertainers did their part to keep the moral of the country (particularly the soldiers) high by performing overseas and at home, and Hollywood pitched in by producing several entertainment-based war pictures. "The Gang's All Here" is one of these movies.The movie, like most Busby Berkeley musicals, is short on plot and long on entertainment, and like most Berkeley movies, it moves right along without dragging its heels. The story is a familiar one of that era: A soldier falls in love with a singer, with the usual developments and complications. While the story is a bit thin and well-traveled, it isn't absurdly so. The dialog is well-written, albeit a bit dated to the era (as were many movies made in that era), and the acting is fine, with veterans such as Eugene Palette, Charlotte Greenwood, Edward Everett Horton, and James Ellison supporting (and often covering for) the many entertainers in the movie (and if you look hard, you can even find Jeanne Crain, a young Johnny Duncan, and Frank Faylen (who was better known as Herbert T. Gillis in the TV series "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis").The entertainment is top notch and includes: the fabulous Alice Faye, Benny Goodman and his orchestra, the zany Carmen Miranda and her orchestra (Banda La Lua), accordionist/comedian Phil Baker, dancer Tony De Marco, and singer Aloysio De Oliveira. Songs include "A Journey to a Star", "No Love, No Nothing", "P'ra que discutir" and "Diga o Ella", "Minnie's in the Money", "Soft Winds", "The Jitters", "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo" and "Paducah".All in all, this is a top notch movie that breezes along for the entire hour and 43 minutes and is well worth watching.