''My Gal Sal'' is a 1942 American musical film distributed by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

and starring

Rita Hayworth Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer and producer. She achieved fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars, appearing in 61 films over 37 years. The press coined th ...

and

Victor Mature Victor John Mature (January 29, 1913 – August 4, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include ''One Million B.C.'' (1940), '' My Darlin ...

. The film is a biopic of 1890s

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and songwriter

Paul Dresser Paul Dresser (born Johann Paul Dreiser Jr.; April 22, 1857 – January 30, 1906) was an American singer, songwriter, and comedic actor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dresser performed in traveling minstrel and medicine-wa ...

and singer Sally Elliot. It was based on a biographical essay, sometimes erroneously referred to as a book, by Dresser's younger brother, novelist

Theodore Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...

. (Dreiser was the original family name.) Some of the songs portrayed as Dresser's work were actually written by him, but several were created for the film by the Hollywood songwriting team of

Ralph Rainger Ralph Rainger ( Reichenthal; October 7, 1901 – October 23, 1942) was an American composer of popular music principally for films. Biography Born Ralph Reichenthal in New York City, United States, Rainger initially embarked on a legal career, ...

and

Leo Robin Leo Robin (April 6, 1900 – December 29, 1984) was an American composer, lyricist and songwriter. He is probably best known for collaborating with Ralph Rainger on the 1938 Oscar-winning song "Thanks for the Memory," sung by Bob Hope and Shirl ...

Plot

Sally Elliott, a musical star meets up with Indiana boy Paul Dresser, a runaway who after a brief stopover with a medicine show arrives in

Gay Nineties The Gay Nineties is an American nostalgic term and a periodization of the history of the United States referring to the decade of the 1890s. It is known in the United Kingdom as the Naughty Nineties, and refers there to the decade of supposedly ...

New York. He composes the title tune for the fair lady and becomes the toast of

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...

Cast

as Sally Elliott (singing voice was dubbed by Nan Wynn) *

as Paul Dresser (singing voice was dubbed by Ben Gage) * John Sutton as Fred Haviland *

Carole Landis Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American actress and singer. She worked as a contract player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 ...

as Mae Collins *

James Gleason James Austin Gleason (May 23, 1882 – April 12, 1959) was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter born in New York City. Gleason often portrayed "tough-talking, world-weary guys with a secret heart-of-gold." Life and career Gleason w ...

as Pat Hawley *

Phil Silvers Phil Silvers (born Phillip Silver; May 11, 1911 – November 1, 1985) was an American entertainer and comedic actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah". His career as a professional entertainer spanned nearly sixty years. Silvers achieved major popu ...

as Wiley *

Walter Catlett Walter Leland Catlett (February 4, 1889 – November 14, 1960) was an American actor and comedian. He made a career of playing excitable, meddlesome, temperamental, and officious blowhards. Career Catlett was born on February 4, 1889, in S ...

as Col. Truckee *

Mona Maris Mona Maris (born Mona Maria Emita Capdeville or Maria Rosa Amita Capdeville, November 7, 1903 – March 23, 1991) was an Argentine film actress. Early life Mona Maris was born Mona Maria Emita Capdeville. Some sources spell her last name as C ...

as Countess Mariana Rossini * Frank Orth as McGuinness *

Stanley Andrews Stanley Andrews (born Stanley Martin Andrzejewski; August 28, 1891 – June 23, 1969) was an American actor perhaps best known as the voice of Daddy Warbucks on the radio program ''Little Orphan Annie'' and later as "The Old Ranger", the first ...

as Mr. Dreiser *

Margaret Moffatt Margaret Moffat born Margaret Liddell Linck (7 January 1873 – 19 February 1943) was a British actor and suffragette. She was amongst the first Scottish suffragettes to be arrested. She appeared in several films including a minor part in Alfr ...

as Mrs. Dreiser * Terry Moore as Carrie Dreiser *

Libby Taylor Libby Taylor (1902-1961) was an African American character actress of the stage and screen who was active in Hollywood from the 1930s through the 1950s. Biography In 1933, while working as a struggling actress in Harlem, she accepted Mae West's ...

as Ida, Sally's Maid * John Kelly as

John L. Sullivan John Lawrence Sullivan (October 15, 1858 – February 2, 1918), known simply as John L. among his admirers, and dubbed the "Boston Strong Boy" by the press, was an American boxer recognized as the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing ...

Iron Eyes Cody Iron Eyes Cody (born Espera Oscar de Corti, April 3, 1904 – January 4, 1999) was an American actor of Italian descent who portrayed Native Americans in Hollywood films, famously as ''Chief Iron Eyes'' in Bob Hope's '' The Paleface'' (1948) ...

as Indian (uncredited) *

George Melford George H. Melford (born George Henry Knauff, February 19, 1877 – April 25, 1961) was an American stage and film actor and director. Often taken for granted as a director today, the stalwart Melford's name by the 1920s was, like Cecil B. DeMil ...

as Conductor (uncredited) Choreographer

Hermes Pan Hermes Pan (born Hermes Joseph Panagiotopoulos, December 10, 1909 – September 19, 1990) was an American dancer and choreographer, principally remembered as Fred Astaire's choreographic collaborator on the famous 1930s movie musicals starring A ...

appears as Hayworth's dance partner in the "Gay White Way" number.

Awards

The film won the

Academy Award for Best Art Direction The Academy Award for Best Production Design recognizes achievement for art direction in art director#In film, film. The category's original name was Best Art Direction, but was changed to its current name in 2012 for the 85th Academy Awards. Th ...

, Color ( Richard Day, Joseph C. Wright and

Thomas Little Thomas Little (August 27, 1886 in Ogden, Utah – March 5, 1985 in Santa Monica, California) was a United States set decorator who worked on more than 450 Hollywood movies between 1932 and 1953. He won a total of 6 Oscars for art direction and r ...

). It also was nominated for

Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture The Academy Award for Best Original Score is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by t ...

(Alfred Newman).

Production

head

Darryl F. Zanuck Darryl Francis Zanuck (September 5, 1902December 22, 1979) was an American film producer and studio executive; he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era. He played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of ...

purchased the story of ''My Gal Sal'' from

for $50,000 in the summer of 1942. Zanuck initially had the script and the lead role of Sally Elliott tailor-made to fit the talents of Fox's biggest female star at the time,

Alice Faye Alice Faye (born Alice Jeanne Leppert; May 5, 1915 – May 9, 1998) was an American actress and singer. A musical star of 20th Century-Fox in the 1930s and 1940s, Faye starred in such films as '' On the Avenue'' (1937) and ''Alexander's Ragtime ...

. Faye was going to star with

, George Montgomery, and John Shepperd. However, Faye stated that she was tired of starring in costume musicals and turned the film down. Afterward, the part was offered to

Betty Grable Elizabeth Ruth Grable (December 18, 1916 – July 2, 1973) was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer. Her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million; for 10 consecutive years (1942–1951) she reign ...

, who was becoming known as a successor to Faye at Fox, but who turned it down, believing Fox was over-working her. Zanuck thereafter had the script rewritten and redirected to showcase

Irene Dunne Irene Dunne (born Irene Marie Dunn; December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American actress who appeared in films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she performed in films of other gen ...

, but her busy film schedule meant holding up production on ''My Gal Sal'' for eighteen months. Zanuck subsequently approached

Mae West Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...

with the role, but she too turned it down. Zanuck considered grooming newcomer

for the part, but her screen test failed to impress the producers. Despite not winning the part of Sally Elliott, Landis did end up playing the secondary lead of Mae Collins in the film, because she had already been publicized as appearing in the film. Zanuck finally approached Harry Cohn, head of

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

, about borrowing

for the film. Zanuck had been impressed with Hayworth's performance in the 1941 film version of '' Blood and Sand'', also for Fox. Cohn, on the other hand, was hoping to buy ''My Gal Sal'' from Fox and cast Hayworth in the part upon the film's transfer to Columbia. Zanuck, however, rebuffed at selling the film, but instead offered Hayworth an exclusive two-movie contract to star in ''My Gal Sal'' and ''

Tales of Manhattan ''Tales of Manhattan'' is a 1942 American anthology film directed by Julien Duvivier. Thirteen writers, including Ben Hecht, Alan Campbell, Ferenc Molnár, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Donald Ogden Stewart, worked on the six stories in this film. Ba ...

'' (1942). Cohn eventually agreed to loan Hayworth to Fox for both movies. Victor Mature's role was originally meant to be played by

Don Ameche Don Ameche (; born Dominic Felix Amici; May 31, 1908 – December 6, 1993) was an American actor, comedian and vaudevillian. After playing in college shows, stock, and vaudeville, he became a major radio star in the early 1930s, which ...

Reception

''My Gal Sal'' received positive reviews upon its 1942 release. '' Daily Variety'' said the film was a very "lively, merry musical treat. A pricture crammed with color, songs, and movement, carrying broad appeal for all theatergoers, both young and old." Hayworth was proclaimed to have done a "beautiful job" as Sally, while Victor Mature turned out an "impressing performance" as Dresser. ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'' stated: ''My Gal Sal'' hits a current demand, both in the movies and in radio, for the nostalgic delights of the 1890s." The film went on to become one of the most-successful Fox films during 1942. Some of Rita Hayworth's lines were sampled in the

Pet Shop Boys The Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo i ...

1996 track "

Electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

." The film happened to be playing on television while the track was being recorded, and was not publicly identified until 2019.

References

External links

* * *
Soundtrack Information
{{Irving Cummings 1942 films 1940s biographical films 1942 musical films 20th Century Fox films American biographical films American musical films Biographical films about musicians 1940s English-language films Films about composers Films directed by Irving Cummings Films scored by Leigh Harline Films set in the 1890s Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award Musical films based on actual events Cultural depictions of classical musicians 1940s American films