HotToastyRag "The clouds are singing for me and my gal. . ."The title song is pretty much the only memorable part of this movie, sung by Judy Garland and a newcomer to Hollywood, Gene Kelly. He was a Broadway star and made a smash in his film debut. To see all his collaborations with pint-sized Judy, rent The Pirate and Summer Stock for a song-and-dance-filled weekend!The plot of For Me and My Gal is actually very interesting, but since it didn't exactly send the right message in 1942, that's not the part of the movie most people remember. Judy and Gene are a married couple with dreams of stardom, but just when they're about to make it, Gene gets drafted for WWI. While Judy's brother, the fantastic dancer George Murphy who no doubt joined Gene Nelson in the "I'm jealous of Gene Kelly" fan club, fights in the war gladly, Gene doesn't want to give up his career. In a very controversial decision, he purposely injures his hand to avoid the battlefield. If you like WWI or WWII dramas in black-and-white, with some songs and dances thrown in for morale, you won't go wrong with For Me and My Gal. It's romantic, patriotic, and it makes you think about how far you'd go to realize your dreams. Plus it's got Gene Kelly in it.

Charles Herold (cherold) For Me and My Gal is a rather odd bird. Set during World War I, The film begins by positioning itself as a tribute to the days of vaudeville, with sweet singer Judy Garland meeting obnoxious dancer Gene Kelly on tour. The two predictably team up after doing an impromptu version of For Me and My Gal that is the best thing in the movie.Then the movie wanders into soap opera before pulling the various war- themed threads together into a typical WWII rah-rah boost for contributing to the war effort.The story is a bit of a mess. I suspect the U.S. entry into WWII happened after the film was greenlighted and parts of it were grafted on as part of the war morale-boosting that was an inevitable part of most early 40s movies. There is a lack of cohesion, most notably with George Murphy's character, who feels like the vestigial tail of the original script. The movie also feels a little self-serving in its emphasis on the importance of entertainment for the troops. I feel this movie would have been done better if it's story had been allowed to play out without worries about patriotic fervor.Kelly is likable in his film debut, but his character is unsympathetic, and apparently the studio had to do a lot of reshooting before audiences could leave the theater not hating him. Garland is charming as she leaves her juvenile roles behind, although I can never be totally happy with any Garland movie that doesn't include at least one ballad. They have good chemistry, but it is better featured in The Pirate, which they made later on.The reason to watch a movie like this is for the musical numbers, but while these are good, there isn't much that is memorable (surprisingly director Busby Berkeley didn't do any of his trademark synchronized- chorus-girl numbers). There are also big chunks of the movie where the musical numbers disappear in favor of the story, which just highlights its weaknesses.Overall this isn't a horrible movie, but it's not one I'd particularly recommend.

richspenc "Me and my gal" is another amazing wonderful Judy Garland film, just like "Strike up the band", " Girl crazy", "Little Nellie Kellie", "Babes on Broadway", " Meet me in St. Louis", " Easter parade", and "In the good ol summertime". Judy was wonderful in all of them. In " Me and my gal", Judy truly is a beautiful wonderful angel, in her acting and her singing. She plays a vaudeville actress who meets a partner, Gene Kelly and they both want to get their big break. They practice song and dance routines together. A couple of good numbers they did together before making the palace included "Ball and the jack". Judy also does a great number, " Oh, you beautiful doll" with George Murphy before she pairs up with Gene. There's also an interesting Popeye style number one of Gene's friends does. Gene keeps trying to get his agent to book them into The Palace, NY. Gene and Judy also start falling in love and talk about getting married, as soon as they've had their first booking at The Palace. When they finally get their booking, something unexpected happens, and Gene decides to make a very rash move which I won't spoil by saying here. He also makes a very redeeming move near the end to really win Judy's heart. Also, Judy's brother gets drafted and we then get a passionate tear jerking moment from Judy while "Till we meet again" is being sung by Marta Eggerth. Judy gave me more wonderful tearjerking moments at the very end when she sang "Me and my gal" again with Gene, this time while they were really falling in love, and earlier in the film when they first realized they were falling for each other. These are the moments that help make this film so special. "Me and my gal" is sung earlier in the film too between Gene and Judy in the soda shop, wonderful there too. Judy sings several other great songs when she is singing to the American WW1 soldiers such as "After you've gone", "Smile, smile, smile", and "How you gonna keep'em down on the farm". I love this film. I love Judy Garland. There's also a cute quirky little moment at Marta's dinner and dancing place where George says to Judy and Gene (right after finding out they didn't make the Palace yet) raising his wine glass and says " here's to..uh..to...uh..", and Judy says "here's to" sadly but cutely. So amusing the way it was done. Wow, I loved this film. Marta is also fabulous and she also sings great. Gene is great too. Judy is an angel. All wonderful gold from Hollywood's golden age.

DieHardWasntThatGood Okay, I'm not one for musicals, but the cover of the DVD case was shiny and colorful so I decided to pick it up. I'll begin with the happy ending. Being a manly-man, the whole happy ending thing isn't really necessary but this one certainly made me all tingly inside. I swear to God I didn't cry. Settle down. I actually enjoyed Gene Kelly's performance. The song-writing was actually well done, in my opinion. I enjoyed the "Me and My Gal" song most of all. The directing was well done. The was a relatively low feeling of verisimilitude, however. It's not a big deal, really. The film was supposed to feel more like fantasy than anything else. I'm not going to openly admit that I saw this movie so I probably won't recommend it to anybody...unless it's a chick I'm trying to impress.