Plot? What plot? Busby Berkeley don't need no stinkin' plot! ("Stinkin'" being the operative word.)
But it would have helped if there had been some memorable music, as in the old days of 42nd Street, Gold Diggers, etc. The dancing wasn't even attractive, the visual effects numbers were sloppy, as was the camera work.
The final number was the best, as is always the case with BB movies. But this time he resorts to trick photography to get his famous effects. You finally get to hear Alice Faye's voice at its best. She sings earlier on the Staten Island Ferry with magical orchestral accompaniment, a recycled BB gimmick.
The surrealism of the older black and white BB movies was cute, within the context of an otherwise coherent storyline. But here there is no story, no decent script to diverge from -- the whole thing is one long divergence.
Frankly, I suspect he was burned out from doing too much drugs. Look at his stuff: it is obviously psychedelic, especially the final number here. Sure, this was the 30s and 40s, but we're talking Hollywood, just up the road from Mexico, mescaline and psilocybin. Yes, the old folks knew about that stuff. Look at some of those movies from the period, like W.C. Fields' stuff and Hellzapoppin'. They were playing mind games. And as we know all too well today, drugs only take you so far toward creativity in the arts; you need some real talent and work, too.
I think Busby Berkeley's brain was fried by this time. (Paducah - bazooka???) That might be why MGM dumped BB on RKO (that, plus the fact that he had already killed four people while intoxicated in a car accident and driven Judy Garland into a nervous breakdown).
Of course, if it is you who is high, this movie might actually be interesting, or at least the final number. But the final number would have worked better if it somehow expressed the girls love for the boy, in a swirly sort of way. Instead, it is about polkas and polka dots. And we never get to see boy say to girl: I love you.
I'm looking at this wondering what Oscar Hammerstein would have thought as he sat in the theater. There were probably a few things that got laughs that he might have noted, plus a lot of patrons squirming in their seats. But mostly Rodgers & Hammerstein tried to do the opposite of this musical, striving for integration of story and music. Here, the songs were written for a different, unmade film, so there is no true integration -- it is also the beginning of the end of an era of these ad hoc sort of musicals.
Hammerstein evidently noticed Charlotte Greenwood (though he would have known her from Broadway): he cast her as Aunt Eller in the movie version of Oklahoma!, already on Broadway by this time.
Look for what looks like a video blue screen effect near the end. As it was strictly film, this, I believe, was an early example of film blue screen, pioneered by RKO.
Wikipedia: "In filmmaking, a complex and time-consuming process known as "travelling matte" was used prior to the introduction of digital compositing. The blue screen method was developed in the 1930s at RKO Radio Pictures."
So, why did I watch this wretched movie? I was curious about the song "Brazil," used extensively in the eponymous movie. This song opens the movie, but as it is sung in Portugese, it has no discernible meaning to the film, a portent of things to come. The title also makes zero sense: What gang? All where?
Watching this seemingly endless stream of inanity, I whiled away the time contemplating which movie was worse: "The Gang's All Here," or "Too Many Girls." I think the prize goes to "The Gang." I cracked a smile and may actually have laughed once during "Too Many Girls." On the other hand, The Gang actually triggered my gag reflex several times, mainly scenes with Carmen Miranda. It's not every day you see a movie that makes you physically nauseous.
And, as I watched, I actually felt pity for the poor professional movie reviewers of the day, who had to sit through the whole thing. I don't know how much they got paid, but it wasn't enough. On the other hand, they got their revenge in print.
Spoiler alert:
Oh, the "plot": Boy meets girl. Boy says something about love, but lies about his name for some mysterious reason. Boy goes off to war. Girl thinks he is going to marry Girl #2. Boy comes back from war. Girl #2 says, "Nevermind, you take him." The end. Except it takes more than 100 long minutes to get to the end ... and pretty much the end of Busby Berkely.
The Gang's All Here may be the worst movie with real actors from a real studio I have ever seen, or ever want to see.
But it would have helped if there had been some memorable music, as in the old days of 42nd Street, Gold Diggers, etc. The dancing wasn't even attractive, the visual effects numbers were sloppy, as was the camera work.
The final number was the best, as is always the case with BB movies. But this time he resorts to trick photography to get his famous effects. You finally get to hear Alice Faye's voice at its best. She sings earlier on the Staten Island Ferry with magical orchestral accompaniment, a recycled BB gimmick.
The surrealism of the older black and white BB movies was cute, within the context of an otherwise coherent storyline. But here there is no story, no decent script to diverge from -- the whole thing is one long divergence.
Frankly, I suspect he was burned out from doing too much drugs. Look at his stuff: it is obviously psychedelic, especially the final number here. Sure, this was the 30s and 40s, but we're talking Hollywood, just up the road from Mexico, mescaline and psilocybin. Yes, the old folks knew about that stuff. Look at some of those movies from the period, like W.C. Fields' stuff and Hellzapoppin'. They were playing mind games. And as we know all too well today, drugs only take you so far toward creativity in the arts; you need some real talent and work, too.
I think Busby Berkeley's brain was fried by this time. (Paducah - bazooka???) That might be why MGM dumped BB on RKO (that, plus the fact that he had already killed four people while intoxicated in a car accident and driven Judy Garland into a nervous breakdown).
Of course, if it is you who is high, this movie might actually be interesting, or at least the final number. But the final number would have worked better if it somehow expressed the girls love for the boy, in a swirly sort of way. Instead, it is about polkas and polka dots. And we never get to see boy say to girl: I love you.
I'm looking at this wondering what Oscar Hammerstein would have thought as he sat in the theater. There were probably a few things that got laughs that he might have noted, plus a lot of patrons squirming in their seats. But mostly Rodgers & Hammerstein tried to do the opposite of this musical, striving for integration of story and music. Here, the songs were written for a different, unmade film, so there is no true integration -- it is also the beginning of the end of an era of these ad hoc sort of musicals.
Hammerstein evidently noticed Charlotte Greenwood (though he would have known her from Broadway): he cast her as Aunt Eller in the movie version of Oklahoma!, already on Broadway by this time.
Look for what looks like a video blue screen effect near the end. As it was strictly film, this, I believe, was an early example of film blue screen, pioneered by RKO.
Wikipedia: "In filmmaking, a complex and time-consuming process known as "travelling matte" was used prior to the introduction of digital compositing. The blue screen method was developed in the 1930s at RKO Radio Pictures."
So, why did I watch this wretched movie? I was curious about the song "Brazil," used extensively in the eponymous movie. This song opens the movie, but as it is sung in Portugese, it has no discernible meaning to the film, a portent of things to come. The title also makes zero sense: What gang? All where?
Watching this seemingly endless stream of inanity, I whiled away the time contemplating which movie was worse: "The Gang's All Here," or "Too Many Girls." I think the prize goes to "The Gang." I cracked a smile and may actually have laughed once during "Too Many Girls." On the other hand, The Gang actually triggered my gag reflex several times, mainly scenes with Carmen Miranda. It's not every day you see a movie that makes you physically nauseous.
And, as I watched, I actually felt pity for the poor professional movie reviewers of the day, who had to sit through the whole thing. I don't know how much they got paid, but it wasn't enough. On the other hand, they got their revenge in print.
Spoiler alert:
Oh, the "plot": Boy meets girl. Boy says something about love, but lies about his name for some mysterious reason. Boy goes off to war. Girl thinks he is going to marry Girl #2. Boy comes back from war. Girl #2 says, "Nevermind, you take him." The end. Except it takes more than 100 long minutes to get to the end ... and pretty much the end of Busby Berkely.
The Gang's All Here may be the worst movie with real actors from a real studio I have ever seen, or ever want to see.