Search - The Gang's All Here on DVD

Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1943 DVD Release: 02/20/2007 Format: DVD - Color Edition: Dual Layered Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 43 mins Studio: 20th Century Fox Members Wishing: 7 Genres: Musical, Romance, Musical Comedy See Also: The Gang's All Here

Sgt. Andy Mason Jr. (James Ellison) is on the eve of shipping out from New York with his unit -- he's the son of Andrew Mason Sr. (Eugene Pallette), a wealthy, blustery Wall Street financier. While paying respects to his father and the latter's business partner, dithering fuss-budget Peyton Potter (Edward Everett Horton), at the Club New Yorker, he spots chorus girl Eadie Allen (Alice Faye) and turns on the charm and all of the allure that the ne'er-do-well son of a Wall Street millionaire can muster. That, however, doesn't impress Eadie, who ignores his invitation so she can do her patriotic bit helping servicemen at the Stage Door Canteen (or, as it's called here, the "Broadway Canteen"). Realizing how down to earth and genuine she is -- exactly the kind of girl who doesn't care about his money or social position -- Andy shows a bit of the boyish innocence he has hidden beneath the arrogance that comes from his background of wealth and privilege, and also some humility, hiding that background and his real name. Before the night and their "date" on the Staten Island Ferry are over, they're genuinely in love with each other, but that presents a problem -- since age 12, Andy has been unofficially "engaged" to Potter's daughter Vivian (Sheila Ryan), who expects to marry him, and he can't quite bring himself to hurt Vivian by telling her that he's met someone else.

Flash forward a few months, and Andy is on his way home on leave, a hero in the Pacific, and his father is so proud that he has to do something special to honor him, trying to rent out the Club New Yorker for a party but discovering that it's closed for rehearsals of a new production. Suddenly, his fatherly devotion, patriotism, and Wall Street experience all click together -- he brings the entire performing company, plus Benny Goodman's band, up to his and Potter's adjoining estates in Westchester to stage their act for his upscale neighbors and friends as part of the biggest War Bond rally ever seen (minimum admission a new 5,000-dollar War Bond), and in the process giving his son the biggest party he's ever seen. This leads to more comic turns for Horton's Potter, as a man who would make coffee nervous -- especially around show people -- but delights his ex-dancer wife (Charlotte Greenwood). That's also how Eadie and Vivian end up at the Potter mansion together, comparing notes on their remarkably similar respective fiancés. When the show's star, Dorita (Carmen Miranda), lets the cat out of the bag, it looks like Andy may lose Eadie, who can't bear to lose Andy but also won't even try to take him away from Vivian, who loves him too, but has loved him a lot longer. But while they sort out their romance, the show must go on, and go on it does. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Alice Faye - Eadie Allen
Carmen Miranda - Dorita
James Ellison - Andy Mason
Charlotte Greenwood - Mrs. Peyton Potter
Eugene Pallette - Mr. Mason, Sr.
Edward Everett Horton - Peyton Potter
Phil Baker - Himself

There's a lot that's great about Fox's DVD release of Busby Berkeley's The Gang's All Here (1943) -- the film-to-video transfer is superior to that of the old Fox laserdisc from two decades past (which was pretty good itself), though there are still moments of softness to the full-screen (1.33:1) image, and the loss of the original nitrate materials has left some of the color (especially the yellows) muted, in spite of the best digital restoration efforts. The featurette "Busby Berkeley: A Journey With a Star" is a fine account of the legendary choreographer's career up through this movie, which in many ways marked the culmination of his work as a filmmaker and choreographer. This short bio is very nicely done, and beautifully put together, keying every discussion to superb visuals from the film at hand, including deliberate deconstructions of the special-effects shots. And as an extra-special bonus, the makers have included an exceptionally funny scene from the last section of the movie involving Dave Willock, Phil Baker, Eugene Pallette, Charlotte Greenwood, Edward Everett Horton, and Carmen Miranda that also manages to spoof early 1940s radio quiz programs, and adds an extra twist (and final punch line) to two jokes from earlier in the picture.

Not nearly as enjoyable as any of those features, however, is the rather disjointed and unfocused commentary track by Prof. Drew Casper. Conceding to Casper his knowledge of his field, his fault lies in his presentation -- he loves to belabor the same points ad nauseam, and, in doing analysis, spends a lot of his time delineating some very obvious aesthetic points at the expense of discussing some fascinating approaches to shooting. That is especially frustrating in the opening section of the film, which is the first of several of the most extraordinary conjuring tricks ever seen in a musical, and is hardly even broached in terms of how it was done. Unless one is enamored of Casper's voice, it's advisable to dwell on the movie and the documentaries, and skip the commentary. The scholars in the Berkeley documentary are far better focused and more useful in their observations about the movie, and either would have been preferable on the audio commentary track. The other major bonus feature consists of two installments of the Phil Harris radio show featuring Alice Faye. There's also a short film from later in her life, featuring a long-retired Faye, which was prepared to be used in tandem with her appearances on behalf of a pharmaceutical company; a still gallery; a before-and-after restoration comparison of the movie (which, at one point, hard deteriorated significantly in all extant source prints); and the original trailer from the film. All of these features are accessible through a multi-layered menu that opens automatically on start-up. The Gang's All Here is available separately and as part of =The Alice Faye Collection with three other of the musical star's films. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide