My Gal Sal is a 1942 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Irving Cummings and starring Rita Hayworth, Victor Mature, John Sutton, and Carole Landis. A biographical film of 1890s German-American songwriter Paul Dresser, it was based on a biographical essay, sometimes erroneously referred to as a book, by Dresser's younger brother, novelist Theodore Dreiser (Dreiser was the original German family name). Some of the songs portrayed as Dresser's work were actually written by him, but several others were created in the 1890s style for the film by the Hollywood songwriting team of Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin.
In the film, Dresser runs away from his Indiana home and, following a brief stopover with a medicine show, arrives in the Gay Nineties era of New York City. After meeting fictional musical star Sally Elliott, he composes the title tune for her and becomes the toast of Tin Pan Alley.
Contents
Plot
In the late 1800s, young Paul Dresser runs away from his parents' home in Indiana to become a musician against the wishes of his strict father, who wants Paul to become a minister instead. In his first foray as an entertainer, Paul is unknowingly used by a con man as a front to sell fake jewelry. After the con man disappears with the townspeople's money, an angry mob covers Paul in tar and feathers and runs him out of town. He is later found and nursed by Mae Collins, a singer in Colonel Truckee's traveling medicine show, and the two eventually kiss.
Paul joins the medicine show. During a stop in Buffalo, New York, he is offended when a group of entertainers from New York City, led by singing star Sally Elliott and her producer, Fred Haviland, laugh at his gaudy new suit and energetic performance playing two pianos simultaneously. Sally likes one of Paul's tunes, and Fred offers him tickets to her Broadway show, which Paul attends with Mae. Although Paul and Mae laugh at Sally as revenge, he is impressed by the high quality of her show. Determined to be taken seriously as a musician, Paul bids Mae goodbye and leaves the medicine show for New York.
Upon arriving in New York, Paul overhears music publisher Pat Howley playing piano and is upset to learn that Sally has stolen the song he played at his Buffalo show, while adding her own lyrics. Paul signs a publishing contract with Pat and joins him in reclaiming his rights over the song. After Paul accuses Sally of stealing his song, Pat convinces Paul that an association with Sally could help him establish a name for himself. Pat makes a deal with Fred, and Paul becomes Sally's personal songwriter for her shows.
After a party to celebrate the success of the song "Come Tell Me What's Your Answer, Yes or No", Paul, who has developed feelings for Sally, offers to accompany her to her hotel, and she reluctantly agrees but does not invite him into her suite. The next morning, Paul tells Sally that he has taken the suite across from her. That night, Sally returns to her suite from rehearsal and finds Paul writing a song, "Here You Are", at her piano. The two perform the song together and eventually kiss.
Paul writes a string of hits for Sally, but his success goes to his head and he begins to neglect Sally in favor of pursuing the married Countess Mariana Rossini. Sally is furious to learn that Paul is going on a cruise with the Countess and cuts up his new suits. When Paul retaliates by destroying Sally's dresses, he is arrested. Soon after his release from jail, Paul declines an invitation from the Countess and reconciles with Sally. When they get stuck on a Ferris wheel, Paul proposes to Sally and she accepts.
That night, Paul returns to his suite and finds that the Countess' husband has challenged him to a duel. Enraged, Paul storms over to the Countess' home to confront the Count, only to find it was all a ploy by the Countess to see him again. When Sally sees the Countess dropping Paul off at the hotel in the morning, she assumes the worst and breaks off their engagement. As Sally goes on tour with Fred, she refuses to sing Paul's music and learns that his latest song has flopped.
In San Francisco, a music broker tricks Sally into accepting Paul's new song, "My Gal Sal", by claiming that an unknown Southern composer wrote it. After Sally performs the song, Paul surprises her in her dressing room and reveals that he was the one who wrote it. After much bickering, the two reconcile.
Cast
Choreographer Hermes Pan appears as Hayworth's dance partner in the "Gay White Way" number.
Production
20th Century Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck purchased the story of My Gal Sal from Theodore Dreiser 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. Faye was going to star with Carole Landis, 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, 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, but her busy film schedule meant holding up production on My Gal Sal for eighteen months. Zanuck subsequently approached the legendary famous diva of early silent and talkies film star Mae West with the role, but she too turned it down. Zanuck considered grooming newcomer Carole Landis 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. Landis would later voice her dissatisfaction with being cast in only a secondary role in the film by sending a typed and signed note to her fan club members asking them to write too 20th Century Fox expressing their personal dissatisfaction with her being given only a minor role.
Zanuck finally approached Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures, about borrowing Rita Hayworth 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 (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.
Reception
My Gal Sal received positive reviews upon its 1942 release.
The trade news publication 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 magazine 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 1996 track "Electricity." The film happened to be playing on television while the track was being recorded, and was not publicly identified until 2019.
Awards
The film won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction, Color (Richard Day, Joseph C. Wright and Thomas Little). It also was nominated for Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture (Alfred Newman).
Reissue
The film was reissued in 1949 together with The House on 92nd Street to capitalize on the publicity of Hayworth's marriage to Prince Aly Khan.