The Gang's All Here

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Here's one of Hollywood's great excursions into surrealism: The Gang's All Here, the legendarily over-the-top wartime musical. Director Busby Berkeley threw every demented idea that every swirled out of his teeming brain into this madcap affair, and decades later the film was still wowing 'em as a campy jaw-dropper.

The plot is the nonsensical stuff of homefront musicals, with chorus girl Alice Faye waiting for soldier boy James Ellison to return from the war, little knowing he is engaged to another woman. But the real point here is the crazy production design and the flabbergasting numbers--most famously, Carmen Miranda's "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat," which includes a chorus line of women dancing while holding giant bananas over their heads. It might have been dreamed up by Salvador Dali after an acid trip. Alice gets her due with the equally crazy "Polka-Dot Polka," and Benny Goodman and his orchestra are also around. So are such reliable second bananas (you should excuse the expression) as Edward Everett Horton and high-kicking Charlotte Greenwood.

The DVD extras include a 20-minute documentary on Berkeley's peculiar art, plus a charming 25-promotional film featuring Alice Faye reminiscing about her old pictures and extolling the virtues of physical fitness (made for the Pfizer drug company while Faye was their spokesperson). A deleted comedy scene and two episodes from the long-running radio show Faye did with husband Phil Harris are also included. The print itself is a source of controversy; the colors lack the "pop" of the original Technicolor, and the film looks dimmer and vaguer than its original glory. Here's hoping a cleaner, fuller version will emerge. --Robert Horton

Description

Her girl-next-door looks combined with a sultry singing voice made Alice Faye one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the Golden Age of Cinema.

Eadie Allen (Alice Faye) is a chorus girl who dreams of becoming a star. While working at a New York nightclub, she meets Sergeant Andy Mason (James Ellison); they fall in love but he is shipped off to war. As Eadie becomes the headliner at the nightclub, Andy comes home a war hero. But complications arise when Eadie finds out Andy is unofficially engaged to another woman. It's up to Eadie's friend and nightclub co-star Dorita (Carmen Miranda) to set things straight. The Gang's All Here is filled with leggy chorus dancers and lavish musical production numbers including Faye's flashy neon finale "The Polka Dot Polka."

Customer Reviews:

All Washed Out.......2007-07-09

This film can be great fun, but so much of the color is washed out, especially early on. I have seen this picture numerous times in movie theatres and the colors were always vivid, stunning. They still are in some scenes. A real disappointment!

As for the film itself, forget the storyline. It's the production numbers that grab you, especially the ones with Carmen Miranda.

Once again, Fox blows it.......2007-05-14

After years of waiting for this DVD, we're given a poor transfer, just like with "Oklahoma." What is wrong with Fox? Be prepared to really jack up the color on your monitor if you want to watch this film. In the restoration featurette, you can clearly see that the 94 transfer is better - couldn't Fox see that?! Wake up, people! What a bummer...

Gangs of New York.......2007-04-28

I suppose I will be kicked out of the international brotherhood of camp fans, but I have to say it, THE GANG'S ALL HERE is far from being the ne plus ultra of Busby Berkeley extravagance, or even fun. It had its vogue in the 1960s, when it played in a midtown New York movie theater for four months to sellout crowds, and it has its admirers today, but for me, I can take it or leave it.

That is, except for Alice Faye who looks beautiful in nearly every closeup and who sings a couple of wonderful songs, especially "A Journey to a Star," in that low husky, actually freakish voice of hers. What was going on behind the scenes I wonder? Why did she quit making musicals after completing this? It was a national tragedy! Was it she was weary of uphill sledding having to play opposite such goodlooking nothings as James Ellison, who plays Andy Mason here as though he had never seen a girl or even walked on a floor before. There's an extended bit of business in which Alice Faye and Sheila Ryan, playing her rich girl rival, keep swiping back and forth a glamor photo of Andy, and putting it proudly in their own bedrooms. Well, James Ellison does better acting in the photo than he does in the actual rest of the picture. And Sheila Ryan is like Ann Miller without the personality.

The movie may be slightly overstuffed, and I could have done without Phil Baker (as himself, and that means, as "who"?) and also Benny Goodman, he's great but he leaves no lasting impression in the movie. It's hard to believe that Greenwood, Miranda, and Faye all mixed up together could produce such a blah result, but they are given nothing to do together and Greenwood, in particular, looks squelched trying to play an impossible part where she hardly gets to kick up her heels in her signature high splits but once or twice. The "Apash" dance she performs is just awful; it's supposed to be funny, true, but the Apaches should have sued for defamation. The problem with the movie is the two incredibly stupid plots (or three, I guess). Edward Everett Horton trying to conceal from his wife his interest in Carmen Miranda--right. James Ellison forgetting that he's engaged, no matter how ritualistically, to Sheila Ryan, when he meets and woos Alice Faye. No matter how they try to explain it, he still comes off as a dirtbag--or a cad, to use 40s Fox terms. And the horrid story of show business in the blood of Charlotte Greenwood and her daughter, it's more gruesome than you can possibly imagine.

Some fans say, well, the plot is just an excuse for those elaborate, Freudian, nutty surreal Berkeley numbers. And they are pretty great (except in the new transfer nearly every number looks blah and bleak). The Polka Dot Dance is crazy, isn't it. Alice Faye stands in front of a ballroom filled with waltzing pairs of little kids, and claims that the polka as a dance is dead, but the polka dot will never die.

A perfect example.......2007-03-25

THE GANGS ALL HERE is a perfect example of a 1st Class musical film of the 40's. Busby Berkley pulled all the stops out when he directed this classic. The extras this DVD is a great insight into the making of these wonderful films.
I must congratulate UCLA film archives for resurrecting films such as these, to show this generation how it was all done.

Disappointing transfer.......2007-03-15

I reluctantly agree with the early comments about the poor quality of the transfer. I own the laserdisk version of this film; it is an extraordinary record of 1940's Technicolor: bright and vibrant. The DVD is a pale comparison.

Amazingly, the DVD has a side by side comparison of a 1994 version of the film, and the current, "restored" version. This is where the "before" is miles better than the "after." It looks as though Fox considers getting rid of some specks here and there as representing a full restoration. At Warner, the efforts with Gone With The Wind, Singing in the Rain, Wizard of Oz, etc. have shown that it is possible to get a sharp, clear, colorful result that is arguably better than the original prints. Perhaps this film does not rate as much restorative an effort, but it would have been nice to see, at the very least, as nice a transfer as the earlier laser.

The Alice Faye Collection (That Night in Rio / Lillian Russell / On the Avenue / The Gang's All Here)

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LOVELY ALICE
wow wha a show
Alice is Great as Lillian Russell - So Are Weber & Fields
A Hit and Miss Affair
Great set, but there is one blunder...

The Alice Faye Collection (That Night in Rio / Lillian Russell / On the Avenue / The Gang's All Here)
Starring: Alice Faye , Don Ameche , Henry Fonda , Edward Arnold , and Warren William
Director: Irving Cummings , and Roy Del Ruth
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000K7VHMS
Release Date: 2007-02-20

Amazon.com

The brevity of her stardom might account for her relative lack of 21st-century fame, but believe it: Alice Faye was a huge star. She was the queen of Twentieth Century Fox for a few years and became the heroine of the wartime musical until she was displaced by her Fox stablemate Betty Grable. As a singer, she enjoyed a string of hits with her surprising voice, a low, mellow croon, which somehow sounds like the World War II homefront. Faye's fleshy, cornfed face had much to do with her girl-next-door persona, although the figure she shows off in a gold dress in That Night in Rio leaves no doubt about another aspect of her appeal.

The four-disc Alice Faye Collection gives a cross-section of Faye's Fox career: one film as the up-and-comer (On the Avenue), two splashy mega-musicals (The Gang's All Here and That Night in Rio), and one expensive, serious musical biopic (Lillian Russell). In all, she smolders rather than burns, and rarely goes long without a song.

The 1937 On the Avenue is an Irving Berlin spectacle with a silly streak: Broadway boy Dick Powell locks horns with the richest girl in America (Madeleine Carroll), with Faye on the sidelines as Powell's regular-gal pal. You can see why audiences loved her, and the movie itself is a snappy, sarcastic little gem, featuring some antic routines by the Ritz Brothers and a kooky collection of Berlin tunes (including "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm"). Lillian Russell, a 1940 bio of the famous Gay 90s singer, was intended as Faye's crack at a dramatic role. The movie's whitewash of Russell's real story (which, as a 20-minute documentary makes clear, made Russell the Madonna of her era) limits Faye's chances. Henry Fonda plays a long-faithful suitor, with Don Ameche and Edward Arnold (reprising his title role from the film Diamond Jim Brady) also in her orbit. That Night in Rio casts Faye opposite frequent co-star Ameche again; he plays a double role, as a suave Baron and a brash nightclub impersonator. The story is nonsense, but Carmen Miranda is around to do the chica-boom, and Alice looks drop-dead sexy.

And then there's The Gang's All Here, one of Hollywood's most legendary excursions into surrealism. Don't pay attention to the plot--just check out director Busby Berkeley's lunatic staging of the dance numbers. "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat," a showpiece for Carmen Miranda (it's the one with the giant bananas in a chorus line) looks like something dreamed up by Salvador Dali after an acid trip. Benny Goodman's swing band is also around.

Some care has gone into the DVD extras: a two-part bio of Alice Faye, featuring her daughters (and giving the story of how Faye walked away from film in 1945); a charming film she made for the Pfizer drug company, extolling the virtues of keeping fit; and a 20-minute intro to Berkeley's style. The print transfers are more problematic. Avenue looks fine, and Rio looks like other Fox color films of the era. Lillian Russell is preceded by a disclaimer warning of the limitations of original source materials, and indeed the print here is marred by serious tears in the middle of the screen during a few sequences. Gang's All Here will disappoint Technicolor fans; the colors don't "pop" as they should, and the film looks dimmer and vaguer than its onetime splendor. Here's hoping a cleaner, fuller version will emerge. --Robert Horton

Description

Disc 1: THE GANGS ALL HERE Disc 2: ON THE AVENUE Disc 3: LILLIAN RUSSELL Disc 4: THAT NIGHT IN RIO

Customer Reviews:

LOVELY ALICE.......2007-08-24

I can't understand all the fuss about the color of THE GANG'S ALL HERE. All I had to do was press the tint and color buttons on my remote, and the color was gorgeous and astonishing as only Fox musicals are. Alice was never more beautiful than in LILLIAN RUSSELL. The closeup for Blue Lovebird with the black background against her blonde beauty takes your breath away. Lillian does get somewhat bogged down in the last half, especially with the boring Weber and Fields routine and the sickenly sweet portrayal of Lillian's daughter. ON THE AVENUE is definitely Alice's film. Her rendition of This Year's Kisses can't be beat. The Ritz Brothers had talent, but it was never controlled and went over the top much too often. Alice, Carmen Miranda, and Don Ameche are all very good in THAT NIGHT IN RIO. The best Miranda films are the ones in which she appeared with Faye (Rio, Havana, and Gang's). She was a delight until she became a caricature of herself in later films (even going blonde).

All in all a very satisfying package showcasing one of the foremost and loveliest singing actresses in the history of Hollywood.

wow wha a show.......2007-07-16

this was hours of great enjoyment so glad i bought it Alice Faye rock on

Alice is Great as Lillian Russell - So Are Weber & Fields.......2007-06-02

This set is a very good compendium of Alice Faye's prime films from her prime era in the late 1930s and early 1940s. My focus here is on her 1940 epic, LILLIAN RUSSELL, a rather problematic film but not for those who understand that 1.) it's a musical, not a documentary; and 2.) as the author of the film's screenplay stated, "My is purpose is to present Lillian Russell as people remember her, not as she really was." So what's the problem?

The real Lillian was quite a gal who apparently had had affairs with wealthy Jesse Lewissohn (try finding HIM on an Internet search) and Diamond Jim Brady (today his claim to fame is that the Johns Hopkins Urological Center is named after him). But William Anthony McGuire, who is credited with the film's screenplay (he wrote routines for Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld in the 1920s) cannily wove his story with a nod both to the film censors and to his insider's knowledge of Broadway in Russell's heyday. If you know what REALLY happened, you will realize that McGuire did a pretty good job of suggesting the events of that day.

For me, the highlight of LILLIAN RUSSELL is a short sequence near the end of the film by Lillian's real-life employers back in 1895 - Joe Weber and Lew Fields. They were a comedy team who began as teenagers in New York City's Bowery of 1879. Weber & Fields became their own producers by 1889, then began producing other Broadway shows by the 1890s. When they hired Lillian Russell in 1895, her career seemed on the downswing - she was not known for her comedic abilities. But Weber & Fields took a chance (while paying her lavishly) and Lillian reinvented herself on the music hall stage.

Weber & Fields initially parted company in 1904 when they disagreed on the types of musical plays they wanted to produce, but reunited in 1912 and therafter, while continuing to produce various shows independently of each other.

Remarkably, although all their contemporaries had died long before the film LILLIAN RUSSELL was produced in 1940 (Lillian herself expired in 1922, Diamond Jim Brady in 1917), Weber & Fields were still going strong in 1940 (although retired and living in Beverly Hills, CA).

The film's producer Darryl Zanuck contacted the team and they filmed one brief routine for the film in January 1940. That should have been the end of their involvement. But Zanuck liked the routine so much, he invited them back and asked them to expand the routine. Zanuck set aside three days to film the expanded sequence. Weber & Fields, by then in their mid-70s, filmed a total of four different takes in only three hours. The only retakes were due to laughter by the film crew - the boys were letter perfect in all four takes. It turned out to be their final performance.

The sequence is so rich that after watching it five times I'm still discovering lines and bits of business that somehow I missed in earlier viewings. One throw-away bit occurs when Lew Fields is shuffling a deck of cards - he tells Joe Weber that he was talking to David Warfield back stage (Warfield was a comedian in Weber & Fields' company who successfully managed to transform himself into a dramatic star on Broadway). Fields says, "Do you know what he said?" Weber replies, "I dunno - he wants more money?" "No," says Fields, "He wants to play dramatic parts." Admittedly, a viewer who never heard of David Warfield will make no sense of this dialogue. Movie viewers in 1940 would have followed the conversation perfectly. Many film critics in 1940 thought the Weber & Fields sequence was the best scene in the film.

To Fox's credit, a short bio on the real Lillian Russell is part of the bonus material, along with "on the set" photos of Joe Weber and Lew Fields taking their last bow a half century later. So this film is not a documentary! It wasn't meant to be one.

A Hit and Miss Affair.......2007-05-05

To me, this is one of those collections where you win some, you lose some.
It gets my four stars for "That Night in Rio" and "The Gang's all Here", both epitomising the gaudy, sometimes garish, tuneful Fox musicals after they went into color. "Rio" is actually a tour de force for Don Ameche and Carmen Miranda, but Alice looks and sings her best in an unusually sophisticated role. Similarly, she's great in "The Gang's All Here", another splashy extravaganza given an extra kick by Busby Berkley's inventive and bizarre talents. But to me, the most bizarre aspect of this movie is the inclusion of someone called Phil Baker, whom I gather was well known in radio at the time. Radio is where he should have stayed. On film, he has no impact, no looks, no charisma and no visible talent. The other two movies in this collection get thumbs down from me. "On the Avenue" comes over as a weak attempt at screwball comedy set to music, which is a pity as the music is good and even though Alice has a supporting role she gets the best Berlin numbers and sings them beautifully. A pity about the Ritz Brothers. Their so-called comedy routines are painful. Which also goes for the attempt to re-create the comedy team of Weber and Fields in a long, boring sequence of "Lillian Russell". It's unfunny, which is a shame, because if ever a movie needed a lift it's "Lillian Russell". Despite the obvious opulence of sets and costumes, there's something depressing and funereal about this B&W film that cries out for color and vivacity. The script launderised Russell's life, so if they weren't sticking to facts the writers could have at least lightened things up a little. Alice plods through it, doing her best, but it's a mournful affair. This is the trouble with some collections - they package the lesser with the best. But in this case, the best is worth it for Faye fans.

Great set, but there is one blunder..........2007-04-12

This is a very nice set from Fox. After the dismal sales of the Betty Grable Collection, I was worried that Alice Faye's films wouldn't be coming out. Not the case. Fox did an excellent job with extras and the transfers look very good, except The Gangs All Here. It's really disappointng since this was such a vibrant Technicolor musical. The movie looks washed out and has a mustardy yellow greenish tinge. If you look at the restoration comparison, you'll clearly see that the Laser Disc version from 1994 was sooooo much better. They should seriously do something with this awful transfer and do a disc replacement. Shame on you fox. Other than that one mishap, this is a grear set for Alice Faye fans and musical fans, too.

Average customer rating:

Not Carmen Miranda
Darro & Moreland always fun, but vehicle sometimes sputters

The Gang's All Here
Starring: Frankie Darro , Marcia Mae Jones , Jackie Moran , Keye Luke , and Mantan Moreland
Director: Jean Yarbrough
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00011D1LI
Release Date: 2004-01-27

Customer Reviews:

Not Carmen Miranda.......2006-02-28

This is the title of a Carmen Miranda, Alice Faye film but this is not the right one. It comes up with searches for the musical or the cast but this is not THAT one.

Darro & Moreland always fun, but vehicle sometimes sputters.......2004-12-02

Frankie Darro's tough-kid adventures were a mainstay for low-budget Monogram Pictures in the late '30s and early '40s, and when two of Monogram's other series faltered, the studio lumped them into the indestructible Darro series. Thus Marcia Mae Jones and Jackie Moran (of Monogram's teen romances) and Keye Luke (late of "Mr. Wong") joined pop-eyed Mantan Moreland as Darro's co-stars, prompting the title "The Gang's All Here."

The title suggests a genial comedy, but the new co-stars are dropped uneasily into a crime-melodrama plot: villainous truckers running a rival trucking company off the roads and out of business. Frankie and Mantan sign on as new drivers, and are targeted for death. Not as slow as some of the Monogram mellers, but a notch or two below Darro's best; the Darro gang would find more rewarding work in the musical-comedy format.

The source appears to be a carefully edited composite of two vintage prints, resulting in a fully complete and well preserved film. But the picture quality is troubling; the image looks jerky in a few scenes, like a movie taken with a digital camera, as though the action is being "stretched." This is either Monogram tricking up the speed of the "truck" exteriors, or an inferior digital transfer (the Alpha Video series is generally excellent).

It's nice to see Darro and Moreland in action, but B-movie fans might try Alpha's DVD of "Up in the Air" instead, in which the stars work with more assurance.

The Gang's All Here (The Gang is All Here) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Sweden ]

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The Gang's All Here (The Gang is All Here) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Sweden ]
Director: Busby Berkeley
Manufacturer: Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

Sweden released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), Danish (Subtitles), Dutch (Subtitles), English (Subtitles), Finnish (Subtitles), French (Subtitles), German (Subtitles), Norwegian (Subtitles), Swedish (Subtitles), SYNOPSIS: 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.... SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu,

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