Me and My Gal (1932)

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

ME AND MY GAL (Fox, 1932), produced and directed by Raoul Walsh, not to be confused with the Judy Garland and Gene Kelly musical, FOR ME AND MY GAL (MGM, 1942), is a nifty little comedy/drama that teams Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett for the second time (following their initial pairing in SHE WANTED A MILLIONAIRE (Fox, 1932)). Although Tracy reportedly didn't have much regard for the movies he did over at Fox during his five years (1930-1935) at the studio, he was said to have been proud of this production, and it's easy to see why. Under the good direction of Walsh, ME AND MY GAL has both good story and sharp dialogue to keep the pace moving at a high degree.The story revolves around Danny Dolan (Spencer Tracy), a new Irish cop on the waterfront beat of New York City's Pier 13, going through his daily duties. After acquiring a dog and dealing with Joe Morgan (Will Stanton), a stumbling drunk, Dan comes to Ed's Chowder House Sea Food diner where he meets Helen Riley (Joan Bennett), a sassy, gum- chewing waitress/cashier with all the answers to Dan's questions. Helen has a sister, Katherine (Marion Burns), who's engaged to marry a nerdy buck-tooth, bespectacled Eddie Collins (George Chandler). Katherine has a shady past, having previously been involved with Duke Castenega (George Walsh), a gangster she cannot resist, especially when wanting her to go against her will by giving him a combination number list for safe deposit boxes. After saving a man's life from drowning, Dan is promoted detective working along with Al Allen (Adrian Morris), a fellow detective who earlier missed seeing Duke and his thugs departing the ship from South American on Pier 13. Duke gets arrested for a robbery and later breaks out of prison. As for Dan's courtship with Helen, he gets to meet the rest of her family, including Kate and their father, Pat (J. Farrell MacDonald). Situations become involved as Dan is assigned to locate Duke's whereabouts, unaware that he's hidden away in the attic of Kate's apartment as witnessed by Kate's war veteran father-in-law, John Collins, (Henry B. Walthall) paralyzed in a wheelchair with his only means of communication blinking code signals through his eyes. Others in the cast include of Noel Madison (Baby Face Castenega); with Eleanor Wesselhoeft, Russell Powell, Billy Bevan and Frank Moran in smaller roles. Be sure to stay tuned for J. Farrell MacDonald's full face close-up fade-out.A very fast-paced 79 minute production with Tracy and Bennett doing their best competing with one another. Their most memorable moment is their parody to Eugene O'Neill's stage production (and later 1932 MGM drama) to STRANGE INTERLUDE where the two speak out their thoughts through their minds heard only by the movie going audience. This may be a loss to contemporary viewers, but in 1932, many understood the humor of it all.Remade by 20th Century-Fox as PIER 13 (1940) starring Lloyd Nolan and Lynn Bari in the Tracy and Bennett roles, there's no doubt which version is better. Tracy and Bennett wouldn't work together again until many years later in the classic FATHER OF THE BRIDE (MGM, 1950) and its sequel, FATHER'S LITTLE DIVIDEND (MGM, 1951). Never distributed to home video, ME AND MY GAL did enjoy some rare showings in revival movie houses, public television in the early 1990s, before turning up on cable television's Fox Movie Channel, Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: October 2, 2012) and then availability onto DVD. Considering how movies from the old Fox Film library have been lost or lay forgotten in the studio vaults, at least this not only is still available for viewing, but also one that can still be seen and surprisingly appreciated today. Check! (***)

Considering that the film was directed by Raoul Walsh and starred Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett, you would prob assume that the film would be better than this one. However, Tracy was not yet a star and Walsh was a ways off from being a top director, so in this film they obviously were given a second-rate script. Fortunately, despite the film's many deficiencies, they were able to make the most of a relatively dull film.Much of the movie seems virtually plot-less--with an exciting story only occurring near the end. Up until then, it seems to just meander--showing a dopey young cop (Tracy) making good again and again as well as courting a pretty young lady (Bennett). Despite the aimless direction, Tracy plays a likable dope who, after a while, really grows on you. And, fortunately, the last 10 minutes or so is interesting enough to at least let the film end on a high note.By the way, there IS a bright moment in the film where, out of the blue, Tracy's character talks about a movie he just saw..."Strange Innertube"! This is actually referring to the Gable/Shearer film "Strange Interlude"--an odd little film made by rival studio, MGM, in which the characters act AND you can hear what they are thinking. In this cute parody of the MGM film, suddenly you can hear what Tracy and Bennett are thinking as they being making out--it's very cute and certainly the high point in an otherwise odd and slow film.Worth watching, certainly, but far from the best work of all concerned. It's mostly a curiosity that I can only strongly recommend to Tracy fans who want to be able to say they've seen all of his work.

ME AND MY GAL is a bit run of the mill cinema except for the intrusions of several neat bits of business. Spencer Tracy plays Danny Dolen a fresh guy and wise guy cop just assigned to the docks. While the big deal on the docks is the arrival of some gangsters from Havana, Tracy and a detective assigned to tail the gangsters are sidetracked by a tiresome, vaudeville broad, drunk. Drunks, known as "pxxs acts' were an old theatrical tradition. Sydney Chaplin, Charlie's brother did a fine pxxs act (see THE BETTER 'OLE [1926]). This is just terrible.The drunk falls in the water, Tracy saves him and is instantly promoted to detective. The local cafe on his beat has a snappy cashier played by Joan Bennett. The gangsters just admitted to the US have plans to robe the safe deposit boxes at the bank where Bennett's sister, Marion Burns works. It seems as though she once had a thing with one of the gangsters (George Walsh, director Raoul's brother) but is now just about to marry George Chandler(!). She marries him when Walsh is arrested and sent away ruining the gangster's plans. Burns moves in with Chandler and his paralyzed and mute father (Henry B. Walthall). Chandler goes to sea and Walsh breaks out of jail. Burns still has a thing for Walsh (she knows what's in which safety deposit box) and hides in her attic. Tracy is able to track down Walsh and protects Burns from her involvement in the bank robbery.It really not much of a picture. George Chandler was given a chance at a meaty role but as he can just pull his idiot face and speak perfunctory dialog its clear why he would be used in so many pictures as a bit player, often uncredited. He didn't have enough character to be a character actor but did really great bits in literally hundreds of films. Here, if he had any presence at all, he would have been brought back for a key piece of business in locating the gunman in the attic. Instead the plot is resolved another, less likely way.The interesting bits are the snappy dialog between Tracy and Bennett, sort of a symphony in slang as they try to out hard boil each other. Latter a similar dynamic but amongst middle class types speaking the King's English would be featured in the Thin Man series. This is an early example of verbal foreplay. This boils over at one point to where they have a go at it on the cafe's counter top scattering various solid objects. This was years before Lang and Nicholson had it off in the kitchen in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1981).There is also a scene in which Tracy says he went to see a funny kind of a movie the other day, Strange Inner tube. There in a tight two shot without any cuts where Bennett and Tracy play a parody of STRANGE INTERLUDE (1932) complete with their inner thought heard on the soundtrack. Previously the play had been parodied by the Marx Brothers in ANIMAL CRACKERS (1930).J. Farrell MacDonald has a few big scenes. His major traits here seem to be getting drunk and tell pejorative Irish jokes. Bert Hanlon, as a dumb flatfoot detective whose act here recalls that of Ditto (Edward Brophy) who followed Tracy around repeating what he just said in THE LAST HURRAH (1958).In all, merely acceptable as entertainment on a rainy night's double bill in 1932, remarkable only for the sharply played repartee between the leads. A repartee which crackles because of the ease and naturalness that people could express their feelings in this pre-code picture.

"Me and My Gal" is an ingratiating pre-Code comedy-drama enhanced by spirited banter between Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett who play two young people feeling each other out as potential mates. Bennett is surprisingly good as a wise-cracking, down-to-earth waitress who speaks her mind and can easily hold her own against Tracy's New York City cop. The pre-Code era's lack of pretense about sexuality makes their impassioned kiss in the diner -- as the two knock over items on the lunch counter -- all the more humorous. Bennett, both impressed and amused by Tracy's kiss, responds: "If you're gonna kiss me like that, you're gonna have to marry me." It's a magical little moment that caused the passage of time since 1932 to drop away and left me there with them to enjoy the fun.A sub-plot involves Bennett's newly married sister, a good girl who nevertheless can't resist her bad boy gangster ex-boyfriend. When he needs to hide from the police, she installs him in a spare bedroom, under the nose of her disabled father-in-law who is confined to a wheelchair, can't speak a word and communicates only by blinking his eyes in Morse code. Later, when everything gets resolved, Tracy tells the father-in-law that the daughter-in-law is a good kid at heart in spite of what she did, expressing pre-Code generosity for forgiveness and tolerance, even in sexual transgressions with gangsters.