{"id":18125,"date":"2018-07-10T14:41:46","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T18:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18125"},"modified":"2018-07-10T15:23:41","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T19:23:41","slug":"technicolored-mature-hayworth-landis-in-my-gal-sal-1942","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18125","title":{"rendered":"Technicolored Mature, Hayworth, & Landis in My Gal Sal (1942)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve said before that I\u2019m not a fan of musicals per se \u2013 there are odd exceptions that I enjoy for very odd reasons, which can include the use of colour, certain composers, stars, and technical aspects, like blazing Technicolor, Cinecolor, Agfacolor, CinemaScope, or Todd-AO.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it\u2019s a dare to assess a much-lambasted dud, carefully examining the pros & cons and deciding if it\u2019s really so bad or just an ill-conceived, kind of fascinating mess. It\u2019s why I suffered through the 1973 remake of Lost Horizon<\/a><\/strong>, and the studio-killing misfire Absolute Beginners<\/a><\/strong> (1986) and found a few virtues in their brightly coloured cadavers.<\/p>\n

Fox\u2019s glossy My Gal Sal<\/a><\/strong> (1942) was part of the studio\u2019s successful 1940s musicals that paired Rita Hayworth with Victor Mature \u2013 an improbably combo considering the former was trained in music and dance, and the latter\u2019s big break came in Hal Roach\u2019s prehistoric nonsenser One Million B.C.<\/strong> (1940), in which you could tie a drinking game for each time Mature screams \u2018Loana!\u2019<\/p>\n

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And yet Mature as composer Paul Dresser is fine, which is most unexpected. He works because he channels the uncertainty of \u2018I\u2019m in a musical?!?!?\u2019 into the character of an overconfident composer-pianist who enjoyed a huge success on Broadway. Dresser was the brother of novelist Theodore Dreiser, and the story is reportedly heavily reliant on Dreiser\u2019s recollection of his brother and the colourful adventures with women, wine, the law, and music.<\/p>\n

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Hayworth is ravishing as the on \/ off love interest, and she\u2019s given the best lines in cutting down Dresser when his ego and urge to bed Sally are beyond pushy. My Gal Sal <\/strong>also reunites Mature with his B.C.<\/strong> co-star Carole Landis, who enjoyed success in Roach\u2019s productions of Turnabout<\/strong> (1940) and Topper Returns<\/strong> (1941) before joining the Fox fold and co-starring with Mature in the great noir thriller I Wake Up Screaming<\/strong> (1941). Landis was an early cinema crush of mine at age 12 or something, so it\u2019s fun to rediscover the starlet whose career seemed set as a minor leading lady before failed marriages and affairs resulted in deep unhappiness and a short life.<\/p>\n

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Twilight Time\u2019s Blu-ray sports a very nice transfer of this striking Technicolor production that isn\u2019t massive or packed with a huge cast of dancing extras \u2013 it\u2019s just the right size, neatly fitted for two attractive stars, and perhaps proved to mature himself that he could indeed act in other genres when the part was just right.<\/p>\n

My Gal Sal<\/a><\/strong> also proves the camera need not always glide and move when you have charismatic performers; framing, lighting, and inner movement are just as engaging as dynamic angles and sharp cuts, and fans of Technicolor will relish the beautiful pastels that glow in every shot. It\u2019s a modest musical made with great care that finally enjoys a proper home video release.<\/p>\n

Coming next:<\/em> more Mattei-Fragasso-Drudi nonsense, and the not great but underrated Marilyn Monroe musical comedy Let\u2019s Make Love <\/strong>(1960), featuring a cockle-doodle-dooing Yves Montand.<\/p>\n

Cheers,<\/p>\n

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Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Gal Sal (1942) starring Rita Hayworth, Victor Mature, and Carole Landis debuts on Twilight Time Blu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[5744,2562,2563,5747,5743,5745,1180,748,5746,531],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/MyGalSal_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-4Il","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18125"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18181,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18125\/revisions\/18181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}