A Gene Kelly double bill--his first and last for MGM

Completely unplanned by me, I find that I have sitting in my mailbox the films that feature Gene Kelly's first starring role for MGM and his last starring role for MGM. So I thought it might be interesting to watch them back to back and compare and contrast. While both For Me and My Gal and Les Girls are films with music, neither were produced on the stage, although the later features songs by Cole Porter. Separated by 15 years, these films are definitely products of their times and present incredibly differing sets of morals.

For Me and My Gal from 1942 stars Judy Garland and Kelly as vaudevillians making the circuit and trying to climb up the ladder to better acts, better theaters and better pay. Essentially, though, this is a war film, promoting the heroic efforts of our boys in uniform (depicting WWI, but playing to a WWII audience). Kelly is willing to make any choice to get booked into the Palace Theater (the height of the circuit) and when his draft notice threatens that, he makes a "coward's choice", which he nearly immediately regrets.

Les Girls from 1957 is also set on the show circuit, this time in Europe, and with Kelly again playing a bit of a cad who is looking out for his own interests. The story-telling here is much less linear than the earlier film, as the story is presented as flashbacks from several characters' differing viewpoints.

Gene Kelly is of course the quintessential musical film cad--good-looking in a slick way and likable, but not trust-worthy. I found it interesting this was his niche from beginning to end at MGM, although I haven't watched his entire filmography, so perhaps he ventured outside that niche at some point. With that scar on his left cheek, you just have to wonder how he got it.

Dancing styles had certainly been transformed in the years between these two films. The choreography in Me and My Gal is straight out of the vaudeville theater, very presentational, very two-dimensional, and broadly performed, despite being directed by Busby Berkeley. In Les Girls, dance numbers are much more lavish and emotionally charged. There are moving camera points, movable sets, and a looser, more sexually charged style of choreography.

The music in both films is rather forgettable, I'm afraid. The title song in the earlier film is a standard, but nothing else really reached out to me. Les Girls features "Ca C'est L'amour", which is a nice song, but with only five songs in the whole film (mostly presented in the "show within the film" setting) I can't really consider it a musical. I was interested to learn, though, through a DVD extra interview, that Porter wrote 12 songs for the film and only 5 were used.

For Me and My Gal
Music by several people including Roger Edens
Directed by Busby Berkeley
Released in 1942
Cast: Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Marta Eggerth, George Murphy

Les Girls
Music and lyrics by Cole Porter
Directed by George Cukor
Released in 1957
Cast: Gene Kelly, Mitzi Gaynor, Taina Elg, Kay Kendall