MY GAL SAL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 202, 7 May 1943, Page 13

SEVEN DAYS' LEAVE

MY GAL SAL

(20th Century-Fox)

ORTUNATELY there are a good many things in this film besides Victor Mature-notably a sparkling performance by Rita Hay-

worth, lavish production and intelligent direction, many catchy, old-fashioned tunes, the nostalgic atmosphere of the ‘nineties (in Technicolour), and a useful though not inspired script by the novelist Theodore Dreiser, based on the life of his brother, the songwriter called Paul Dresser. As the musical-comedy actress whom Dresser intermittently woos throughout the picture and eventually wins, Miss Hayworth uses her own beautiful legs to dance on and somebody else’s voice (that of the radio star Nan Wynn), to sing with, and fairly easily walks off with the acting honours. The supporting parts are well taken, and even Victor Mature is mostly endurable in the character of the man who wrote "On the Banks of the Wabash" and other hits of the ‘nineties. The role, as it happens, would not give much scope to any actor, for the career of Dresser, as described by brother Theodore, proceeds exactly along the

lines of a hundred other Hollywood success-stories, with the ambitious young composer refusing to study for the ministry, leaving home, and head-ing-via a medicine show-for Broadway, fame, wine, and women. For its undeniable entertainment value, My Gal Sal owes most to the songs which Dresser really wrote, to others which were composed in the Dresser manner specially for the film, and to the staging, costuming, and direction of. Irving Cummings.