Has Anybody Seen My Gal

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source: Has Anybody Seen My Gal

The title of the film is an iconic song from the 1920's when popular music sounded so fresh and new, and the Charleston was like fresh paint on an old building, which of course was the two decades in history preceding it. I like a lot of Douglas Sirk's uninhibited ' weepies ' and ' All That Heaven Allows ' is in my opinion a masterpiece. I had never seen this film so I gave it a chance, knowing that it was in a minor league to his so-called major films. After all ' Take Me To Town ' with Ann Sheridan at her best is considered minor and I can watch it over and over again. So then why did ' Has Anybody Seen My Gal ' leave me bored and cold ? The signature Autumn leaves were there and Sirk's great compositions of scenes were there, and it all looked good and yet I found it a failure. This is only my point of view but I did not think that Charles Coburn as a rich and possibly dying old man giving his wealth away worked for me. Coburn is great to see in smaller roles, but I do not think he could carry a whole one on his ever grumbling back. He also could not dance the Charleston, and the musical scenes were underpowered and clumsy. Rock Hudson faded into the background and so did the usually incredibly good Piper Laurie. James Dean gets a few seconds and I was cross he wasn't given Hudson's role. A few seconds of clearly first class talent from Dean should have immediately alerted Sirk that here was a great actor and a much better one than Hudson. So for me the centre of good casting was gone, and the cast of characters all looked and behaved in a one-dimensional way. Lynn Bari also failed to spark, but then did she ever shine ? She reeked of a cross between Rosalind Russell and Claudette Colbert, and fell flat on her face as an actor during the whole of her Mother playing role. I could not believe for a moment she was supposed to be Piper Laurie's mother, and I wonder if Laurie did ? For those who love this film I have great admiration, but it is again in my opinion one of Sirk's most boring films. Despite his genius he did make a few and finally all I can say is I could well be wrong and let every viewer choose for themselves. A reluctant 4 for Piper Laurie and a brief glimpse of James Dean panting at the leash to take over.

The regrets of a long-ago unrequited love has made supposed ailing millionaire Charles Coburn decide to leave a bequest to that deceased woman's family. He moves in with them as a border under an assumed name to see how they will spend the money and finds out that simple people aren't so simple when it comes to sudden riches and the desire to move up the social ladder. In the process, he plays "Mr. Fix-It" for the pretty Piper Laurie who happens to look exactly like her grandmother did years ago and convince her boyfriend (Rock Hudson) not to make the same mistakes he did years ago. In the process, the family learns some valuable lessons, especially that life on the right side of the tracks is not as rewarding a a simple life where happiness rules, not the worries over finances. Stage veteran Charles Coburn had started his film career in his mature years 17 years before this playing mostly imperious wealthy men who dominated their family and ran their business with an iron hand. By the mid 1940's, he wasn't just an Academy Award Winning character actor who occasionally starred in a B movie, but a full-fledged star, as beloved by film audiences as the biggest of stars half his age. The early 50's typecast him as a lovable old grouch with a heart of gold, a flirtatious old geezer who not only got to kiss the hand of Marilyn Monroe, but prove to audiences that just because there was snow on the roof didn't mean that there was no fire in the furnace. This film was one of his best, and if it is your introduction to him, you will come out of it adoring him as well. As he goes from bed-ridden business tycoon to the repairman of a messed up family, Coburn goes from night shirt to raccoon coat, from hiding cigars in bed to dancing the Charleston. He even takes up finger-painting, sleeps with the family dog, and is caught in both a speakeasy and gambling house, later being accused of making out with the young Laurie in a silent movie house. The rumor mill of this man makes its way into high society as the greedy family he left money to basically sticks their nose up at him. The biggest nose raiser is the ridiculously social climbing Lynn Bari who would rather see daughter Laurie marry a man with money she didn't love than soda jerk/pharmacist Rock Hudson. This is a woman you want to see taken down a few pegs as her selfishness is outrageous. Bari's husband is played by Larry Gates, the character actor who won an Emmy for his long-running role as wealthy patriarch H.B. Lewis on "Guiding Light". He may be the breadwinner in the family (running a pharmacy which is a teen-aged hang-out at the soda stand), but quietly allows Bari to control everything. Gigi Perreau is their adorable youngest daughter who instantly takes to Coburn, while William Reynolds is the only son whom Coburn discovers has a gambling problem. The mixture of family drama into the comedy (with a few songs thrown in to give the flavor of the era) adds some realism. In smaller roles, Skip Homeier is the uppity rich brat Laurie is distracted by, Paul McVey and Gloria Holden ("Dracula's Daughter") as his snooty parents, Paul Harvey the judgmental judge, and in a one-line unbilled part, James Dean who harasses Coburn in the soda shop. It is a shame Hudson isn't in this scene as only a few years later, they would work together as rivals in the epic "Giant". Fritz Feld is the pretentious tango teacher who reminded me of Hermoine Gingold as he gave the society ladies instructions. Colorful photography, delightful music and a real feeling of what life in simpler days was like. Director Douglas Sirk may be more remembered for his plush soap operas, but this ranks as one of his best films.

Has Anybody Seen My Gal is directed by Douglas Sirk and written by Joseph Hoffman and Eleanor H. Porter. It stars Rock Hudson, Piper Laurie and Charles Coburn. Music is by Herman Stein and cinematography by Clifford Stine. It's 1928 and plot finds Coburn as wealthy Samuel Fulton, who now he is older and has no family of his own decides to leave his wealth to the family of his first love, the Blaisdells. Worming his way into the family's lives, he secretly grants them $100,000 and observes as money greatly changes the family. And not for the better! Glorious Technicolor, sumptuous period detail and a funny picture laced with a caustic edge, Has Anybody Seen My Gal is a darn fine movie from the Sirk/Hudson stable. True, it's guilty of layering on the nostalgia, but the feel good factor that pulses throughout ensures the film remains a crowd pleaser. With song and dance also featuring, picture is frothy in its telling of how money can corrupt those who were once of sound standing. Yes, it's a message movie, but it's told with such an assuredness by Sirk and acted with fine ebullience by the cast, particularly the wonderful Coburn, that it becomes a movie comfortably recommended to those in need of a pick me up in this new and hurried world we live in. 7/10

Has Anybody Seen My Gal (Douglas Sirk, 1952) is a winning comedy from the soon-to-be master of romantic melodrama, Douglas Sirk, who went on to make the smash-hit "women's pictures" Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows. Just as those films pack a notable satirical bite, so Has Anybody Seen My Gal has a few choice things to say about greed and the worship of money, even if Sirk gets his message across in an overly broad manner. Charles Coburn, who could do "crustily avuncular" like no-one else in Hollywood, plays a multi-millionaire with a novel idea about what do with his will. Having made his fortune after losing the only girl he ever loved, he resolves to give the money to the late woman's family: daughter Lynn Bari, her husband Larry Gates - who runs a grocery store - and their likable children, Piper Laurie, William Reynolds and Gigi Perreau. But he wants to make doubly sure he's doing the right thing, and inveigles his way into their household posing as a surrealist painter. The film is extremely entertaining and the scriptwriters generally make the right decisions within scenes, knowing when to play for laughs (almost always), when to deliver a little jolt of emotion (like Coburn seeing a portrait of his lost love) and when to curtail an encounter. It's also genuinely funny, with Coburn an absolute joy as the film's good-hearted centre, alternately omniscient and naive. The scenes where he's reprimanded by judge Paul Harvey for supposedly immorality are particularly strong and there's a hilarious, ridiculous sequence in which the paternal old cove is accused of necking with young woman Laurie in a cinema that's masterfully-handled. Coburn, in career-best form, also generates an easy chemistry with both the wide-eyed, red-headed Laurie (later of The Hustler, Carrie and Return to Oz) and the charming Perreau, who reminds me of Margaret O'Brien. Being a Douglas Sirk film, this one looks absolutely great, while it's also significant in movie history as the director's first teaming with frequent collaborator Rock Hudson (playing Laurie's soda jerk boyfriend) and for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it turn from James Dean as a kid ordering a soda. That's if it takes you 10 seconds to blink. But the film falls short of greatness in several ways. The narrative, which sees Bari turn into a nouveau riche monster, is apt to offend people of all political persuasions, with the idea that money is evil being a socialist concept and the suggestion that poor people can't handle the paper stuff an old-fashioned right-wing one. There's also the problem of Bari's character, who is crucial to our investment in the story. Familiar as the "other woman" from countless Fox films of the '30s and early-'40s, the actress is poorly-cast in a badly-written role and delivers a one-dimensional and unsympathetic performance. Though the '20s setting is enthusiastically utilised, it's also a little synthetic, while little jokes about rising prices and changing fashions are largely meaningless today to all those without a PhD in early-20th century American history. Perhaps most frustratingly, the film ends in an unorthodox manner that doesn't suit the material, taking the peculiar decision to keep the identity of Coburn's millionaire a secret. A climactic unmasking has obvious comic and dramatic potential, but instead all we get is Coburn walking down the street and out of his adopted family's lives. Has Anybody Seen My Gal is top entertainment, powered by Charles Coburn's lovely performance and packed with good jokes. But it's let down by the simplistic, slightly negative central message, Bari's weak characterisation and a refusal to play ball with its audience, which would have turned this period piece into prime Americana. Trivia note: The film's title refers to a '20s hit, sung here by a bunch of kids at a soda fountain. It's one of several tunes tossed into the mix, apparently at random.

I like to watch this movie when I am `down' or when things aren't going right. Charles Coburn is one of my favorite `all time' movie actors. With the exception of the character Howard Blaisdell, the film was perfectly cast. I have watched this movie at least 20 times.

The follow-up to "no room for the groom" ,"has anybody seen my gal?" displays many similarities with its predecessor .It's "money cannot buy happiness" all over again;the mother who dreams of a rich marriage for a daughter was also present in "no room" .She was more over possessive,she was less kind,but the mother is here as selfish and as snob as Piper Laurie's .The scenes when she plays the nouveaux riches,as French people say , predate the dramatic sequence of Sarah's cocktail party in "All that Heaven allows" .Rock Hudson's part of a waiter is not far from the gardener full of Joie de Vivre in the 1955 work. Generally,people like this movie and dismiss "no room for the groom" ; however ,both movies display Capra's influence and both movies are proof positive that "all I (should) desire"-to mention another Sirk work- is a simple life ."No room" is closer to farce;beside,it's in black and white . If you want to see James Dean,you've got to pay a lot of attention:he only appears a few seconds .

That was the time of Charleston and Prohibition. That was the time before the Great Crash of some Black Friday or something like that they called the Great Depression. That was the story of a rather slightly dumb hypochondriac rich man with no heirs who wanted to give his money to the family, and descendants, of the girl he loved and who refused him. He got the strange notion of going and visiting the place in upstate New York and the descendants of his old sweetheart. And to test them really he manages to get the family 100,000 dollars. And he saw the damage at once. The wife and mother gets completely lunatic about being rich and she blows a couple of fuses in no time and they are bankrupt in even less than no time. Now what about the boyfriend of the eldest daughter? What about the poor pure mongrel of a dog of the family? What about the little younger daughter? And what about the father who is a happy conscientious pharmacist? And what about life that is happy with love and does not need all that money to have a swell time? What about the local judge and local businessman and local people of any note in that jungle that upstate New York is? Everything and everyone flat on their noses except the few who were not dumb enough to believe in Father Christmas in the middle of the summer. A charming film about money and nothing else, though there are so many things you can think of beside money. New cars, new dresses, new houses, new records and new everything of any kind and sort. And what is that all but just plain nothing when compared with the fair pleasure of achieving something with your own brains and your own hands and your own flesh and bones. It is so beautiful to owe nothing to no one and to have exactly what we want because we earned it. That's what they call sustainability today, and I can tell you there are quite a few people who are unsustainable in their minds. "Let the rich pay for us and spoon feed us with the money they made and we did not make." Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

Charles Coburn gives the family of the woman who rejected him $100,000 in "Has Anybody Seen My Gal," a delightful 1952 comedy set in the 1920s. It's directed by Douglas Sirk and also stars Piper Laurie, Gigi Perreau, Lynn Bari, William Reynolds and Skip Homeier. It seems that when Samuel Fulton was a young man, the young woman who turned him down spurned him on to great things. Now, with no heirs, he wants to leave her family his money. Despite his belief that he's dying, he heads to their hometown and moves in on them as a "Mr. Smith" in order to observe them when they are presented with a check for $100,000. Rock Hudson has a supporting role in this film - he plays a soda jerk and the love interest of Piper Laurie. Dancing the Charleston, he is darn cute. And if you think the kid at the soda fountain giving old man Fulton a hard time is James Dean, you're right, it is. People often say that James Dean only made three films. Wrong. He only STARRED in three films. Gigi Perreau is adorable without being cloying. Piper Laurie, in a Debbie Reynolds type of role, does a good job, though later on, she would shine more in drama. But at this point, she and Rock were just paying their dues along with William Reynolds, who became a TV actor. This is Coburn's film all the way - he's a riot as an old codger who gets a dose of health and love from the family and gives some back in return. "Has Anybody Seen My Gal" demonstrates the fine directing gifts of Douglas Sirk whose name would become synonymous with big budget soap operas. But in 1952, it was fun all the way with Coburn and Universal's stable of young players.