Customer Reviews
Technicolor extravaganza - By: Addison de Witt, 29 Aug 2010 
One of Fox's lavish wartime Technicolor musicals & the last onein the Fortiesin which Alice Faye appeared, this is now mainly noted for being the one occasion on which Busby Berkeley was entrusted with a large budget & Technicolor - with somewhat bizarre results.The story need not detain us; an Army sergeant on leave falls for a showgirl (Faye) while still affianced to the daughter (Sheila Ryan) of his father's business partner, & the film's UK title was "The Girls he left Behind". At this stage of the war,(1943) Hollywood was desperately short of young leading men, as most of them had been drafted, so the best Fox could come up with here is James Ellison, a strictly B-picture lead,who is hardly given even featured billing. But the story only serves as an excuse for some lavish production numbers ostensibly setin a New York nightclub & a warbond rallyin a Westchester mansion butin reality conceived on such a scale that they could only fit onto a mammoth soundstage. Not all the ideas are successful: Benny Goodman, the "King of Swing" ill-advisedly (who told that man he could sing?) gives forth with "Minnie'sin the Money" & a song with the most idiotic lyrics ever, "Paducah" (Paducah, Paducah/ If you wanna you can rhyme it with bazooka/ But you can't pooh-pooh Paducah"!!) & Berkeley's kaleidoscope finale is, frankly, a mess,- but there are compensations. Alice Faye sings "No Love, No Nothin'" very affectingly, there is a splendid opening number "You discover you'rein New York" which is very inventively staged, & the inimitable Carmen Miranda is always good value, adding her exuberance & professional expertise to the overlong (but iconic) "Lady with the Tutti Frutti Hat" as well as the afore-mentioned "Paducah" which she somehow rescues, dancing with Tony de Marco. Charlotte Greenwood, Edward Everett Horton & Eugene Pallette lend support & you might catch an early glimpse of Jeanne Crainin a bathing suit (also apparently, June Haver, but she is harder to spot).
Extras are undistinguished, mainly dealing with Alice Faye's post-Fox career.
plot?what plot? - By: R. Poole, 12 Nov 2009 forget any story line or plot.watch it for the benny goodman numbers,the very freudian berkely banana routines
the quite risque (for its time)no love no nothin number complete with waiting bed on the wings & the mangled sayings of carmen miranda allin technicolor!fab
Its alright - By: Alex da Silva, 17 Jul 2009 
Andy (James Ellison) meets Edie (Alice Faye) & they fallin love on the eve that he goes to war. He returns a hero & has a party thrownin his honour where he has 2 women waiting for him - his childhood sweetheart Vivian (Sheila Ryan) & Edie. Who does he end up with?
The story is irrelevant as the film is an excuse to churn out musical numbers. The songs are not that good. Benny Goodman sings the only decent songs despite looking like he's a retard. Apart from the musical numbers, the film is only ever good whenever Carmen Miranda is on screen - she's completely mad. The film is boring whenin the hands of the support characters - Peyton Potter (Edward Everett Horton) who is meant to be funny but isn't & Andrew Mason Snr (Eugene Palette) whose got an annoying voice. However, Mrs Potter (Charlotte Greenwood) is more interesting, & isin one of the better musical numbers.
There are a couple of Busby Berkeley set pieces that stand out. The first is set on a tropical island where girls dance with 6 foot bananas while Carmen Miranda sings "The girlin the Tutti-Frutti hat". Its not a particularly good song but its a spectacle. The other spectacle occurs at the end.....if you think psychedelia startedin the 1960's.....well, you're wrong......
Overall, a few of the musical numbers, crazy Carmen Miranda & the crazy end-piece make this film worth keeping on to for another viewing.
Don't bother with the plot. Fast forward to the bananas and `No Love, No Nothin' - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 13 Aug 2008 The only problem with The Gangs All Here is the plot. It keeps gettingin the way of the production numbers. Busby Berkeley manages to shoehorn four major numbersin the just the first 30 minutes, & he doesn't let up much after that. These numbers include everything Busby Berkeley could think of, from Benny Goodman swinging "Minnie'sin the Money" to Alice Faye singing "No Love, No Nothin'" to some bizarre extravaganzas featuring lots of thighs, bananas & Carmen Miranda. You'll want to hit the fast forward button at regular intervals to get past the dull parts between them. The story is corny, the romantic misunderstanding is...yawn... & the acting is often weak (James Ellison as the male lead) or prissily unfunny (Edward Everett Horton). Still, the Technicolor is as garish as you could want & the songs by Harry Warren & Leo Robin work well. There's little time to think of anything except the numbers & what Berkeley does with them. Says one film commentator, "[Berkeley] was a dance director who couldn't dance. In a Berkeley production it was the camera that danced." I'm not sure anyone could watch "The Lady with the Tutti Frutti Hat" & not bein awe of how Berkeley not only made use of all those chorines with the giant fruit, but how he kept the action going using his camerain intricately plotted movement. If you watch the Tutti Frutti number a second time, see how many of the chorus dancers you can spot with grim determination, not smiles, on their faces as they lug those giant bananas around & struggle to hit their marks while the camera swoops & turns.
The story? Alice Faye is a showgirl. James Ellison is a soldier, the son of a wealthy family soon off to the Pacific. They fall for each other, but he has a sort of girl friend. His parents & the girl's parents think they should get hitched. Will Alice & Jim work things out? They do after approximately 100 minutes. Among the relatives & friends are Carmen Miranda, Eugene Pallette, Charlotte Greenwood & Horton,
There are a number of reasons to watch this movie, especially if you're interestedin Busby Berkeley. It turned out to be his swan song as a major forcein the movies. For me, the production numbers are a lot of fun, but the best reason is that classic song by Warren & Robin that Alice Faye introduced...
No love, no nothin'
Until my baby comes home.
No fun with no one,
As long as baby must roam.
I promised him I'd wait for him
Till even Hades froze.
I'm lonesome, heaven knows,
But what I said still goes.
No love, no nothin'
And that's a promise I'll keep.
No sir, no nothin'
I'm getting plenty of sleep.
My heart's on strike,
And tho' its like
An empty honeycomb,
No love, no sir, no nothin'
Till my baby comes home.
This became one of America's great songs of longing during WWII. If you want to hear more of them, you can't do better than Jo Stafford & her CD, G.I. Jo - Songs of World War II.
