The Gang's All Here

Or, sometimes a banana is just a banana. Albert Johnson writes: "When Busby Berkeley left all of the golddiggers in the lurch at Warner Brothers, he went over to MGM and 20th Century Fox, where he was able to create bigger and wilder fantasies. The Gang's All Here has had a great revival of interest to those who, uninitiated to the genre of musicals, laugh AT its charms. At the time, it was very much in vogue, and Carmen Miranda's celebrated involvement with showgirls erupting out of giant bananas had no Freudian overtones then. Fortunately, the approach to the wartime shenanigans-at-home are depicted with wit, and Alice Faye did embody, one supposes, the typical sexbomb of the homefront, warbling 'no love, no nothin'' over the ironing board. For true collector's items, however, the sight and sound of Mr. Benny Goodman singing 'Minnie's In the Money,' a hymn to wartime prosperity for women, followed by some very authentic jitterbugging displays--well, this is worth everything. The trick is to relax and laugh WITH the film."

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