Protraph
Lack of good storyline.
Bea Swanson
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Rexanne
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
christopher-underwood
The colour rendition is wonderful (at least on my Blu-ray copy) and the film looks incredible throughout. There is barely a pause and we go from one musical number to another (well, sometimes back to the same number) with for example coloured fountains spurting up to close one scene and move to another. I had hoped for more of the extravagant and surreal Busby Berkeley routines but the two we get are amazing and, as they say, worth the ticket price. There are more modest dances that work well and Benny Goodman is always on hand to keep things moving well. I don't share the enthusiasm of some for the antics of high kicker Charlotte Greenwood and partner in crime, Edward Horton and I was very underwhelmed with the leading duo of Alice Faye and James Ellison. Ellison would later appear in I Walked With a Zombie which was probably more appropriate and maybe Faye had sung better in her early years. Still worth it for the technicolour extravaganzas and a glorious performance from Carmen Miranda.
gkeith_1
Carmen Miranda was a big star. Here, she was second-billed. The banana show was excellent. Busby Berkeley was wonderful, as always. The Technicolor was superb. South American themes were prevalent during the time period. Exotic tropical getaways were alluded to in other films, like Weekend in Havana. Dorita was treated like a second-class human here. However, she had men swooning after her, and even in another film Mickey Rooney did a parody of Carmen Miranda's fruit-dance. In this film, another character kept saying putdowns to Dorita, away from the stage, as if a South American was only capable of stealing or other crass sins. They were making fun of Dorita's supposedly secondary racial status. Apparently, that was acceptable in those days. It was wrong, however.These were snide remarks, sort of like "Don't steal the silverware, you inferior lowlife." Dorita was still laughing and grinning. Carmen Miranda had the last laugh on these Anglos. She is still remembered today, as opposed to most if not all of the actors in this film. The Souse-American Way. Yay. 5/10
bkoganbing
A plot that's almost non-existent doesn't get in the way of some splashy knockout technicolor filmed musical number in The Gang's All Here. This marked Alice Faye's final musical film for 20th Century Fox. She would do one more movie that was without any songs for her in Fallen Angel and would leave Darryl F. Zanuck with Betty Grable and June Haver taking over for her and in the bullpen as Fox's reigning musical star.Leading man James Ellison is something of a dog here. While on leave even though he's engaged to Sheila Ryan, something that their rich fathers Eugene Palette and Edward Everett Horton have worked out, Ellison gives the big rush to chorus girl Alice Faye who falls hard for him and then abruptly leaves for the south Pacific where he becomes a war hero. How it all works out should be rather obvious.But all that is just a frame to hang a slew of musical numbers on. And of course Carmen Miranda is also here doing her famous Lady With The Tutti Fruitti Hat number along with the King Of Swing Benny Goodman and his orchestra. Harry Warren and Leo Robin wrote the original numbers for this film which include for Alice Faye a couple of her best loved songs, A Journey To A Star and No Love No Nothing.Busby Berkeley created the numbers and directed the whole film and with color his kaleidoscopic musical fantasies are quite an eyeful. The film should come with a warning label because if you are abusing any kind of substance that finale will lead your mind into some interesting places.Stay off whatever and then sit back and enjoy The Gang's All Here.
didi-5
Basically plot less, and a vehicle for some mind-boggling Busby Berkeley numbers ... those bananas!!! ... and two leading ladies at 20th Century Fox, Alice Faye and Carmen Miranda. Both ladies have strong personalities and buoy this film up. It needs it, as there is no story to speak of, the characterisations are slight, and even Benny Goodman stretches the goodwill a bit.Family rivalries, chequered pasts, wartime romances, and a show of shows, and you have 'The Gang's All Here' in a nutshell (or a banana skin).Berkeley chorus girls were of course known for partaking of outlandish formations and musical numbers shot from all angles including above, but those rising and falling bananas, and Carmen Miranda cavorting about covered in fruit ... absolutely preposterous!
