Me and My Gal (1932)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

Philip Klein (story) and
Barry Conners (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

4 December 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy | Romance

Plot:

Young New York cop Dan falls in love with waterfront waitress Helen. Helen's sister Kate falls for gangster Duke. Dan must do in Duke. |

Plot Keywords:

Gangster | Bank Robbery | Lower East Side | New York City | Detective

Cast

Spencer Tracy	...	Danny Dolan
Joan Bennett	...	Helen Riley
Marion Burns	...	Kate Riley
George Walsh	...	Duke
J. Farrell MacDonald	...	Pop Riley
Noel Madison	...	Baby Face
Henry B. Walthall	...	Sarge
Bert Hanlon	...	Jake
Adrian Morris	...	Allen
George Chandler	...	Eddie Collins
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Emmett Corrigan	...	Police Captain
Jesse De Vorska	...	Jake
Lemist Esler	...	Doctor
Hank Mann	...	Hank
Frank Moran	...	Drunk's Foil
Will Stanton	...	Drunk
Frank Atkinson	...	(uncredited)
Billy Bevan	...	Ashley (uncredited)
Heinie Conklin	...	Worker (uncredited)
Roger Imhof	...	Down and Outer (uncredited)
James A. Marcus	...	Tugboat Captain (uncredited)
Pat Moriarity	...	Priest (uncredited)
Russ Powell	...	Burper (uncredited)
Ralph Sipperly	...	English Drunk (uncredited)
Phil Tead	...	Radio Salesman (uncredited)
Eleanor Wesselhoeft	...	Wife (uncredited)

Directed by
Raoul Walsh

Writing credits
Philip Klein		(story) and
Barry Conners		(story)
Arthur Kober		(writer)
Frank Dolan		uncredited and
Philip Dunne		uncredited and
Charles Vidor		uncredited and
Alfred A. Cohn		uncredited

Cinematography by
Arthur C. Miller		(as Arthur Miller)

Film Editing by
Jack Murray		(uncredited)

Art Direction by
Gordon Wiles

Costume Design by
Rita Kaufman

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Horace Hough	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
George Leverett	....	sound recording engineer

Camera and Electrical Department
Billy Abbott	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Don Anderson	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Roy Johnson	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Joseph LaShelle	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Clarence Slifer	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Music Department
George Lipschultz	....	musical director

Production Companies

• Fox Film Corporation

Distributors

• Fox Film Corporation

Also Known As:

Pier 13 (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Fox Film Corporation

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Strange Interlude (1932)

Ingratiating pre-Code fun

"Me and My Gal" is an ingratiating pre-Code comedy-drama enhanced by spirited banter between Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett who play two young people feeling each other out as potential mates. Bennett is surprisingly good as a wise-cracking, down-to-earth waitress who speaks her mind and can easily hold her own against Tracy's New York City cop. The pre-Code era's lack of pretense about sexuality makes their impassioned kiss in the diner -- as the two knock over items on the lunch counter -- all the more humorous. Bennett, both impressed and amused by Tracy's kiss, responds: "If you're gonna kiss me like that, you're gonna have to marry me." It's a magical little moment that caused the passage of time since 1932 to drop away and left me there with them to enjoy the fun.

A sub-plot involves Bennett's newly married sister, a good girl who nevertheless can't resist her bad boy gangster ex-boyfriend. When he needs to hide from the police, she installs him in a spare bedroom, under the nose of her disabled father-in-law who is confined to a wheelchair, can't speak a word and communicates only by blinking his eyes in Morse code. Later, when everything gets resolved, Tracy tells the father-in-law that the daughter-in-law is a good kid at heart in spite of what she did, expressing pre-Code generosity for forgiveness and tolerance, even in sexual transgressions with gangsters.