Interesting how a film made in the 50’s and set in the late 20’s feels like it is from a vantage point of a hundred years, but a film made today about the 1990’s wouldn’t seem as if so much time has passed. Or maybe I’m being naïve.
All I know is 1952’s Has Anybody Seen My Gal makes its late 1920’s setting look like the stone age in comparison. It’s about as startling of a difference as, I don’t know, a film set in the 1970s would be today. OK, maybe one set in the 1980’s.
It has a well-worn set-up that was popular in the era in which it is set and which continues to be used in cinema to this day, that being the extremely wealthy guy who gives his money to some people who don’t know him and then watches to see how this affects them.
In this case, the Monopoly man is played by Charles Coburn. When he was a young man, a woman who looked like a young Piper Laurie rejected his proposal of marriage. Instead, he went off and made his fortune when he struck oil. In gratitude to her, he conspires to rent a room in the house of the now deceased woman’s family.
The matriarch of that family (Lynn Bari) constantly and loudly laments her mother marrying poor, when she could have married a wealthy man. Her husband is Larry Gates, in a role that is noticeably underdeveloped. Their children are the nearly adult William Reynolds, a young (but wise beyond her years) Gigi Perreau and, well, Piper Laurie.
The film starts off promising, with the scheming Coburn mischievously worming his way into the household by placing an ad in a newspaper offering a room for rent at their address. When they rightfully say they have no knowledge of this, he claims he will sue them for false advertising. This is the kind of gleeful deception he was so good at as a card shark in The Lady Eve, so it’s no surprise a poker game will eventually become part of the plot.
He also has an immediate partner in crime when Perreau answers the door. Curious about his obvious alias of John Smith, she asks him if he is the same guy who wooed Pocahontas. His reply: “Do I look 300 years old? Don’t answer that.”
Something I didn’t expect was what happens the first time Laurie drops by to see her beau (Rock Hudson) at the pharmacy soda fountain, which is the characters suddenly break out into song and dance. A musical…ugh. My heart sank. What is odd is, aside from a couple of other numbers, the film seems to eventually forget it had any aspirations of being a musical, which is just fine by me.
Unfortunately for Laurie, Bari has every intention of her marrying into society, and Skip Homeier is the boy she has lined up for her. A line about Homeier’s character that raised an eyebrow from me is courtesy of Reynolds, who says any girl who goes out with that guy has a history in about five minutes.
Hudson will be shut out completely once Coburn anonymously bequeaths a check for one hundred grand to the family. Bari was simply annoying up until this point, and now her character becomes downright reprehensible. She moves the family into the largest house in town, where they will only entertain the “right” people. Even the old family dog gets replaced by two French poodles. Fortunately, Coburn and Hudson take the dog in when they become roommates. Perreau is so relieved to see their old pooch: “Papa says he’s a purebred mongrel.”
This young actress nearly steals the show from Coburn, which had to have been hard to do. It helps she is given so many great lines, all of which she delivers in perfect deadpan. She overhears Homeier telling Piper, “That’s what I love about you, you’ve got a great sense of humor”, and she drops in, “She’s has to have one to go out with you.” When Bari tries to explain the boarder Coburn’s presence to guests, her “He’s an old friend of the family” is followed perfectly by the young girl with, “For about three hours now.” Then there’s her assessment of the allegedly surrealist work Coburn has created in his guise as a painter: “Is this what you feel inside? Then you must be all mixed up.”
Hudson is second-billed in this, though he is curiously given far less screentime than one would then expect. Still, he’s very good in this. I always wonder why he never seemed to get much respect as an actor, and that still seems to be true today. Odd bit of trivia: this was the first of nine movies he would make with director Douglas Sirk. There’s also a cameo by James Dean which is interesting if only because you’ll find yourself going, “Is that James Dean?”
Has Anybody Seen My Gal is a light-hearted confection from a director who would go on to great renown for his melodramas. It is witty and funny, and it is definitely worth a watch. As a bonus, it is interesting to see an era nearly 100 years ago through the filter of nostalgia nearly three decades on. I couldn’t help but be reminded of The Association’s 1967 song “Wasn’t It A Bit Like Now (Parallel ’23)”, which expressed such nostalgia for the same period through alternating styles of the two eras. Now, I may love that group but, compared to this movie, that track does sound seriously dated.
Dir: Douglas Sirk
Starring Piper Laurie, Rock Hudson, Charles Coburn, Gigi Perreau
Watched on Kino Lorber blu-ray