Employing large props, walls of water, sweeping crane shots, reverse motion and neon with new special effects, the title The Gang’s All Here might as well refer to the contents of Busby Berkeley’s bag of tricks, which sends this sentimental wartime love story soaring into outer space. James Ellison stars as a wealthy heir and Word War II hero who falls in love with a beautiful cabaret singer (Alice Faye) while already engaged. Happily uniting the otherworldly and exotic with the home front in the form of Carmen Miranda, the dizzying opening sequence also introduces the main elements of Berkeley’s world: disorienting surrealism, spatial deception, hyper-color and sheer, unfettered spectacle. Berkeley (one of the most important choreographers to film and Broadway) choreographed the entire film including the famous showpiece “The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat”—an erotic, hypnotic fruit-filled fantasy with a tropical twist—and the astonishing, hallucinatory finale “The Polka Dot Polka.”
IB Tech 35mm print from the Eric Spilker Collection at the Harvard Film Archive. Special thanks to Haden Guest and Mark Johnson.