Busby Berkeley’s For Me and My Gal continues to solidify my absolute admiration for Judy Garland as a performer. Another show-biz musical, Gene Kelly plays another pushy and obnoxiously entitled suitor, but it’s refreshing to have these character traits portrayed as flaws rather than features. The musical numbers are all stunning – it’s lovely to see Berkeley working with scaled back production numbers and focused on the genuine human relationships and complicated feelings between Garland and Kelly. A wartime drama, it manages to send several characters off into battle without it feeling patriotic or heroic – up until the propagandistic jingoism of the film’s final moments. Still, I’m impressed by the subtlety and nuance woven throughout the film. It was a lovely surprise.