Me and My Gal is a 1932 film directed by Raoul Walsh.
Danny Dolan (Spencer Tracy) is a cop on the beat on the docks of Manhattan's Lower East Side. He knows all the locals and often stops at a chowder house by the docks, where he flirts with sassy cashier Helen Riley (Joan Bennett, still in her blonde phase).
One day Danny and Al, a police detective, have to go diving into the water to save a drunk who falls in. Unfortunately, Al was there to tail a gangster by the name of Duke Castenega who was supposed to be arriving at the docks via ocean liner. Duke makes it back into New York while Al and Danny are fishing out the drunkard. And as it turns out, Duke is the old boyfriend of Helen's sister, Kate.
Not to be confused with Judy Garland/Gene Kelly vehicle For Me and My Gal.
Tropes:
- Alcohol Hic: Charlie, one of the drunks that hang out at the chowder house, does this.
- As You Know: Al feels the need, while talking with Danny, to refer to the chief by his full name and title.Al: I just hope Chief Inspector John O'Brien hears about it.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: In the usual way, as Danny and Helen fire insults and snark at each other in a way that shows their mutual attraction.
- Blowing a Raspberry: Joe, the obnoxious drunk who keeps stumbling around the docks and bothering people, continually does this at the end of arguments (that he starts).
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: At Kate's wedding reception, her father Pat comes into the foreground, looks directly at the camera, and says "Well, who'd like a drink?" At the end, after Danny and Helen board the boat for their honeymoon, he does this again, facing the camera and saying "Well, it's all over, come on, let's have another drink."
- Broken Glass Penalty: Some kids are playing baseball, and one of them hits a ball right through the window of a guardhouse at the docks. Danny chases after them, catches two, and sets them to fighting each other.
- Call-Back: Danny keeps wearing his hat crooked, and Helen keeps telling him to straighten it. At the end as they're sailing away on their honeymoon, he has his hat on straight. Helen tells him to wear it "the old way" and he tips it to one side.
- Chekhov's Skill: Eddie's father "Sarge" was left paralyzed and unable to speak by his injuries in the Great War—but he is alert and aware and knows Morse Code, so he can communicate by blinking. He does this to send a message that Duke is hiding in the attic.
- Coincidental Broadcast: Kate flips on the radio. The radio then immediately broadcasts a report of Duke's escape from jail.
- Crushing Handshake: Danny does this a couple of times with his prospective father-in-law Pat. The first time, at Kate's wedding, Pat withdraws his hand and winces as he says "That's the best handshake I've had in years."
- Dramatic Irony:
- Duke is working in the prison garage. He gets into a maintenance pit to work on the undercarriage of the warden's car—then rigs up a harness so that he can ride in the undercarriage. As the warden's driver starts the car, Duke, who is strapped in below while the driver thinks he's still in the pit, says "Wish I was going with you!"
- Danny, worried about Duke's escape from jail, says to Kate "You don't suppose there's any chance of him coming around here?" Danny does not know that Duke is hiding in the attic.
- The End: The film ends with Pat Riley stepping in front of the camera, looking at the lens, and saying "Well, it's all over, come on, let's have another drink."
- Everyone Knows Morse: Sarge's knowledge of Morse is explained by him being in the Signal Corps during the war. Eddie is proficient in Morse because he's a sailor. Danny and Helen do not know Morse and so they have to write down the dots and dashes: Helen later gets a Morse Code book and decodes the message about Duke being in the attic.
- Foot Popping: Helen and Danny lean over the counter at the chowder house to kiss. The film cuts to a shot of Helen's foot back in standard Foot Popping position—then cuts to a shot of Danny wiggling his foot as well.
- Hidden Depths: Played for a gag in the opening scene. Danny walks up to a grizzled sailor who's leafing through a newspaper. The sailor then points out an article about a new production of Pagliacci, then points out an op-ed about capitalism and depression, before Danny asks for the sports page.
- Ironic Nickname: Danny insists on calling Helen "Red", even though, as she herself points out, she is blonde.
- Love Triangle: Kate, Kate's dorky husband Eddie, and Kate's dangerous but exciting ex-boyfriend Duke. It's implied that Duke is Kate's true love, because obviously All Girls Want Bad Boys.
- Running Gag: Chief O'Brien promotes Danny to plainclothes detective as a reward for saving Joe the drunk, while simultaneously bawling Al out for abandoning his post to save Joe the drunk. He tells Al to do what Danny does. Al takes this extremely literally, and after this scene is repeating everything Danny says for the rest of the movie.
- Shaking the Rump: It's a film from The Pre-Code Era, which is why Joan Bennett could point her bottom at the camera and shake as Helen bends over to turn on a radio.
- Shamu Fu: A random comedy scene has Joe the drunk slapping another drunk at the chowder house with a fish, followed by all the drunks arguing about what kind of fish it is. (Salmon? Bloater?)
- Take That!: The film version of Strange Interlude came out earlier in 1932. That film, adopting the Breaking the Fourth Wall device of the play, had the characters delivering line of dialogues, followed by Inner Monologues in which their real thoughts can be heard. This movie has Helen and Danny snuggling on a couch when he tells her he saw a film called Strange Inner Tube, and she says oh yeah, that's the movie where you hear all the characters' thoughts. This is then followed by an exchange in which they're both talking while also voicing their thoughts in inner monologue—he's wondering how far he can go, while she's excited that he kissed her but feels like she's required to be offended.
- Writing Indentation Clue: Sort of. Helen decodes the message about Duke being in the attic. Danny then finds the message, which was reproduced on the waitress's carbon check pad that Helen was using.
