Great Film overall

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The regrets of a long-ago unrequited love has made supposed ailing millionaire Charles Coburn decide to leave a bequest to that deceased woman's family. He moves in with them as a border under an assumed name to see how they will spend the money and finds out that simple people aren't so simple when it comes to sudden riches and the desire to move up the social ladder. In the process, he plays "Mr. Fix-It" for the pretty Piper Laurie who happens to look exactly like her grandmother did years ago and convince her boyfriend (Rock Hudson) not to make the same mistakes he did years ago. In the process, the family learns some valuable lessons, especially that life on the right side of the tracks is not as rewarding a a simple life where happiness rules, not the worries over finances.Stage veteran Charles Coburn had started his film career in his mature years 17 years before this playing mostly imperious wealthy men who dominated their family and ran their business with an iron hand. By the mid 1940's, he wasn't just an Academy Award Winning character actor who occasionally starred in a B movie, but a full-fledged star, as beloved by film audiences as the biggest of stars half his age. The early 50's typecast him as a lovable old grouch with a heart of gold, a flirtatious old geezer who not only got to kiss the hand of Marilyn Monroe, but prove to audiences that just because there was snow on the roof didn't mean that there was no fire in the furnace. This film was one of his best, and if it is your introduction to him, you will come out of it adoring him as well.As he goes from bed-ridden business tycoon to the repairman of a messed up family, Coburn goes from night shirt to raccoon coat, from hiding cigars in bed to dancing the Charleston. He even takes up finger-painting, sleeps with the family dog, and is caught in both a speakeasy and gambling house, later being accused of making out with the young Laurie in a silent movie house. The rumor mill of this man makes its way into high society as the greedy family he left money to basically sticks their nose up at him. The biggest nose raiser is the ridiculously social climbing Lynn Bari who would rather see daughter Laurie marry a man with money she didn't love than soda jerk/pharmacist Rock Hudson. This is a woman you want to see taken down a few pegs as her selfishness is outrageous.Bari's husband is played by Larry Gates, the character actor who won an Emmy for his long-running role as wealthy patriarch H.B. Lewis on "Guiding Light". He may be the breadwinner in the family (running a pharmacy which is a teen-aged hang-out at the soda stand), but quietly allows Bari to control everything. Gigi Perreau is their adorable youngest daughter who instantly takes to Coburn, while William Reynolds is the only son whom Coburn discovers has a gambling problem. The mixture of family drama into the comedy (with a few songs thrown in to give the flavor of the era) adds some realism.In smaller roles, Skip Homeier is the uppity rich brat Laurie is distracted by, Paul McVey and Gloria Holden ("Dracula's Daughter") as his snooty parents, Paul Harvey the judgmental judge, and in a one-line unbilled part, James Dean who harasses Coburn in the soda shop. It is a shame Hudson isn't in this scene as only a few years later, they would work together as rivals in the epic "Giant". Fritz Feld is the pretentious tango teacher who reminded me of Hermoine Gingold as he gave the society ladies instructions. Colorful photography, delightful music and a real feeling of what life in simpler days was like. Director Douglas Sirk may be more remembered for his plush soap operas, but this ranks as one of his best films.

Has Anybody Seen My Gal (Douglas Sirk, 1952) is a winning comedy from the soon-to-be master of romantic melodrama, Douglas Sirk, who went on to make the smash-hit "women's pictures" Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows. Just as those films pack a notable satirical bite, so Has Anybody Seen My Gal has a few choice things to say about greed and the worship of money, even if Sirk gets his message across in an overly broad manner. Charles Coburn, who could do "crustily avuncular" like no-one else in Hollywood, plays a multi-millionaire with a novel idea about what do with his will. Having made his fortune after losing the only girl he ever loved, he resolves to give the money to the late woman's family: daughter Lynn Bari, her husband Larry Gates - who runs a grocery store - and their likable children, Piper Laurie, William Reynolds and Gigi Perreau. But he wants to make doubly sure he's doing the right thing, and inveigles his way into their household posing as a surrealist painter.The film is extremely entertaining and the scriptwriters generally make the right decisions within scenes, knowing when to play for laughs (almost always), when to deliver a little jolt of emotion (like Coburn seeing a portrait of his lost love) and when to curtail an encounter. It's also genuinely funny, with Coburn an absolute joy as the film's good-hearted centre, alternately omniscient and naive. The scenes where he's reprimanded by judge Paul Harvey for supposedly immorality are particularly strong and there's a hilarious, ridiculous sequence in which the paternal old cove is accused of necking with young woman Laurie in a cinema that's masterfully-handled. Coburn, in career-best form, also generates an easy chemistry with both the wide-eyed, red-headed Laurie (later of The Hustler, Carrie and Return to Oz) and the charming Perreau, who reminds me of Margaret O'Brien. Being a Douglas Sirk film, this one looks absolutely great, while it's also significant in movie history as the director's first teaming with frequent collaborator Rock Hudson (playing Laurie's soda jerk boyfriend) and for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it turn from James Dean as a kid ordering a soda. That's if it takes you 10 seconds to blink.But the film falls short of greatness in several ways. The narrative, which sees Bari turn into a nouveau riche monster, is apt to offend people of all political persuasions, with the idea that money is evil being a socialist concept and the suggestion that poor people can't handle the paper stuff an old-fashioned right-wing one. There's also the problem of Bari's character, who is crucial to our investment in the story. Familiar as the "other woman" from countless Fox films of the '30s and early-'40s, the actress is poorly-cast in a badly-written role and delivers a one-dimensional and unsympathetic performance. Though the '20s setting is enthusiastically utilised, it's also a little synthetic, while little jokes about rising prices and changing fashions are largely meaningless today to all those without a PhD in early-20th century American history. Perhaps most frustratingly, the film ends in an unorthodox manner that doesn't suit the material, taking the peculiar decision to keep the identity of Coburn's millionaire a secret. A climactic unmasking has obvious comic and dramatic potential, but instead all we get is Coburn walking down the street and out of his adopted family's lives.Has Anybody Seen My Gal is top entertainment, powered by Charles Coburn's lovely performance and packed with good jokes. But it's let down by the simplistic, slightly negative central message, Bari's weak characterisation and a refusal to play ball with its audience, which would have turned this period piece into prime Americana.Trivia note: The film's title refers to a '20s hit, sung here by a bunch of kids at a soda fountain. It's one of several tunes tossed into the mix, apparently at random.

The title "Has Anybody Seen My Gal?" comes from a popular song of the 1920s, and presumably it was slapped on this non-musical movie to let people know when the story is supposed to be taking place. That was a silly idea, but the movie itself is charming. Charles Coburn plays the world's richest man, an elderly recluse whose face is known to virtually no one. (Bear in mind that this movie was made before tycoon Howard Hughes became legendary for his secretive ways.) The rich man travels incognito to the small town where he spent much of his youth. There he becomes the anonymous benefactor of a family that played an early role in his success, though none of its members have any idea of their link to him. He works as a seemingly down-on-his-luck soda jerk in the town, watching up close how his mysterious checks change the lives of people in this ordinary, close-knit family. It's not always a pretty sight, but it does teach a lesson, not just to them but to him. There's a Christmastime angle that isn't absolutely essential to the plot, but it did point out to me this film's similarity to another bittersweet fantasy, Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life." If you want a movie that's heartwarming and entertaining and has a moral, this is a good choice. Try it for Christmas.

This wonderful film has often been described as a wonderful piece of Americana and so it is.It is beautifully realized thanks to a wonderful cast, terrific pacing and a story line that we can repeat over and over: money isn't everything.Charles Coburn gives another wonderful performance. This versatile actor, who moved from drama to comedy with ease, is fantastic as the elderly gentleman who visits the family of the woman who turned him down years before when he proposed to her. While the woman herself is now deceased, Coburn finds her family in the ideal American town of the 1920s.Lynn Bari is wonderful as the status seeking mother married to a soda store owner-Larry Gates. Then there is Gigi Perreau who is as precocious as ever.A young and beautiful Piper Laurie appears as their elder daughter who becomes engaged to Rock Hudson, a soda jerk at Gates' store.When Coburn goes to live with family, posing as a border, all hell breaks loose when he gives them anonymously $100,000. The money changes all of them drastically.There are wonderfully comic turns everywhere and there is a short but memorable Charleston done by Laurie and Hudson. Even, Coburn figures in the dancing.You will be upset when the movie ends because Coburn, on the verge of being found out, announces to the family that he may never see them again as he leaves. Nevertheless, this is a feel good movie; it conveys the American ideal and values so well and with great comedy along the way.