In For Me and My Gal (1942), Gene Kelly makes his film debut as Harry Palmer, a vaudeville performer who dreams of the big time with his partner Jo Hayden, played by Judy Garland. Directed by Busby Berkeley, the musical follows their act from small stages to Broadway, interrupted by the First World War.
Kelly’s debut already shows his style: athletic, confident, and warmly ordinary, a dancer who could also hold a scene as an actor. His partnership with Garland was an immediate success, and the film launched one of the great musical careers of the 1940s and 1950s.
