Three Is a Family (1944) User Reviews

Amusing wartime comedy with infants galore

[arneblaze · 5/10 · 17 June 2002]

This is nothing more than an amusing wartime comedy, practically the photographed stage play it is drawn from with nary more than the one-set living room used in the original. Housing shortages and Navy husbands called up force young newly married mothers to descend in ever confusing waves on one elderly family. There are the usual plots and subplots with a few interesting characterizations: Hattie McDaniel as an imbibing, ever-laughing maid; John Philliber as an ancient doctor who is practically blind; and Arthur Lake as a nerve-frazzled expectant father. A standout (as always) is Helen Broderick as the sarcastic Aunt Irma - she gets all the best lines.

The Sound Recording earned an Oscar nom - it is crisp and full-bodied but I believe it was the sound editing being honored here - being able to hear dialogue over the wails of infants is the achievement.

Very rare film, especially on video. Excellent casting all around and a mildly amusing romp - but definitely a "woman's picture" of the period - aimed at women and young mothers.

So many scene-stealers and a funny script....so why just mediocre?

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 11 August 2014]

Maybe the problem is too many good things spoil the pot, or in this case plot. Chaos is rampid in the two apartments of the same building where members of the same family deal with baby issues, a drunken housekeeper, a blind-as-a-bat doctor, squabbling in-laws and a husband of a mother to be off in the army. An outstanding cast battles each other for laughs, which they all get, yet it becomes in the end a bit too much, a situation that sometimes seems forced even if as entertainment, it ranks extremely high.

Charles Ruggles is the head of a scatterbrained family, fighting with his sister-in-law (the always wonderful Helen Broderick), trying to find time with his beleaguered wife (Fay Bainter) and contending with his young daughter (Marjorie Reynolds) whose husband is off at war and a son (Arthur Lake) whose wife (Jeff Donnell) is expecting. When the maid all of a sudden quits, Bainter is panicky and hires the gregarious Hattie McDaniel, a happy sort whom we find out is always happy as long as the employer has a generous supply of hooch. Everything seemingly falls apart when McDaniel disappears with Reynolds' baby and the nearly sightless doctor (John Philliber) shows up and keeps confusing family members with his nurse and other strangers.

A definite curiosity piece, this is still a wonderful find on DVD, and worth seeing for just how everything turns out. The bits of comedy between Ruggles and Broderick are priceless, with the viewer in on the secret that as much as these two seem to despise each other, you know they could not live without the other one around, and also probably fall into schemes the other comes up easily without any reluctance of what the outcome might be.