Three Little Words (1950)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Richard Thorpe

Writer:

George Wells (writer)

Release Date:

12 July 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Comedy | Musical | Romance

Plot:

The story of the successful Tin Pan Alley songwriting team of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby is told loosely and lightheartedly.

Plot Keywords:

Composer | Team | Songwriting | Dancer | Song Writer

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Fred Astaire	...	Bert Kalmar
Red Skelton	...	Harry Ruby
Vera-Ellen	...	Jessie Brown / Jessie Kalmar
Arlene Dahl	...	Eileen Percy Ruby
Keenan Wynn	...	Charlie Kope
Gale Robbins	...	Terry Lordel
Gloria DeHaven	...	Mrs. Carter De Haven
Phil Regan	...	Himself
Harry Shannon	...	Clanahan, owner of Clanahan's Paradise
Debbie Reynolds	...	Helen Kane
Paul Harvey	...	Al Masters
Carleton Carpenter	...	Dan Healy
George Metkovich	...	Al Schacht
Harry B. Mendoza	...	The Great Mendoza

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

West Germany:12 | France:U | USA:Unrated (DVD rating) | Australia:G | Finland:S

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The dress worn by Gale Robbins in the “All Alone Monday” number is the same dress worn by Ann Miller in the “Girl on the Magazine Cover” in Easter Parade (1948).

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The picture of The Marx Brothers supposedly from Animal Crackers (1930) is actually from The Big Store (1941).

Quotes:

Harry Ruby: I got plenty of tunes in me!

Movie Connections:

References Animal Crackers (1930)

Soundtrack:

Thinking of You

Looks Good, Feels Good

This was a wonderful, feel-good movie with tons of songs, many of them appealing. There also were some great dancing scenes, no surprise there since Fred Astaire is one of the stars. Astaire and Vera-Ellen paired up well for those numbers.

This is one of the few films, even in the musicals, in which all the characters were nice people. In other words, there were no villains, no nasty people, which is refreshing to see now and then. It is supposedly the true-life account of songwriters Bert Kalmar (Astaire) and Harry Ruby (Red Skelton). Ruby is good at writing tunes, but not with lyrics. Kalmar supplies the lyrics and dance. Skelton also shows he had a decent singing voice.

The only unhappy moments in the movie are the squabbles between the two leading men, but that's not overdone and sometimes it's humorous. Skelton's character is the nicer of the two.

The leading ladies are wholesome-looking beautiful women. Vera-Ellen is a Shirley Jones-type pretty blonde with a great dancer's body. She's enjoyable to watch. Arlene Dahl, who was stunning, is the other leading female but her role was minor, unfortunately.

The movie is a good mixture of song, dance, comedy and drama and is an underrated film in that it that doesn't get a lot of publicity. Astaire was quoted as saying this was his favorite film. I agree. It's my favorite of his, too.