Three for the Show (1955)

Director:

H.C. Potter

Writers:

Edward Hope, W. Somerset Maugham (play),

Stars:

Betty Grable, Marge Champion, Gower Champion

Cast

Cast overview:
Betty Grable	...	Julie Lowndes
Marge Champion	...	Gwen Howard
Gower Champion	...	Vernon Lowndes
Jack Lemmon	...	Martin 'Marty' Stewart
Myron McCormick	...	Mike Hudson

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

remake | seemingly widowed | based on play

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Taglines:

LET'S GO! TO THE YEAR'S TOP MUSICAL SHOW! (original print ad - all caps)

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Genres:

Musical

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 February 1955 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Pleasure Is All Mine

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min 88 min (TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jack Cole, the legendary dance director famous for staging Rita Hayward's striptease in Gilda also taught Marilyn Monroe's her moves in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," "How to Marry a Millionaire" and "Some Like It Hot." Credited as the choreographer of this film, his attempt to turn 39 year old Betty Grable into another Marilyn is not very successful. The co-star of the film, Gower Champion, who is not credited for any of the dances, went on to become a famous Broadway choreographer and director in his own right.

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Connections

Featured in AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Jack Lemmon (1988)

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Soundtracks

"Polovetsian Dances"
Music by Aleksandr Borodin (uncredited)
Used as introductory music for "Down Boy"

User Reviews

"The Original Two For One Girl"

What an interesting pedigree Three For The Show had, dating all the way back to 1920 when W. Somerset Maugham's play Too Many Husbands debuted on Broadway with a long forgotten cast. It had a military background instead of a show business one, though the military does figure prominently in the plot.

Collaborators Jack Lemmon and Gower Champion have a hit show on Broadway for producer Myron McCormick that stars Betty Grable. Lemmon goes into the Air Force during the Korean War and goes MIA. He's reported killed and Grable who was married to Lemmon, now marries Champion. Then of course Lemmon returns and they've a situation the reverse of My Favorite Wife.

In the meantime poor Marge Champion is champing at the bit because she's got a thing for Gower. I think you can figure out where this one is going.

The numbers come from a variety of sources, some original, some Broadway, some classical. Betty Grable in what proved to be her next to last film did more serious type dancing here than in any other. But next to the Champions, she really did not look that good. It was unfair to cast her with them.

Grable also did not like working for Harry Cohn, she was used to another imperious studio mogul over at 20th Century Fox who had kind of eased her out of her number one spot for the fast rising Marilyn Monroe. But she thought he was a pussycat next to Cohn. Two For The Show was Betty's first outside film after 14 year at Fox.

Jack Lemmon proved to have a couple of good singing notes as he does accompany the rest on a number or two. He liked working with Grable because he felt she was unpretentious with a good sense of humor as apparently a lot of her colleagues did.

As a film though, Three For The Show will never rank first rate in the work of either Lemmon or Grable.