Three for the Show (1955)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

H.C. Potter

Writers:

Edward Hope (writer)
W. Somerset Maugham (play)

Release Date:

24 February 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Musical

Tagline:

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

Plot Keywords:

Remake | Based On Play

Cast

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

Also Known As:

The Pleasure Is All Mine (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

USA:93 min | USA:88 min (TCM print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Jack Cole, the legendary dance director famous for staging Rita Hayward's striptease in Gilda (1946) 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.

Movie Connections:

Remake of Too Many Husbands (1940)

Soundtrack:

Down Boy

....Betty Grable's last full scale musical

..and with Marge and Gower Champion and Jack Lemmon...it is lots of fun. Fun is what Betty Grable was about...and this film is at its best during those sequences aimed at amusing. ...These days people do not understand Betty Grable very well. In her day she was everyman's and every womans ideal. Indeed no woman has broken Betty's box office record (eleven years in the top ten). And, in the forties and early fifties, women still dominated the box office to an amazing degree--Mom chose the films the family was going out to see. Though it was a bit early to be obvious, Betty in many ways represented a manifestation of what we would now call a liberated woman. She was nearly always working (in revealing clothing!), and she was self supporting. In real life she was a very successful working mother--and particularly during WWII she was an inspiration to women manning the homefront as much as an inspiration to the armed forces fighting overseas. She was pretty, talented, popular, and the highest salaried woman in the United States. Now she is remembered primarily as a 'pin up'--which she also was, but the title tends to diminish the many other factors that created her popularity. One thing is certain, in "Three for the Show" or any other of her starring films--she will entertain you royally within the limitations of the material she was given.