3 Men and a Baby (1987)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Leonard Nimoy

Writers:

Coline Serreau (screenplay)
James Orr (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

25 November 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Family | Drama

Tagline:

They changed her diapers. She changed their lives.

Plot:

Three bachelors find themselves forced to take care of a baby left by one of the guy's girlfriends.

Plot Keywords:

Baby | Bachelor | Apartment | Actor | Architect

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Tom Selleck	...	Peter Mitchell
Steve Guttenberg	...	Michael Kellam
Ted Danson	...	Jack Holden
Nancy Travis	...	Sylvia Bennington
Margaret Colin	...	Rebecca
Alexandra Amini	...	Patty
Francine Beers	...	Woman at Gift Shop
Lisa Blair	...	Mary Bennington
Michelle Blair	...	Mary Bennington
Philip Bosco	...	Det. Sgt. Melkowitz
Barbara Budd	...	Actress
Michael Burgess	...	Handsome Man at Party
Claire Cellucci	...	Angelyne
Eugene Clark	...	Man #1 at Party
Derek de Lint	...	Jan Clopatz

Also Known As:

Three Men and a Baby (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Peru:PT | USA:PG (Certificate #28596) | South Korea:12 | Argentina:Atp | Chile:TE | Finland:S | Sweden:7 | UK:PG | West Germany:6 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Interscope Communications

Trivia:

Toward the end of filming, the babies that play Mary, where less entranced by the actors around her, and became enticed by the microphone. She would start to follow it with her gaze, and not look at the actors. Leonard Nimoy and other crew members had to start hiding the microphone and disguising it from the baby's view.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Near the end, when the guys are discussing with Sylvia about her and Mary moving in, Jack calls Sylvia "Cynthia".

Quotes:

Jack Holden: [On the phone] I'll bring you guys something back from Turkey. Maybe a drumstick.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005) (V)

Soundtrack:

Conga

Everyone Loves Babies

I own this charming film on VHS tape. It's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember it with tender and life-affirming pleasure. Indeed, it is a lightweight, somewhat implausible Hollywood comedy with three impossibly well-off, comely, and well-adjusted bachelors in a cavernous apartment (imagine the rent). But Selleck, Guttenburg, and Danson earn their laughs (although I fould the latter just a tad stiff) and after cherubic baby Mary enters their lives, they earn our hearts. During the middle of the film after the drug dealers have tied up the babysitter, trashed the apartment looking for the heroin, and left the baby in a closet with threats to return, when Selleck finds the baby and says, "Nobody is going to hurt you, nobody is going to hurt you", despite the unsavory drug plot, the movie grabs you in its caring but firm embrace. When Mary's mother returns for the baby after abandoning her on the doorstep, at first you want to condemn her. But when she tearfully explains to the trio why she did it, I think you forgive her. "Three Men and a Baby" demonstrates that the simple love of an adult for an infant is enough for a compelling story and will more than compensate for an awkwardly shoe-horned subplot and even Danson's (Mary's biological father's) negligence.

There's a vital place on this planet for "feel-good" movies like "Three Men and a Baby".