Three Little Words (1950)

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

Director:

Richard Thorpe

Writer:

George Wells (screenplay)

Stars:

Fred Astaire, Vera-Ellen, Red Skelton

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Fred Astaire	...	Bert Kalmar
Red Skelton	...	Harry Ruby
Vera-Ellen	...	Jessie Brown Kalmar
Arlene Dahl	...	Eileen Percy
Keenan Wynn	...	Charlie Kope
Gale Robbins	...	Terry Lordel
Gloria DeHaven	...	Mrs. Carter De Haven (as Gloria De Haven)
Phil Regan	...	Phil Regan
Harry Shannon	...	Clanahan
Debbie Reynolds	...	Helen Kane
Paul Harvey	...	Al Masters
Carleton Carpenter	...	Dan Healy
George Metkovich	...	Al Schacht
Harry Mendoza	...	The Great Mendoza (as The Great Mendoza)

Storyline

Song-and-dance man Bert Kalmar can't continue his stage career after an injury for a while, so he has to earn his money as a lyricist. Perchance he meets composer Harry Ruby and their first song is a hit. Ruby gets Kalmar to marry is former partner Jessie Brown, and Kalmar and Jessie prevent Ruby from getting married to the wrong girls. But due to the fact that Ruby has caused a backer's withdrawal for a Kalmar play, they end their relation.

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Plot Keywords:

dancing | tap dancing | team | songwriting | lyricist | 

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Genres:

Biography | Comedy | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 July 1950 (USA)

Also Known As:

Drei kleine Worte

Box Office

Budget:

$1,470,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$2,800,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby were friends of Fred Astaire from their early days together in vaudeville. Astaire said the film was one of his all-time favorites.

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Goofs

When Astaire, Wynn, and Skelton are talking about the play never being produced, there are several pictures of M.G.M. stars on the wall. First, from left to right, is Judy Garland, then Spencer Tracy, then Katharine Hepburn, and another I could not identify. The time period in the movie was at that point during the mid 1930s, but those photos were all from the late 1940s.

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Quotes

Harry Ruby: I got plenty of tunes in me!

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Connections

Featured in Glorious Technicolor (1998)

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Soundtracks

Three Little Words
Written by Harry Ruby, Bert Kalmar
Sung by Fred Astaire (later by Red Skelton)

User Reviews

Fun

This film didn't try to do much more than bring us the songs. And that was good. It was wildly anachronistic -- the early number with Astaire and Vera Ella was danced to jazz that had to be some 15 or 20 years later than the date of the film, which at that point would be early 1920s, the age of the Turkey Trot, when bands were still coming out from their military origins. But the later sequence in the capacious ballroom of the ocean liner to "Thinking of You" was lovely. And the shot of the liner was the Normandie, wasn't it? Queen Mary was a four stacker. Vera Ella was a wonderfully acrobatic dancer. Al Schacht WAS a pitcher -- for 3 years (1919-21) for the Senators. The poster who said he was a catcher may have been thinking of Ray Schalk, a hall of fame catcher for the White Sox (including the 1919 nine, though not implicated in the throwing of the Series). And Barris, Rinker, and Bing sang with Paul Whiteman, not Duke Ellington. The MGM color in the 40s and 50s was magnificent -- and this film shows it off superbly. This one is a very enjoyable musical, one of the best of a period that produced some great ones.