Three Guys Named Mike

Three Guys Named Mike is a pleasant and amusing comedy about an airline stewardess who gets romanced by Three Guys Named Mike. Jane Wyman is the stewardess and she sparkles as usual. The three guys she has to choose from are Van Johnson: research scientist, Howard Keel pilot: and Barry Sullivan advertising executive.

The story is based on the real life experiences of American Airlines stewardess Ethel Welles who told them to none other than C.R. Smith the charismatic president of American Airlines. He commissioned a story and then a screenplay.

The resemblances and that's a kind word to RKO's Tom, Dick, and Harry are unmistakable. But in terms of quality of production look at these two films back to back and check the production values from and RKO film to an MGM film. But Jane and her guys do their usual performances and are fine in the parts.

Howard Keel in his memoir says that in his first screen fight he got a little over enthused and gave Barry Sullivan a mouse over his eye. Keel was not left unbruised either. Neither of these guys were schooled in how to pull punches.

One thing that surprised me about Three Guys Named Mike was the lack of a nomination for musical score since the instrumental version of it is entitled Confetti. Many orchestras recorded it in the early fifties and the theme was repeated in many MGM productions.

Three Guys Named Mike holds up well today because the problems of the stewardesses flying today's 747s versus the DC-3s you see here are the same. This film could use a remake, I could see Reese Witherspoon as the one trying to choose between Three Guys Named Mike.