Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Cortechba Overrated

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

utgard14 Musical biopic about the songwriting team of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby (Fred Astaire and Red Skelton). I have never heard of these gentlemen before this movie, nor do I know how historically accurate this is. I will go out on a limb and assume not so much. Astaire and Skelton are both good. Skelton actually reins it in a bit. Not much of his usual slapstick, save for a few diversions in the brief baseball scenes. Vera-Ellen does a terrific job with the dancing but looks frightfully thin. It's always rough for me to watch her movies when she had that disturbingly tiny waist. Arlene Dahl has a mostly bland role as Skelton's love interest. She doesn't stand out. Keenan Wynn appears in a supporting role. Sexy Gale Robbins gives a great performance of "All Alone Monday." The songs are all nice. The film's highlight is the Debbie Reynolds/Carleton Carpenter "I Wanna Be Loved by You" number, with Reynolds playing Helen Kane (who dubbed the singing herself). All in all, it's a nice little MGM musical. Not the best but pleasant and enjoyable.

writers_reign By 1950 we'd had bio-pics of Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, giants all but in 1950 MGM offered a bio-pic of what in England we would call the Second Eleven, not quite the very highest level but just a tad behind. Three Little Words has been sadly neglected despite being far more accurate factually than all the other four put together. Where fact has been embellished is in small details - for example the two men never quarreled and never split up, there was a film actress named Eileen Percy and she did marry Harry Ruby but in the interests of dramatic tension a quarrel and a split was fabricated. Fred Astaire is alwayd worth the price of admission even when saddled with something as inept as Second Chorus and here, as Bert Kalmar he treats admirers to some excellent dancing and equally excellent acting. Though I've never been able to warm to Vera Ellen she cannot be faulted as Astaire's wife, similarly Red Skelton's appeal has always eluded me but here he manages to subdue this usual OTT schtick and turns in a fine performance as Harry Ruby. Throw in Gloria de Haven performing the great ballad Who's Sorry Now and we're talking wonderful movie.

hcoursen 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.

ryancm This is what MGM did best. Musicals. Ah, they were all so wonderful, and THREE LITTLE WORDS in one of them. A nice, quiet muscial with great songs and dance numbers. Don't know how much of this is real biographical, but it's well done and interesting. Nice work from Astaire and Skelton as Kilmer and Ruby. The leading ladies are quite wonderful with Arlene Dahl at her dreamiest, though she doesn't have much to work with here. Because of story implications, Astaire doesn't dance after the first half, but until then he's sensational as always with Vera Ellen doing some fine hoofing as well. This was Debbie Reynolds 3rd film, having a bit in JUNE BRIDE and a small roll in DAUGHTER OF ROSIE O'GRADY. No Decalogue here and her voice is dubbed, but she makes an impression. For a nice, cozy evening, cuddle up with this DVD version of THREE LITTLE WORDS.