Tom, Dick and Harry

This is one of Ginger Rogers best films of all time. Here we see her trying to find the man of her dreams. She thinks she knows what she wants but does she really?? One by one she runs into these three men who are each special to her in their own way, but she must decide on which one of them she wants to live her life with. The dream sequences are very funny and add to the sheer joy of the film. You'll love the ending!

This film gives us three killer performances, Rogers of course, George Murphy and Burgess Meredith. The others actors are good as well. This is a funny heart warming movie that doesn't disappoint. If you have a chance to see or get this movie, DO IT!!

"Tom Dick and Harry", a delightful screwball comedy, features Ginger Rogers sans singing and tapping. Rogers is cast as a telephone operator living with family and the eldest of two daughters. At first she seems a bit mature for the role but turns in a good performance as the comedy and surrealistic sequences become increasingly engaging along with the social-commentary subtext of traveling in various social circles to supplement the plot: Rogers on a whirlwind-whim steps out of an unfulfilling job and pursues an ultimate soulmate/marriage/happiness. Some scenes surprisingly echo "The Philadelphia Story" (1940) in an inverted economic pearls-at-a-price manner: after an evening of mayhem lasts into wee-morning hours and before the "life-altering" event, an ultimate awakening dawns upon working-class Rogers similar to high-society Hepburn. Also, similar to TPS, TD&H has the wisecracking-realistic younger sister balancing the impulsive older sister Rogers; the supporting cast delivering the sideshow goods; and viewers getting the surprise-ending treat. Trivial tidbit: Lenore Lonergan, (the younger sister "Butch" to Rogers's "Janie" in TD&H), is cast in the original Broadway version of TPS as the younger sister "Dinah" to Hepburn's "Tracy", (however in the film version of TPS, Virginia Weidler plays the younger sister "Dinah" part).

Ginger Rogers had that combination of dinginess and likability in this film. Only "The Major and the Minor" may rival this one. She certainly could turn on the charm.

Another interesting note about this one is that Burgess Meredith, who always tended to be typecast as somebody love-ably, slightly (depending on the film) unstable, managed to garner a bit of sex appeal in this one, and given the idea that he was the nonconformist in this film, he actually does live up to his usual reputation. The sex appeal was a rarity for him, but that's not badmouthing him at all about his "stage" presence. He was great in just about everything, and who could forget that voice?

I wish I could purchase this one!

In fact everyone is at the top of their form in this wonderfully entertaining movie, but Ginger has never been better. Even Alan Marshall, who frequently came across in films as being a little on the smarmy side, is quite likeable here. And Phil Silvers is wonderfully obnoxious as the ice-cream salesman.

It is interesting to compare this film with it's 1957 remake "The Girl Most Likely", which apart from its musical numbers sticks pretty close to the original. Now "The Girl Most Likely" is quite an entertaining film in itself, and Jane Powell is certainly a talent not to be sneezed at. But having seen both films a number of times it always surprises me just how much better "Tom, Dick and Harry" is, and how flat "The Girl Most Likely" seems in comparison. Garson Kanin has somehow managed to infuse a lightness and subtlety of wit into the original which seems to have eluded Mitchell Leisen in the remake. And of course the three male leads in "The Girl Most Likely" don't hold a candle to the three male leads here.

The expression "Tom, Dick and Harry" is a commonly-used colloquialism in English, meaning "everybody" or "anybody", but this film is about three men who just happen to have those names. The main character is Janie, a young woman who works in a telephone exchange and who has the sort of obliging personality which means she just can't say "no" to anybody, especially a good-looking young man. So it happens that she ends up engaged to three men from three different social backgrounds at the same time, middle-class car salesman Tom, working-class garage mechanic Harry and upper-class Dick, the son of the local millionaire. All three are young and good-looking, but all have their drawbacks; Tom is a bit too staid and conservative, Harry a bit too eccentric and Dick a bit too smooth and slick.

There's not really a lot more to the plot than that, apart from waiting to see which of the three men Janie will eventually end up marrying. In real life, of course, no woman would ever behave like this unless she were either a heartless flirt or not quite right in the head, but this is a screwball comedy, a film genre which acknowledges the existence of real life but does not consider itself bound by the rules and conventions that prevail there. It is, however, a tribute to Ginger Rogers' comedic talents that she manages to make her character seem not only plausible but also reasonably sympathetic.

Even in 1941 this film was probably not seen as anything more than a light-hearted bit of trivia, although it does manage a serious bit of political comment when a cinema audience are shown booing a newsreel showing Hitler. (The film was made before Pearl Harbor, but Hollywood had declared war on the Third Reich long before Washington followed suit). It is made in the "filmed theatre" style popular for low-budget films of the period- more dialogue than action, most scenes taking place indoors and everything seemingly filmed on one camera with no cross- cutting or tricky camera work. Today it is largely forgotten, but Ginger manages to invest it with enough period charm to make it (just about) worth watching. 6/10