Three Girls About Town

A wonderful cast stars in this 1941 screwball comedy, "Three Girls About Town," which seems to have come onto the scene a little too late. By 1941, the screwball era was over. But when a film stars Joan Blondell, Binnie Barnes, Robert Benchley, Eric Blore, Janet Blair, Una O'Connor, and John Howard, it's worth at least a look.

Blondell and Barnes play sisters, Hope and Faith, who are convention hostesses at a hotel. They're in trouble with the local moral yardstick, though being 1941, it's doubtful they've done anything more than stay up late and party with the guests. They have their younger sister Charity (Blair) in private school, and when she shows up unexpectedly, one wonders what she's learning there. She flirts with Tommy (Howard), Hope's fiancée, and likes hanging around in lingerie.

At this particular time, a magician's convention is just exiting the hotel and a mortician's convention is coming in, when a body is found in the room next door to the girls' room. The hotel manager (Robert Benchley) tries to help them get rid of it before Tommy, who is a reporter covering labor negotiations at the hotel, finds out about it.

This film gets a little tedious after a while, though there are some funny scenes and the acting is very good. You really can't go wrong with pros like Blondell, Barnes, Benchley, and Blore, even when the script doesn't support them.