Three Little Girls in Blue

Where has this musical been hiding for the last 50 years? It's a total delight. Special bouquets go to the feminine side of the cast--June Haver, Vivian Blaine, and Celeste Holm. But perhaps the top stand-out is lovely and piquant Vera-Ellen. Her rendition of "You Make Me Feel So Young" is one of the best solo dances ever filmed.

Three sisters (June Haver, Vivian Blaine and Vera-Ellen), working on their aunt's chicken farm in 1902 New Jersey, dream of a big inheritance after she passes--followed by a man-hunting vacation in Atlantic City!--but receive just under $3000. They decide to go anyway, with one sister posing as a wealthy lady and the other two as her servants (this doesn't make much sense, but let it pass). By their second night at a fancy hotel on the boardwalk, the gals already have men serenading them from the street! Charming Fox musical had quite a show business history--from Stephen Powys' play to 1938's "Three Blind Mice" to the Betty Grable remake, "Moon Over Miami", from 1941. The film also had some trouble behind-the-scenes with Bruce Humberstone replacing John Brahm as director and George Montgomery as a potential suitor replacing Victor Mature. The results, however, are breezy and the three leads enchanting. Note: clean Technicolor prints are scarce, with online and home media versions instead displaying muddy or blurry colors and fuzz on the soundtrack due to age. **1/2 from ****

Wish there were movies today made with the fun and laughter and brilliance this encompassed .. Loved this film and never forgot it! Would love to purchase it if anyone has an idea where I can please let me know .. Thank you ..

Three sisters from a farm head off to a big city to find themselves a millionaire each. They naturally find 3 suitors, but there is a bit of a muddle over who Pam (June Havers) will choose. Will it be Van Damm (George Montgomery) or Steve (Frank Latimore)? Things work out for everybody in the end.

This is a musical that goes on for just a little too long. It's entertaining and has amusing moments, eg, Van Damm's lack of concern with Steve almost drowning, but the musical numbers are just not quite memorable enough. The songs are good and the dancing is watchable but there is nothing to wow the viewer. Vera-Ellen as Myra has a dream sequence dance to perform which is more like a nightmare. It's way too long and dull until the very end where she gets tossed around by some male dancers. As for the story, we can work out what is going to happen but it just takes a little long to get there. Celeste Holm as Miriam wins the acting honours - shame they gave her a pointless song to sing - and it's interesting to see Vera-Ellen with a bit of meat on her. I also found that June Havers and Vivian Blane, who plays Liz, were a little too similar in looks. It confused me a couple of times but then I cracked it coz Havers looks like Judy Garland for much of the film. I'm keeping onto the film to watch again because it's not bad.

20th Century Fox turned out plenty of musicals in the '30s and '40s, generally boasting the likes of Betty Grable, Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, Charlotte Greenwood, John Payne, and Sonja Henie. A rich roster of talent, but most of these were hampered by weak screenplays and weaker scores, often consisting mostly of old standards that were either public domain or at least cheap. The directors were studio hacks, and this one's no exception, it's helmed by the peerlessly dull Bruce Humberstone. But it's a rare 20th attempt at a real integrated Broadway-style musical, with a Josef Myrow-Mack Gordon score that evolves naturally from the action, even with some rhyming dialogue. And the screenplay, a sort-of remake of the 1938 "Three Blind Mice," at least has a little verve. Farm girls June Haver (proficient as always, and never any more than that), Vivian Blaine (hired by Fox to replace Faye, and she didn't last long, but she did have a lovely voice), and Vera-Ellen (dubbed, and dancing up a storm in a protracted "You Make Me Feel So Young" dream ballet), alight to a fetching studio-bound Atlantic City to find rich husbands, and the best they can do are the dullish George Montgomery, Frank Lattimore, and Charles Price. But it's very colorful and tuneful, and Celeste Holm, brought in two-thirds of the way through for some plot complications and a good specialty number, walks off with the rest of the movie. There's also a nicely shot fox hunt. Not much will surprise you, but the numbers are fun, the three little girls are appealing, and it isn't overlong.