Three Little Words

This is my favorite of all Red Skelton's movies; he does a fine job as Ruby and his partnership with Kalmar, played by Fred Astaire who wrote many songs back in the 1920s and 30s. Of course, the music is grand and the dancing of Astaire and Vera-Ellen is most enjoyable. And the beautiful Arlene Dahl is the wife of Red. I thought she was more gorgeous than Rita Hayworth. Of particular note, a cute little blonde got her start in films as the voice of that Betty Boop girl, Helen Kane. She was Debbie Reynolds who sang "I Want to be Loved By You". Lots of the good old songs!

... because the whole thing goes down so easy.

It's an odd combination - Red Skelton and Fred Astaire. It was the only time that they ever played opposite one another. They were both in a couple of the big MGM ensemble musicals of the era - "Ziegfeld Follies" comes to mind - but they didn't do anything together in them. That's too bad, because their styles seem to bring out the best in each other as far as acting goes. Fred becomes more of a comic. Red becomes subdued.

This is the very fictionalized biopic of songwriting team Bert Kalmar (Fred Astaire) and Harry Ruby (Red Skelton). In the film, Kalmar is a dancer who is a part time playwright and magician. One night when Kalmar is performing his magic act, Ruby, a stagehand, manages to accidentally destroy everything single-handedly, causing Kalmar to get laughed off the stage. This is the "meet cute" phase. When Kalmar injures his knee and must lay off dancing for two years, he becomes a full-time songwriter and ends up reluctantly partnered with Ruby, who he still blames for ruining his act that one time. Of course, reluctance turns to friendship and great success. There are squabbles along the way and Kalmar and his wife (Vera Ellen of the tiny waistline) step in to discretely disrupt Ruby's bad romantic choices.

The squabbles are short lived and on the surface, for there really are no villains in this film, not even a buffoonish one like Singin' In the Rain's Lena Lamont. It's just the great balance of comedy, music, and heart that many of MGM's other musicals wanted to be but just could not quite accomplish. This one has aged very well, and I'd recommend it.

Three Little Words, the "story" of songwriters Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar, probably is only accurate where their names, songs, and a rough frame of truth is concerned, but who cares? The cast is great. Fred Astaire has some really good dances. Red Skelton's comic potential isn't really used in this, and he seems almost like Fred's sidekick, but he does all right. It's certainly not his best. I usually don't like Vera-Ellen, but even I like her in this. And once you see past the black wig, that is most definitely Debbie Reynolds as Helen Kane, the girl singing I Wanna Be Loved By You. The songs are absolutely sensational. Oh yeah, the song Lucky Star (not written by Ruby-Kalmar), which Debbie would later sing with Gene Kelly at the end of Singin' in the Rain, is briefly featured.

This was a wonderful, feel-good movie with tons of songs, many of them appealing. There also were some great dancing scenes, no surprise there since Fred Astaire is one of the stars. Astaire and Vera-Ellen paired up well for those numbers.

This is one of the few films, even in the musicals, in which all the characters were nice people. In other words, there were no villains, no nasty people, which is refreshing to see now and then. It is supposedly the true-life account of songwriters Bert Kalmar (Astaire) and Harry Ruby (Red Skelton). Ruby is good at writing tunes, but not with lyrics. Kalmar supplies the lyrics and dance. Skelton also shows he had a decent singing voice.

The only unhappy moments in the movie are the squabbles between the two leading men, but that's not overdone and sometimes it's humorous. Skelton's character is the nicer of the two.

The leading ladies are wholesome-looking beautiful women. Vera-Ellen is a Shirley Jones-type pretty blonde with a great dancer's body. She's enjoyable to watch. Arlene Dahl, who was stunning, is the other leading female but her role was minor, unfortunately.

The movie is a good mixture of song, dance, comedy and drama and is an underrated film in that it that doesn't get a lot of publicity. Astaire was quoted as saying this was his favorite film. I agree. It's my favorite of his, too.

After seeing all the overstuffed musical biographies which pay homage to Kern, Rodgers, Hart, Gershwin, and the like, this one is a breath of fresh air as it is much simpler and more basic in its construction. Its two main leads (Fred Astaire and Red Skelton) do not take the material over-the-top; instead they underplay, and in Skelton's case, he is so subdued that he reveals a wonderful, sensitive, acting talent. The musical numbers, of course ("Who's Sorry Now?" "Nevertheless," "Sunny Tennessee," "I Wanna Be Loved By You," "Three Little Words"), speak for themselves. And Astaire and Vera-Ellen are perfection on the dance floor- and no less than *three* times: in the tuxedoed duet "Where Did You Get That Girl?"; a tongue-in-cheek homage to dance domesticity- "Mr. & Mrs. Hoofer;" and the best moment- a tender, romantic adagio in an elaborate stateroom, "Thinking of You." There is also fine support from gorgeous redhead Arlene Dahl and spirited brunette Gloria DeHaven. And, of course, there is Debbie Reynolds (a full year before 'Singing In The Rain') performing as Helen Kane- with singing voice provided by Kane herself!!