IMDb RATING
6.3/10
1.3K
YOUR RATING
Working girl Janie is proposed to by a conservative car salesman, a bohemian auto mechanic, and a millionaire playboy and must make a choice.Working girl Janie is proposed to by a conservative car salesman, a bohemian auto mechanic, and a millionaire playboy and must make a choice.Working girl Janie is proposed to by a conservative car salesman, a bohemian auto mechanic, and a millionaire playboy and must make a choice.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 4 wins & 1 nomination total
Vickie Lester
- Paula
- (as Vicki Lester)
Edward Colebrook
- Stalled Car Driver
- (scenes deleted)
Dorothy Lloyd
- Gypsy Oracle
- (scenes deleted)
Gertrude Short
- Bridge Matron
- (scenes deleted)
William Alland
- Newsreel Announcer
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
Michael Audley
- Usher
- (uncredited)
Joseph E. Bernard
- Judge in Dream
- (uncredited)
Maurice Brierre
- French Waiter
- (uncredited)
Jack Briggs
- Boy in Dream
- (uncredited)
Featured reviews
Certainly an adequately charming entertainment, although Ginger - an actor I enjoyed in many of her films - piles on the "barely legal" action a bit too thick, and some of the business with the wealthy part of the trio borders on the unsavory. The domestic bliss dreams are pleasantly looked forward to, and Burgess Meredith is (particularly in the diner scene) surprisingly sprightly and focused, as he advocates the working man's utopia, which must have been close to his Socialist heart. It ain't Noel Coward, and George Murphy is a stump as usual, but all in all, a pleasant enough way to waste a little time.
Ginger Rogers plays Janie, a girl who is not only incredibly beautiful (even as a brunette), sweet and charming. But a girl who has three of the lovliest men after her, She must choose between a millionaire, a car salesman and a mechanic, you'll never guess who wins. This film is filled with fun and sentiment from start to finish, Ginger is great as ever but she has her film stolen from her by the lovely and charming Burgess Meredith. Meredith is the strange mechanic, who loves nothing more than fun except Janie and will do anything to get either.
George Murphy is good in an early role as the car salesman and when He has to drive "prospective buyer" Harry (Meredith) and Janie to a lovers point the screen fills with anger. Dick is the millionaire and he remains pretty anonymous, with little charachterisation by alan marshall.
Overall this film is hopelessly enjoyable and hard to dislike
George Murphy is good in an early role as the car salesman and when He has to drive "prospective buyer" Harry (Meredith) and Janie to a lovers point the screen fills with anger. Dick is the millionaire and he remains pretty anonymous, with little charachterisation by alan marshall.
Overall this film is hopelessly enjoyable and hard to dislike
10timmauk
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!!
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!!
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
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
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.
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.
Did you know
- TriviaDuring the shooting of this film, Ginger Rogers won the Academy Award® for Best Actress for her previous film, Kitty Foyle (1940). The day after, all of the male cast and crew met her on the set in top hats and tails.
- GoofsThe titles schedule Phil Silvers as "Ice Cream Man" rather than as a character with a name, but, on one occasion, one of them greet him as "Phil" which is, of course, his real name outside the movie.
- Quotes
Phil - Ice Cream Vendor: You don't have to yell at me because I'm a little obnoxious
- Crazy creditsIn the opening titles, it shows some of the names spelled incorrectly, then the letters tumble to the bottom of the screen, scramble themselves and return to their original position, with the correct spellings. This is how they appear: SNIRGOR GREEG = GINGER ROGERS GREGORE YUMPH = GEORGE MURPHY HASALMAR NALL = ALAN MARSHAL ESSRUDE MITHGREB = BURGESS MEREDITH SERT BORISK = ROBERT SISK RILA COJURPA = PAUL JARRICO OSKAR INGNAN = GARSON KANIN
- ConnectionsFeatured in Hollywood the Golden Years: The RKO Story: A Woman's Lot (1987)
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $806,000 (estimated)
- Runtime
- 1h 27m(87 min)
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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