Three Little Words

1950 "A wonderful musical!"
6.9| 1h42m| NR| en
Details

Song-and-dance man Bert Kalmar can't continue his stage career after an injury, so he has to earn his money as a lyricist. By chance, he meets composer Harry Ruby and their first song is a hit. Ruby gets Kalmar to marry his former partner Jessie Brown, and Kalmar and Jessie prevent Ruby from getting married to the wrong girls. But due to the fact that Ruby has caused a backer's withdrawal for a Kalmar play, they end their professional relationship.

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Reviews

Executscan Expected more
SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless
Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
kz917-1 The talent alone in this film is enough to blow your boots off. Fred Astaire, Red Skelton, Vera-Ellen, and a cameo by a young Debbie Reynolds. Astaire and Skelton portray the famous song writing team of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. The film follows the foibles and tribulations of their partnership over the years. The dancing can't be beat pairing Fred Astaire and Vera-Ellen so settle in, you are due for a treat. Also Debbie Reynolds who sings in the manner of Betty Boop was a surprise! Nothing today is a good as the golden age of Hollywood - a gem!
Gerry Nelson Fred Astaire (Bert Kalmar) and Red Skelton (Harry Ruby) forge a strange relationship as songwriters, turning out some wonderful hits. This light, interesting story highlights their careers. Bert is a song writer, and he and Vera Ellen (Jessee Brown) have a very successful song and dance act. However, he really wants to be a professional magician. Harry is a wannabee song writer, and a hopeless baseball fan. Harry walks out on Jessee to pursue his magic act. He meets Harry when Harry substitutes as Bert's helper in his magic act. The results are funny, but tragic for Bert's act. Harry becomes his new worst enemy. After resuming his career with Jessee, Bert injures his knee, forcing postponement of his dancing career. He falls back on his songwriting to make a living. Meeting Harry in the publisher's office, he writes lyrics to one of Harry's songs before realizing just who Harry is. Fur flies, and Bert leaves in anger. However, the song becomes number one, and he is forced to call a truce with Harry. Soon they are writing a series of hit tunes. Harry, knowing that it will split up the songwriting team, helps Bert and Jessee reunite, and they marry. However, Bert and Jessee decide to forgo vaudeville for songwriting. During the ensuing years, Bert saves Harry from gold-diggers and Harry keeps Bert from producing a very bad play which would have cost him his fortune and his pride. Unfortunately the play was written by Bert. Through the years the hits continue to roll, including Broadway Shows and Movies. Eventually Bert finds out that Harry sabotaged his play, and the friendship and partnership ends. After Harry marries Arlene Dahl (Eileen Percy) their wives quietly arrange for them to appear on a radio show together. They both refuse until their wives insist. The Harry and Eileen go to Bert and Jessee's to plan the radio show. After an uncomfortable start, Harry brings up a tune he has been pushing since they first met. They decide to work on the tune, then argue, then fight. The next night, on the radio show, after doing a medley of some of their hit songs, Bert unveils the words to "Three Little Words". Sappy, Happy ending. Highlight of the movie is when Vera Ellen sings, then she and Fred dance to the fabulous, haunting melody "Thinking of You" Personally, I put this dance on par with "Dancing in the Dark" from "The Band Wagon".
ryancm This is what MGM did best. Musicals. Ah, they were all so wonderful, and THREE LITTLE WORDS in one of them. A nice, quiet muscial with great songs and dance numbers. Don't know how much of this is real biographical, but it's well done and interesting. Nice work from Astaire and Skelton as Kilmer and Ruby. The leading ladies are quite wonderful with Arlene Dahl at her dreamiest, though she doesn't have much to work with here. Because of story implications, Astaire doesn't dance after the first half, but until then he's sensational as always with Vera Ellen doing some fine hoofing as well. This was Debbie Reynolds 3rd film, having a bit in JUNE BRIDE and a small roll in DAUGHTER OF ROSIE O'GRADY. No Decalogue here and her voice is dubbed, but she makes an impression. For a nice, cozy evening, cuddle up with this DVD version of THREE LITTLE WORDS.
ccthemovieman-1 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.