Three Little Words with Fred Astaire: DVD Cover
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Three Little Words Director: Richard Thorpe Cast: Fred Astaire, Red Skelton, Vera-Ellen, Arlene Dahl

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  • DVD Release Date: 04/25/2006
  • Original Release: 1950
  • Rating: Not Rated
  • Sales Rank: 15,603

Viewer Rating: (1 ratings)

Detailed Rating: "Performances" See All

 
  • Overview
  • Editorial Reviews
  • Scenes
  • Customer Reviews
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Scenes

Features

Closed Caption; New featurette; Three Little Words:; Traveltalk Short; Two Swell Guys; Vintage Fitzpatrick; Traveltalk Short; Roaming Through Michigan; ; Classic Collection; Ventriloquist Cat; ; Audio-Only bonus; Paula Stone's Hollywood USA; Radio Promo; Theatrical trailer; Languages: English

Full Product Details

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Three Little Words
1. Credits [1:41]
2. Where Did You Get That Girl? [2:07]
3. Busy Bert [3:27]
4. Kendall's Assistant [6:37]
5. Mr. & Mrs. Hoofer at Home [4:50]
6. Turned Down [3:18]
7. My Sunny Tennessee [5:22]
8. One-Tune Twosome [3:21]
9. So Long O0-Long [1:52]
10. Who's Sorry Now [3:15]
11. Sore Solo Spot [3:26]
12. Come on Papa [2:34]
13. Nevertheless, I'm in Love With You [3:01]
14. Honeymoon Express [3:07]
15. All Alone Monday (1) [4:31]
16. All Alone Monday (2) [4:01]
17. Baseball Diversion [4:51]
18. Friendly Sabotage [2:06]
19. I Wanna Be Loved by You [2:47]
20. Thinking of You [4:54]
21. Baseball Diversion #2 [3:00]
22. Movie Star [2:16]
23. I Love You So Much [4:11]
24. Charlie Spills the Beans [4:48]
25. Split-Up and Match-Up [4:19]
26. Reluctant Reunion [3:54]
27. Three Little Words [3:38]
28. "And-Then-We-Wrote" Medley [2:15]
29. Three Little Words [2:03]
30. Cast List [:30]

Scene Index

Editorial Reviews

MGM's Three Little Words is a "twin" musical biopic, covering the lives and careers of songwriters Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. Fred Astaire plays Kalmar, a frustrated magician, while Red Skelton is cast as Ruby, a wannabe baseball player. After "meeting cute" during a disastrous vaudeville show, the oil-and-water Bert and Harry become a popular songwriting team, dashing off such favorites as "Who's Sorry Now?," "Nevertheless," "So Long Oo-Long," "I Wanna be Loved by You," "All Alone Monday" and the title song (the film unfortunately skimps on Kalmar and Ruby's Gilbert-and-Sullivan style novelty ditties, with the exception of "Hooray for Captain Spaulding," Groucho Marx' signature tune in Animal Crackers). Adhering more to MGM formula than the facts, the script contrives to have Kalmar and Ruby split up over a trivial misunderstanding, only to be reunited by their wives for an "all is forgiven" radio broadcast hosted by bandleader Phil Regan. Vera-Ellen co-stars as Kalmar's vaudevillian wife Jessie Brown, while Arlene Dahl portrays Ruby's movie-star spouse Eileen Percy. Gloria DeHaven is seen as her own mother, Mrs. Carter DeHaven; and Debbie Reynolds plays "boop-a-doop" girl Helen Kane, her singing voice dubbed in by Ms. Kane herself. Though not quite as humorous as the subject matter would seem to dictate (Red Skelton gets his biggest laughs in the scenes wherein he, as Harry Ruby, participates in spring training with his favorite baseball club) Three Little Words is an excellent example of MGM's musical unit at the height of its powers. Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Customer Reviews

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  • Ratings: 1Reviews: 1

Among Fred Astaire's favorite moviesby DCGuy

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July 21, 2009: The movie deals with the song writing duo of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby who produced many songs from the late 1910 to 1920's. Fred Astaire and Red Skelton play the song writing team and the co-stars are Vera-Ellen and Arlene Dahl who play their respective spouses. Many well choreographed dance scenes in this movie with Vera-Ellen showing how athletic and graceful she is. Astaire is in his usual fine form in this movie. Red Skelton does not get to perform his usual pratfall comedic routines in this movie, but he still has his moments. Arlene Dahl has her usual glamorous aura. You also get to see a very young Debbie Reynolds acting in this movie (although her singing was dubbed). Some of the music is not too familiar with the current music trends of present, but the "Who's Sorry Now" song should be familiar to many. It is sung by Gloria DeHaven who played her mother in the movie (her mother was also in the musical field). Outside of the song writing aspect of the movie, both men yearn to other dreams besides song writing. Astaire wants to be a magician while Red wants to be a baseball player. In the end, they realize that song writing is something that they were probably better in. The movie has a hidden message that you need to have a backup plan in life. When your first aspirations don't pan out, you need to have something to fall back on in life. For the two men, it was songwriting.