#i might do a little doodle comic of this- i MAY replace my s/i in an alternative comic strip with terence or something-

[sapphire-heart-tippy]

I had this stupid joke in my head 😭

Dio: We're not going to fight fire with fire, we're going to fight fire... With ICE

Hol Horse: What? Are we gonna freeze 'em to death?

Dio: No. *Gestures to Vanilla* This man's name is Ice, and he's going to be our secret weapon

Tippy: He's hot

Dio: ☝️ No..... He's cool....

[dweemeister]

Three Little Girls in Blue (1946)

Most reviews on this blog are American films from the Golden Age of Hollywood. If you have read a handful of them, you may know that, during the height of the Hollywood Studio System from the silent era to the early 1960s, cast and crewmembers were often contracted to work for a certain studio. If Bette Davis appears in a melodrama, it’s probably a Warner Bros. movie. Bob Hope and/or Bing Crosby making you laugh? Try Paramount. Vincente Minnelli directing? Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). For a 20th Century Fox musical, Alfred Newman (who composed the Fox fanfare) is either the film’s composer or its music director. If the musical’s plot revolves around two or three cash-strapped women attempting to attract and marry a millionaire, that is also a strong indicator of a 20th Century Fox production. Released by Fox in 1946, H. Bruce Humberstone’s Three Little Girls in Blue has both those indicators – Newman as musical director and the millionaire-chasing plot. The film is a romp, most enjoyable when its three principal actresses are singing and the supporting men are nowhere to be found.

It is 1902. There are three little girls in blue. On a chicken farm in Red Bank, New Jersey live the Charter sisters: Pam (June Haver), Liz (Vivian Blaine), and Myra (Vera-Ellen). This farm, inherited from their aunt, is their springboard to travel to Atlantic City in order to find rich husbands. The plan is put on the fast track when they learn the monetary inheritance is not nearly as bountiful as they expected. Basing their operations out of an expensive waterfront hotel, the Charter sisters agree that Pam will masquerade as a wealthy heiress, “Ms. Charters”, while Liz serves as secretary and Myra as the maid. For whatever reason, the sisters have not looked up the hotel’s rates for the suite they are staying in. “Jiminy Crickets,” Myra yelps, “why, the rate for this suite is $9.25 per day!” Before you start giggling, that amount is approximately $277 in 2020’s USD – chump change that is not. The Charter sisters soon meet three men, flush with cash, who knock them off their feet with their charms: Steve Harrington (Frank Latimore), Mike Bailey (Charles Smith; uncredited), and Van Damm Smith (George Montgomery).

Van Damm Smith? That name is a headline writer’s dream!

Financial and romantic crises mount, and the film’s tangled plot in its second half is not worth a brain strain. Three Little Girls in Blue also marks the film debut of Celeste Holm, who plays Steve’s sister, Miriam. Holm, who appears late in the film, is a comical delight. For Haver, Blaine, and Vera-Ellen, they nail the sisterly ties (and rivalry) that set up almost all the situational comedy in Valentine Davies’ (1947’s Miracle on 34th Street, 1949’s It Happens Every Spring) screenplay. Latimore, Smith, and Montgomery are amiable enough, but beyond their handsome coiffures and white smiles, they do not surprise romantically, comically, dramatically, or musically. Other than the reckless plotting and dreadful romantic dialogue as the film nears its conclusion, the male leads are among its weakest features. With greats like Victor Mature and Cesar Romero leaving the film as production commenced (being replaced by Montgomery and Latimore), Three Little Girls in Blue is a movie in desperate need of steadier actors for the romantic interests.

With the plot in disarray, Three Little Girls in Blue is (mostly) redeemed by its eye-catching Technicolor and musical score. Finding a quality print of Humberstone’s film in order to enjoy that Technicolor might be tricky. Three Little Girls in Blue has only been released once on home media (2013 DVD), but Fox’s record in restoring their older films for home media releases is spotty, and that unfortunately seems to have been the case for this movie – the situation is probably worse now because of the Walt Disney Company’s purchase of Fox and their policy towards older Fox films. The print that made its debut on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) last March was more presentable, with gorgeous saturated colors that bring out the Charter sisters’ color-coded dresses when they arrive in Atlantic City and gallivant across Steel Pier (one of the oldest amusement parks in the United States). Even as story devolves into farce, Three Little Girls in Blue is always fantastic to look at – it just depends on the quality of the print one has access to.

At the height of the Hollywood Studio System, the unspoken consensus among cast and crewmembers specializing in musical films across the industry was that MGM made the best musicals. Art is subjective, yes, but that is wisdom – at this time in Hollywood history – I will not contradict. However, MGM’s musical dominance, to industry insiders, was not absolute. The studio of Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, and Arthur Freed (lyricist and producer; 1943’s Cabin in the Sky, 1951’s An American in Paris) may have had the best stable of musical actors, producers, and directors. But Fox, those same industry specialists believed, had the better arrangers and orchestrators, individual instrumentalists, and orchestra – like actors and actresses, musicians were also contracted by studio and the major studios boasted an in-house orchestra (in 1946, for example, MGM’s orchestra might record the score to The Yearling, followed the next workday by recording a Tom and Jerry short film.) Thus, attentive listeners will notice that Fox musicals from the 1930s-1950s will sound richer than their counterparts from Paramount, RKO, or Disney.

For Three Little Girls in Blue, Alfred Newman serves as the musical director supervising composer Josef Myrow (1947’s Mother Wore Tights, 1950’s Wabash Avenue) and lyricist/producer Mack Gordon (1940’s Down Argentine Way, 1943’s Hello, Frisco, Hello). Myrow and Gordon’s songs contribute the plot better than most musicals during this era, which could sometimes approach the material like a revue musical. Many of the songs are integrated in the film’s score, none more than “On the Boardwalk (In Atlantic City)” – which has become an unofficial anthem for Atlantic City. Other than the film’s opener, “A Farmer’s Life is a Very Merry Life”, this is the only time where all three actresses (Vera-Ellen’s singing dubbed by Carol Stewart) sing as a trio. It is a merry waltz, full of optimism and yearning to escape their modest means. In all its innocence, the tune is quoted by the score across the film as a reminder to the audience the goals and wide-eyed personalities of Pam, Liz, and Myra. The lush orchestrations one expects from a Fox musical appear in “Somewhere in the Night” (sung by Vivian Blaine) and the film’s most iconic number “You Make Me Feel So Young” – famously covered by Frank Sinatra and, given the probable age of Vera-Ellen’s and Charles Smith’s (singing voice dubbed by Del Porter) characters, make little lyrical sense.

Beside that quibble for “You Make Me Feel So Young”, one does not cast Vera-Ellen in a movie without giving her a dancing number. With dance direction by Seymour Felix (1936’s The Great Ziegfeld, 1942’s Yankee Doodle Dandy), Vera-Ellen athletically moves and taps her way across a fantastical stage, recalling the childhood frills of first crushes and a surrounding world that is larger than life. It may not be set amid hypnotic production design that could be expected in an MGM or Busby Berkeley-choreograph Warner Bros. musical, but the individual choreography is dizzyingly complex – mixing tap, ballet, and jazz dancing. This dance plays into the lyrics, swung gently by the orchestra, and cementing the song’s place as a mid-century standard. Other reviewers are more qualified to comment on Vera-Ellen’s moves than I, but there is no denying her footwork and physicality here.

Of the film’s three principal actresses, Vera-Ellen would proceed to have the most accomplished film career. June Haver would be overshadowed by other actresses at Fox; Vivian Blaine, who began her career as a stage actress, returned to the stage. Vera-Ellen reeled off one critical and commercial hit after another, but as demand for movie musicals waned in the late 1950s, so did her film career. Only appearing for a few minutes, Celeste Holm is the actress who would have the greatest presence in Hollywood history. Within several years, Holm’s career included memorable roles in Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) opposite Gregory Peck and All About Eve (1950) – Holm would be somewhat judgmental of anyone, however, to anyone who listed either of those two movies as their favorite Celeste Holm film.

20th Century Fox, before its purchase by Disney in 2019, seemed disinterested in or lacked the resources to promote its classic library. Now under new ownership that is sending signals that they do not give a damn about the enormous film library they have just acquired, the status of Fox’s catalog is uncertain. Films released within the last few decades should be safe, and maybe the odd classic movie like All About Eve (which in any case probably won’t be made too available because it doesn’t adhere to the contemporary Disney brand) and The Sound of Music (1965; which fits with the brand). But a film like Three Little Girls in Blue – its plot bunk, its male characters baloney – may be endangered. This is not one of the eminent musicals in Fox’s library, nor will it garner much attention on home media or streaming (this is a chicken-or-the-egg dilemma, though, because many potential viewers do not realize what a classic Fox musical is and, because of Disney’s policies, it is not easy for them to find out whether they might want to see such a movie). But the committed performances, solid musical score, and posh Technicolor are worth preserving, commemorating, writing about, and viewing.

My rating: 7/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.