Three Sailors and a Girl

Warners borrowed Jane Powell from MGM in 1953 and put her in a Doris Day kind of role, as an up- and-coming Broadway leading lady starring in Sam Levene's not-very-integrated-looking musical. Together they charm sailors Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, and Jack E. Leonard (trying to be Jackie Gleason, the Fat Funny One) into investing, and turn an out-of-town flop into a Broadway smash. Not an original story by any means, but it's lively, and the Sammy Fain-Sammy Cahn songs are good. It seems stinting of the screenwriters not to write in a girlfriend for Nelson, who has two spectacular tap numbers, and the no-name supporting characters (Georges Givot as a temperamental Ezio Pinza-like basso, somebody else as the sarcastic secretary, somebody else as the doofus playwright) don't have much interesting to do. But the songs and dances are really lively, and it's a chance to see Levene playing a Nathan Detroit-like schemer at the top of his form. MGM was making better musicals, even Warners was, but this one's an unpretentious good time.

Warner Brothers musical Three Sailors And A Girl is based, very loosely based I might add on the George S. Kaufman play The Butter And Egg Man that ran on Broadway during the Twenties. It was one of Kaufman's earliest successes and one he did without a collaborator, unusual for him. It was the Navy participation in this film that was original.

Otherwise the plot has some down and out producer suckering a country yokel out of a lot of money to produce his show. In the film, the yokel is a sailor played by Gordon MacRae with a stern sense of morality, rather unusual for someone in the Navy. The crew has been on active duty for almost a year and their back pay which they've been unable to spend amounts to a considerable nest egg. While on Wall Street looking for an investment, MacRae, Gene Nelson, and Jack E. Leonard run into producer Sam Levene and he gets the boys to invest in his show. And the attraction is leading lady Jane Powell who falls for Gordon big time.

No big hits come from the score written by Sammy Fain and Sammy Cahn, but the numbers are serviceable to the plot. MacRae and Powell make a good team musically, too bad they were at different studios and didn't do more films together, Powell was on loan from MGM. Gene Nelson was as always great in the dance numbers, I've said it before on other of his films I've reviewed, he came along ten years too late, what a really big dancing star he would have been.

Jack E. Leonard was an early version of Don Rickles. I remember seeing him many times on the Ed Sullivan Show as a kid. His character was interesting, but too bad we didn't get one of his insult monologues for which he was so famous.

Part of the plot involves MacRae taking over the show and making a holy hash of it and Jane Powell calling in George Abbott, Ira Gershwin, and Moss Hart to contribute their talents to save the show. The real people weren't in Three Sailors And A Girl, just actors playing them. But as the show originated with George S. Kaufman, had all these people put their talents into this film for real, we might have seen a real classic unfold.

The mind boggles at the possibility.

Jane Powell and Gordon MacRae, supported by Gene Nelson and Jack E. Leonard, are the stars that carry this musical comedy. Powell displays real beauty (accented by some sharp fashions) while singing and dancing up a storm. MacRae's voice may be the best part of this film.

Jack E. Leonard appears in his first film. A stand-up comic better known for his appearances on television variety shows like "The Mike Douglas Show" or "The Merv Griffin Show", Leonard displays great energy and a surprising lightness on his feet.

The film is about the evolution of a stage musical that is backed by some sailors (and later, some marines). It starts off as a dog, but eventually becomes a hit. The film takes a similar path; it is only in the final act that "Three Sailors" feels like a solid piece of entertainment.

Look for Merv Griffin himself as a sailor. Burt Lancaster contributes a comic cameo.

As musical comedies go, this film is a lightweight, but it has moments that are entertaining.

The title should tip you off that inventiveness and originality will be in severely rationed supply here.

Roy Del Ruth was a talented second-rung director who spent his career shunting from one studio to another, never achieving the valuable symbiosis which boosted the careers of better-known directors who dedicated their talents primarily to one particular studio (such as Ford at Fox, Walsh at Warners, Capra at Columbia, Minnelli at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). 'Three Sailors and a Girl', a brassy musical comedy directed by Del Ruth for Warner Brothers, is an uncredited remake of 'Born to Dance', a 1936 musical directed by Del Ruth for MGM. 'Born to Dance' has better production values, a better cast and a better score (Jimmy Stewart warbling Cole Porter!), but 'Three Sailors and a Girl' is very enjoyable in its own right ... and its plot has almost nothing to do with George S. Kaufman's play 'The Butter and Egg Man', which is inexplicably listed in the credits here as source material.

'Born to Dance' and 'Three Sailors and a Girl' have exactly the same plot: a Navy submarine docks in New York, and three sailors (a singer, a dancer and a funny guy) go ashore. They meet a musically talented actress named Powell who deserves to be a star, and they pool their efforts to make her the star of a hit Broadway musical (as sailors do). In 'Born to Dance', the actress is vivacious tap-dancer Eleanor Powell. In 'Three Sailors and a Girl', the actress is Jane Powell (more brassy than usual, but quite good). The three sailors -- with the unfortunate nicknames Porky, Twitch and Choirboy -- are played by Jack E. Leonard (the funny guy), Gene Nelson (the dancer) and Gordon MacRae (the singer and romantic lead). MacRae was never better than his material, so here he's much less interesting than he was in 'Oklahoma!' and 'Carousel'. Gene Nelson is excellent as the acrobatic dancer, although he too has been better elsewhere.

The real find in this movie is Jack E. Leonard, a vulgar and heavy-set insult comic who pre-dated Don Rickles, and who is not normally considered an actor. He's not very good here, but he's better than I expected him to be, and he might have had a decent career in supporting roles. His 'singing' voice is nothing to boast about, although he acquits himself well alongside Nelson and MacRae in the opening number (a snappy ditty called 'Oh, So Right!'), and he's decent enough in a (poor) comedy number with Jane Powell: 'Show me a happy woman, and I'll show you a miserable man.' Leonard also does a comedy monologue which isn't funny, and which relies heavily on a ludicrous costume and a penguin walk. Jack E. Leonard was severely overweight: a fact which shouldn't have disqualified him from movie roles, but which renders him utterly implausible here in the role of an active-duty sailor. Even more implausibly, the three sailors finance their Broadway musical by having a whip-round among their shipmates (yes, we all know that sailors have got lots of money socked away) ... and then, when these funds prove insufficient, they get further backing from the Marines. (Yes, we all know that the Navy and the Marines always work hand in hand towards mutual goals.) Still, this is a fun movie, and I don't want to dissect the plot line.

Sam Levene, giving his usual performance, is quite good as the sharpy who produces the Broadway musical ... which of course is a hit. There's a totally unexpected (and very funny) cameo appearance by Burt Lancaster as a leatherneck, which leads to Levene speaking the funniest line in the movie.

Except for that Powell/Leonard duet, the songs (by Sammy Fain and Sammy Cahn) are excellent: very nearly as good as Cole Porter's score for 'Born to Dance'. I'll rate 'Three Sailors and a Girl' 7 points out of 10. Delightful!