Three Sailors and a Girl

'Choirboy' Jones (Gordon MacRae), Twitch, and Porky are sailors on a US submarine. They are docking in Brooklyn for extensive repairs. The Captain gives the boys 30-day leave. Jones tells the crew that they're going to waste all their pay. Instead, he convinces them to collect their pay, fifty guys with $1k each, and invest it. The trio first head to the stock market. Producer Joe Woods (Sam Levene) and singer Penny Weston (Jane Powell) are there to pitch a Broadway show. They are thrown out of the building. The trio follows the lady with the legs.

I don't love opera or the crooning. Otherwise, I'm fine with the songs. Nothing stands out. There is a basic problem with Choirboy. He has to be smart enough for the guys to trust him with their money. Yet, he's dumb enough to invest in a Broadway show. The solution should be that he's a finance nerd who falls head over heels for Penny. That's the sweet spot to hit. I can do without the black-face joke, but it's the 50's. The story is a mess and I don't care much about it. Gordon MacRae is still not star material as far as I'm concerned. I do love Jane Powell. All in all, this is a borderline musical.

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

MGM made a ton of musicals over the years and the studio was the best for the genre. Some of them were terrific...some, well, were far from it. I would put "Three Sailors and a Girl" in the latter category.

The USS Texas has arrived in New York for shore leave (a VERY long one apparently). Before leaving the ship, three buddies come up with an interesting idea...that ALL of the sailors aboard pool their money. Then, the three pals set out to find a good investment for their shipmates. They come upon a jerk named Joe Woods, who sells them on the notion of investing their money in his latest musical show. They decide to do this because his leading lady, Penny (Jane Powell), has a gorgeous voice (at least according to the film). However, the play ends up being a flop...mostly due to a ham of an actor who is in the lead. Fortunately, he quits...and so does the producer! Now, without them, one of the sailors (Gordon MacRae) decides to play the lead AND producer! What next?

I had a hard time with this movie compared to some viewers because I found Powell's voice painful to listen to...as it was VERY high pitched and operatic. Like Jeanette MacDonald, you either love that style of leading lady or you don't. Apart from her singing, the movie was decent and enjoyable...but that WAS a big part of the film.

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.

This is a really lame musical. So so songs and stupid unbelievable plot. What was the show they were doing all about??? How could they change the scenery and costumes in a second??? dumb, dumb,dumb. Nonsensical and implausible. The only credits are an amusing performance by Miss Powell and some nice huffing by Gene Nelson. Otherwise forget this potboiler.