Nanette a trois amours

This tale about a small town girl who goes to the big city is supposed to be a screwball comedy, but it offers the thinnest of plots, a disjointed storyline, and few real laughs.

Janet Gaynor stars as Nancy, the girl around whom the story revolves, but she lacks the magnetism--homespun or otherwise--to explain why Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone would be drawn to her so vehemently.

Regardless, they are all working with a script that substitutes non sequiturs for real humor, and a one-note fish-out-of-water story for emotional depth. The result is mere amusement.

I don't think another actress could have saved this film, but Gracie Allen, Irene Dunne or Jean Arthur might have given it a stronger comedic base. The writers of this film were pitching screwball, but they missed the plate entirely.

THREE LOVES HAS NANCY is a delicious overlooked romantic comedy from 1938, closer to slapstick than screwball. Janet Gaynor was one of the absolute top female movie stars for almost a dozen years when this was made but little did the public know she was making her swansong as a star, soon to retire to marry and start a family. Well known for her heart-touching dramatic performances, this movie proves she was also an excellent comedienne and perhaps should have done more work in the genre.

Robert Montgomery is a popular novelist living in Manhattan, a spoiled, confirmed bachelor (the old style, the kind that likes women but not marriage) who finds his current girlfriend actress Claire Dodd and her ambitious Cora Witherspoon a little tougher to wrangle away from in his attempts to keep his unmarried state than he's used to. His longtime best friend (and now editor) Franchot Tone tells him to accept a publicity tour for his books to get away from the gals attempts to brand him. While out in the sticks he meets sweet little chatterbox hillbilly Nancy (Janet Gaynor) who attends his department store lecture and buys his book due to her mother's prompting (she's quite appalled to learn book will cost her a whopping two dollars and regrets having him sign it before learning this, now that it's "ruined" she is stuck with buying it.) It's the eve of her wedding to local boy George who is away in New York making good but is due in any minute for the wedding. Montgomery gets a telegram learning Claire is away on tour and Gaynor gets one that George is calling off the marriage for mysterious reasons so they both get on the train to New York at the same time, Janet to find out what is up with George.

Janet doesn't find George but she does track down Robert and through a series of complications ends up working as the cook for his best friend Franchot. Franchot quickly falls in love with her (who knew the way to a New York playboy's heart was homemade butter and pancakes?) but it's clear Janet, while trying to track down George, is becoming drawn to the shallow storyteller Robert.

This movie seems blatantly inspired by Noel Coward's DESIGN FOR LIVING with two best friends in Manhattan becoming rivals for the affections of a sassy little minx though cleverly camouflaged by Janet's rural South background and the slapstick comedy. Of the three stars I feel Janet comes out best although Robert Montgomery is in his element in his stock semi-cad heartthrob. Franchot Tone is fine but as has been mentioned is almost an unnecessary third wheel given the unusual brevity of the film for an "A" movie from MGM (scarcely 70 minutes)and the fast-paced story. Of the supporting cast, Cora Witherspoon stands out, for once remarkably chic and dolled up in mink through still the brash dame she always is. Guy Kibbee's role as Janet's father is surprisingly small, scarcely more than a line or two despite his playing the lead in scores of B's and major featured parts in films during this period. Watch for early talkie star Grant Withers in a bit as the restaurant patron Janet is unknowingly flirting with as well as handsome Kane Richmond, a C movie favorite, as his buddy and dining companion.

The movie boasts elegant art deco sets for the neighboring penthouse apartments of Montgomery and Tone (they share a terrace that allows them to walk in and out of each other's apartments and in one of the more blatant lifts from DESIGN FOR LIVING have an almost suspiciously close relationship but one as in the Coward play watered down by their rivalry.) This movie moves so fast and at just 70 minutes it's over almost before you know it, ending with a good running gag which tops even the surprise last reel appearance of George but fans of 1930's romantic comedies will eat this up like Nancy's tasty vittles.

I enjoyed the running gag of Janet Gaynor always thinking she lost something - her purse or gloves - and Robert Montgomery trying to help but running into trouble himself because of it (especially in the cute ending). And the idea of a small-town homebody having two sophisticated New Yorkers fall for her is inherently funny, but most of the time I found myself not laughing. So the film is a valiant try but no cigars are forthcoming. This was the last film Janet Gaynor made for about 19 years. (The film "The Young in Heart (1938)" was made earlier in 1938 but came out later that year.) Gaynor is perfect as the girl, with Montgomery and Franchot Tone giving good performances.

I was startled at a major goof near the end, when Gaynor's family and Tone's family meet in Tone's apartment. His father is played by Douglas Wood, who has the speaking part. But in some shots we clearly see another man (Charles Richman) in the background standing in for Tone's father. There was no effort to hide him either, and even if you don't know either actor, you just have to know that Wood has a mustache and Richman doesn't. And the all the actors' placement with each of the fathers are totally mismatched. To me, this ranks as the greatest lack of continuity by a major studio ever, and I'd be curious to know why it happened.

Three Loves Has Nancy with Janet Gaynor may not be on the same level as Lady Eve with Barbara Stanwyck but it comes close. I was laughing so hard that my son in the next room yelled out to me, "What's going on in there?" Franchot Tone simply stole the picture and Bob Montgomery was a close second. I couldn't believe the scene in which they were in bed together, stealing the one cover back and forth from each other. It had me in stitches. How could the Hollywood production code state that a married couple on screen couldn't sleep in the same bed yet these two men were allowed to do so? Did the censors simply miss out on the innuendo in 1938? Just too funny for words, perhaps even funnier than a similar scene made today, because this film was made in the age of innocence in Hollywood.

Janet delivers her lines flawlessly, and she is very sweet, but Tone and Montgomery made more with their material here. I rate this delightful film 9 out of 10. Don't miss it when next it airs on TCM.

Janet Gaynor plays a Thirties version of Tammy in Three Loves Has Nancy and her three guys are Robert Montgomery, Franchot Tone, and Grady Sutton. Want to take odds on who she winds up with?

Montgomery plays a popular author who Gaynor meets at a book signing and later on a train to New York. She's going because her fiancé Grady Sutton left her at the church and she's off to New York to find him. With a country innocence that belies a certain amount of country common sense she involves herself in the lives of Montgomery and his next door neighbor and publisher Franchot Tone in her search for the jilting Sutton.

Somebody had to have seen this film before creating the Tammy character that Debbie Reynolds made popular in the Fifties. Gaynor has the whole thing, accent and all, uncannily down. Montgomery and Tone play the same roles that they both did in so many films for MGM, the debonair man about town. I leave it to you as to who looks better in a tuxedo.

I wish there had been more of Gaynor's family, especially Guy Kibbee as her father and Charley Grapewin as her grandfather. The film would have been better for it.

Three Loves Has Nancy is all right entertainment, but nothing new here. Nothing that hadn't been done before or definitely would be done again later.