Three Little Girls in Blue

Films like "Three Little Girls in Blue" are a hard-sell for me. While I like some musicals, the style of musical that this film is would be among my least favorite films of the day. The songs are not naturally integrated into the film (like they generally were in Astaire-Rogers musicals) but were insanely big and ridiculous production numbers. So, while some of the songs were really nice (such as "You Make Me Feel So Young"), to me they were ruined with all the gloss and because they were so stilted and overdone. I am sure other old film buffs wouldn't agree with me. I am just saying this so you'll be able to put my review into context.

As for the film, it's very, very similar to the later film "How To Marry a Millionaire" but instead of three gold digger friends going to the big city to marry a mega-rich man, this involves three sisters doing the same thing (Vivian Blaine, June Haver and Vera- Ellen). But instead of the three separately looking for a guy, they pick one of them to pose as a rich woman and the other two to pose as a maid as well as a secretary. While some mind find this cute, I also have a bias and felt this wasn't exactly romance!

The overall production is extremely glossy--with the full Twentieth Century-Fox treatment--vivid Technicolor, lovely music and nice sets. The film DOES look very nice but otherwise it left me a bit flat. Watchable but nothing special.

it was an outstanding, award worthy,movie that left you with a warm fuzzy feeling inside. the actors/actresses played their parts so well it was as if you were in the movie. the plot and unexpected twists add to the experience, you don't even notice that it's in black and white. the movie all around is a great movie.

Three Little Girls in Blue is a smooth and simple, musical fairy tale showcasing some clever and intricate lyrics by Mack Gordon to Joseph Myrow's music which enchant the viewer right at the opening on a New Jersey chicken farm ("A Farmer's Life Is a Very Merry Life") and recur at just the appropriate junctures thereafter and include the enduring favorite "You Make Me Feel So Young." Other plusses include an intelligently lighthearted script by a large team of writers, gorgeous color photography, artful lighting effects, witty directorial touches and the three beautifully costumed and coiffed leading ladies. The male leads are less impressive, though Charles Smith as an eccentric valet who falls for Vera-Ellen is the most surprising and delightful. V-E herself as one of the titular girls is given ample opportunity to show off her balletic and acrobatic dancing skills in lively but overly busy choreography. Celeste Holm appears late in the story as an acerbically articulate, wacky but goodhearted Southern belle who helps tie up the plot in good old-fashioned musical comedy style.

Where has this musical been hiding for the last 50 years? It's a total delight. Special bouquets go to the feminine side of the cast--June Haver, Vivian Blaine, and Celeste Holm. But perhaps the top stand-out is lovely and piquant Vera-Ellen. Her rendition of "You Make Me Feel So Young" is one of the best solo dances ever filmed.

20th Century Fox turned out plenty of musicals in the '30s and '40s, generally boasting the likes of Betty Grable, Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, Charlotte Greenwood, John Payne, and Sonja Henie. A rich roster of talent, but most of these were hampered by weak screenplays and weaker scores, often consisting mostly of old standards that were either public domain or at least cheap. The directors were studio hacks, and this one's no exception, it's helmed by the peerlessly dull Bruce Humberstone. But it's a rare 20th attempt at a real integrated Broadway-style musical, with a Josef Myrow-Mack Gordon score that evolves naturally from the action, even with some rhyming dialogue. And the screenplay, a sort-of remake of the 1938 "Three Blind Mice," at least has a little verve. Farm girls June Haver (proficient as always, and never any more than that), Vivian Blaine (hired by Fox to replace Faye, and she didn't last long, but she did have a lovely voice), and Vera-Ellen (dubbed, and dancing up a storm in a protracted "You Make Me Feel So Young" dream ballet), alight to a fetching studio-bound Atlantic City to find rich husbands, and the best they can do are the dullish George Montgomery, Frank Lattimore, and Charles Price. But it's very colorful and tuneful, and Celeste Holm, brought in two-thirds of the way through for some plot complications and a good specialty number, walks off with the rest of the movie. There's also a nicely shot fox hunt. Not much will surprise you, but the numbers are fun, the three little girls are appealing, and it isn't overlong.