Three Sailors and a Girl

An American submarine docks for shore leave in New York City. The sailors decide to invest their money in a Broadway musical, instead of spending it on women. The presence of Jack Larson and Merv Griffin among the sailors somehow makes this seem more plausible. The "Three Sailors…" of the title are singer Gordon MacRae (as "Choirboy" Jones), dancer Gene Nelson (as "Twitch"), and rotund comedian Jack E. Leonard (as "Porky"). They meet promising musical comedy star Jane Powell (as Penny Weston), "…and a Girl" completes the title. She wears some sexy costumes, to show off her hourglass figure. Also watch for the service station dance solo from Mr. Nelson.

**** Three Sailors and a Girl (11/23/53) Roy Del Ruth ~ Jane Powell, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, Jack E. Leonard

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.

'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.

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.

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