Tre signore e una grande impresa

Pam Grier, Florence Henderson and Donna Mills may draw viewers into this story centering around three congregation members who volunteer to support their church's day-care fund, by renovating a dilapidated property owned by their fellowship, while learning of concerns within their respective marriages.

Any comic relief runs cliché, as the ladies of the house know little, if anything, of carpentry, wiring or plumbing. While they insist upon no assistance from others, they rely upon the hardware store clerk for advice upon nails and things, and Pam takes a crash course in plumbing. Their minister is on hand to take calls, but does little in the way of acting or helping the story to advance in any way, shape or form, indicating that this is probably not the closest of fellowships, adding the fact that these three close friends know little about one another's secrets, if at all their own.

Richard Roundtree, Lance Henriksen and Gordon Thomson play the respective husbands of Miss Grier, Miss Henderson and Miss Mills. Hallmark productions require very little of the actor's talents save setting the stage for the actress to emote.

One may eagerly anticipate Richard's sizzling with Pam, Gordon's heating the screen with Donna, and Lance's encouraging Florence's comic relief, but these relationships suddenly hit the snags for one reason or another even though, Pam, no one else would feel exactly bored coming home to Richard Roundtree.

But Pam keeps apologizing to Richard for spending too much time fixing up the house for charity, without addressing exactly what the problem is between them. Florence and Lance launch into their very downbeat subplot involving terminal illness. And Donna questions her tolerating her wealthy Gordon's cheating on his mistress with his secretary, as Gordon Thomson characters very often do.

Add to the mix a "neighborhood watchdog," who spends his days lounging upon the tailgate of his pickup directly across the street from the charity residence. While the three ladies feel protected by his endeavors, he loses his cool with Donna for an innocent remark on her part, but confides to Pam that he comes from a family of dentists and did not want to go into the practice after college. Instead, he works nights to stand guard all day. And, oh yes, he's a "responsible" single father, who neglects the baby inside his place all day and all night, while he provides, pretty much the same way in which the ladies neglect their marriages.

Even though this screen story is greatly out of touch with these extremely difficult times of repossessions and poverty, the ladies continue to refurbish, before returning to their own opulent residences and shattering marriages. But their husbands continuously encourage these wives to carry on with their solo project, while each secretly enlists assistance from everyone except her husband.

One evening when Pam's character decides to shop at the hardware store, Richard asks her where she's heading. "To shop for supplies," she explains, causing him to accompany her, to scrutinize her activities. What he learns is that she actually drives to the hardware store to shop for supplies. The script very often walks away from potential excitement in a series of choppy scenes, as this.

This production may cause a viewer to reassess the notion of "average." On one hand, one may wonder why Pam Grier, Florence Henderson, Donna Mills or Richard Roundtree would sign onto an otherwise bland project as "Ladies of the House." But, on the other hand, they raise it to new levels, by possibly making this the first Hallmark production which viewers actually watch all the way through--if only to anticipate its stars reverting to their famously customary characters, as Gordon certainly does.

By comparison to other productions of its kind, a new definition of average springs to mind, and "Ladies of the House" rises above the norm to become salvaged by its star power.

My family loved the movie. It was funny to start with, then as the plot developed, some serious issues were revealed. The acting was great. The thing I liked best about the movie, was that it was geared to issues middle aged and older people face at that time of life. The actresses were fun to watch as they fixed up the house. The parts at the hardware store were especially funny. The three woman evolved through the movie, and by the end they were a support system for each other. They seemed as though they would make the best of their life situations, no matter what they faced. I could relate to some of the issues the women were dealing with. I plan to watch it again.

The film centers around 3 women: Rose (Henderson), Birdie (Grier), and Elizabeth (Mills). They have been asked by their church pastor to "fix-up" a house that was donated to the church. The church plans to sell the house and use the proceeds to save their struggling day care program. The notion that it is ridiculous to expect three women with no experience to renovate this house is briefly touched upon, but explained away by the pastor when he tells the women they are his "go to" people. The women agree to do the work, because if they don't, the day care will run out of funds in six months - and then what will happen to those poor children??

The women don't have lives or personalities of their own independent of their husbands.

Rose's husband, Frank (Henriksen), is retired and spends his days gardening and giving sage advice on life.

Birdie's husband, Stan (Roundtree), is newly retired and doesn't know what to do with himself. He can't understand why Birdie would agree to help out the church when he worked all those years so he could retire and spend time with her. He's selfish and crabby and all their interactions are awkward.

Elizabeth's husband, Richard (Thomson), is a very wealthy business man and sees no point in Elizabeth wasting time on such a dinky project. He's a cheater and a control freak.

The women set about the task of fixing the house, but don't own tools, or know how to use them. There is a fairly lengthy sequence of them making a list of what is needed and then assigning tasks to each other. Buying a "how-to" book is lower on the list than I would have put it, and it appears they never do get it because they are still asking which nails to use halfway through the film. They don't ask anyone for help on the house (even though two of their husbands are retired) apart from the hardware store guy - the only male on earth who thinks they have the capability to do the work.

We don't really see the women actually working on fixing the house - aside from tearing down one cabinet and then a musical montage scene where they dance and apply putty to the wall. They hardly ever wear clothes that would be appropriate for construction, and are never really seen doing physical labor.

Time marches on. Birdie is frustrated with her laugh-less, loveless marriage (Stan tags along when Birdie takes one plumbing class at the hardware store, during which she asks lame questions ("Monkey wrench? Is that with an 'o' or a 'u'?"). Preoccupied after the mentally draining class, Birdie leaves the hardware store, forgetting Stan until she's halfway home. Stan can't even laugh at the situation and tells her he was too embarrassed to tell a store clerk that his WIFE forgot about him.

Elizabeth is also miserable in her marriage - Richard phones that he'll be "working late" and she cuts off her fake fingernails with scissors. That'll teach him.

Rose's plot line particularly annoyed me. She appears to know that Frank isn't well, but doesn't go with him to the doctor because she's so "busy" with the house project. She wakes up in the middle of the night one night and he tells her a lame story about his dad and then tells her he has cancer. She falls weeping into his arms and apparently doesn't need to ask him what kind of cancer he has, if it's terminal (it's assumed to be), how long he has, etc. The entire movie is really bad at answering questions and filling in detail.

Frank deteriorates for a while and then one day, Rose comes to the house and collects Elizabeth and brings her over to her house where Birdie is waiting. Rose leads the other two to her backyard and tells them Frank died. I was really bothered by this scene. I kept thinking, "When did he die? Where is his body? Why didn't Rose just call her friends and have them come over?" It was nonsensical.

After Frank's death, they still need to get the house done. They finish it and Birdie's husband comes over to check it out for the first time - he's aghast when he finds out that Birdie learned how to plumb an entire house & goes to check to make sure the faucet runs and the toilet flushes.

Rose writes a book about their experience. The manuscript looks to be about 20 pages long - no doubt it's riveting.

Elizabeth decides to leave Richard. I thought the plot might have a twist here with Richard yelling, "No one leaves me!" before he strangles her to death, but, alas, he just tells her she's making a mistake.

With the house finished and Elizabeth needing a place to live, it comes as no surprise when Elizabeth wants to buy it from the church.

I'm troubled by this film being labeled a "chick-flick" because the underlying message is really anti-feminist. None of the women have jobs or any sense of self, and they although they set out to, they really don't "prove" to anyone (let alone the audience) that they are capable of doing much. They are all portrayed as stupid - in one scene, Birdie actually hits her own hand with a hammer because there was a spider on her hand and she thought she would try to kill it with the hammer. I think the film was aiming to portray these women as independent and capable, when in fact, it does just the opposite. Even the friendship that develops between the women is hard to buy.

Wrought with plot holes and out of place scenes, this film falls hard and flat.

A typical film dealing with 3 women working on the fixing up of a house left by a church member, so that they can sell the house and provide for needy children,really blossoms out. We soon find out that this work really serves as therapy for these women to combat one whose husband has been stricken with a fatal form of cancer, another whose wealthy husband has been cheating on her with his secretary, and the third whose husband has retired and she now feels that their marriage is faltering.

Florence Henderson does a beautiful job as the widow and is equally matched by Donna Mills, the wife of the cheater, who comes down to earth and sees the true value of life by doing this work for their church.

The film deals with the fulfillment of life by working for an admirable goal. It succeeds here.

Years ago, there were women's pictures (sometimes called "weepers") and more recently there have been "chick flicks" and I suppose this movie could be categorized as such, but to do so would be to overlook some very fine male performances, particularly by Lance Henricksen as "Frank" and Gordon Thomson as "Richard." Richard Roundtree was under-utilized; he made the most of his under-written character and has one very fine scene towards the end of the picture. But his relationship with his wife "Birdie" (wonderfully played by the very talented Pam Grier) would make a terrific picture or television series by itself. Florence Henderson offers a very fine performance and Donna Mills does what she can with her all-too-familiar character of society wife. There is so much more to Donna Mills than beautiful, wealthy blonde parts, and this role is a good beginning for her to more-fully explore her talent. What I found refreshing about this movie is that it while it covers the ground of aging people's concerns, it does so in a realistic way, without too many pat, completely resolved by the end of the movie answers and without that annoying and unnatural "balance" of fresh, beautiful young characters to (I suppose) hold the interest of a younger audience. This movie might not appeal to a young audience, but if young people were to look at the subject matter as a metaphor for how to proceed in life in an uncertain world, I think they too might find it entertaining.