Sans tambour, ni trompette

MGM certainly used a low budget to make PARADISE FOR THREE, and it shows when it comes to the outdoor winter scenes supposedly taking place on ski slopes at an Alpine resort. The use of process photography for all those mountain tops covered with snow is obvious.

Nor did they use a top cast but the results are splendid nevertheless.

An up and coming Robert Young has the star role of a contest winner who is mistakenly thought to be a millionaire by Herman Bing and Sig Rumann when he arrives at his destination at a swank hotel. He immediately attracts the attention of Mary Astor, hard on her luck as far as money is concerned and looking for an easy catch.

But the fun begins when Frank Morgan decides to check on how the hotel treats the lower class and finds himself mistaken for a mere contest winner without money. The pretty blond Florence Rice plays his daughter who naturally falls in love with penniless Robert Young, who doesn't know she's a rich girl until the final reel.

It's predictable and silly, with great support from Edna May Oliver as Morgan's housekeeper of thirty years who joins the group at the hotel to look out for Morgan's health and keeps an eye on his "woman trouble" with Astor. She makes the most of an amusing role in true Edna May Oliver fashion.

This is one that's little known today. To put it in context, it probably played the lower half of bills in the "double feature" days which is why I call it a programmer. I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of those B-films that surprised audiences by being more entertaining than the main feature, which happened occasionally.

Of all the innumerable B movies churned out by MGM to fill the lower half of a double bill it was inevitable that every once in a while one would jell into an mini classic. Paradise for Three is one of those happy accidents.

The story of hidden identities and crossed signals played for laughs certainly wasn't new even in 1938 but director Buzzell moves things along at breakneck speed and is fortunate to have the cast filled out with some of the best character actors working at that time.

The nominal leads are Robert Young and Florence Rice and while Young is his usual polished, amusing self and Rice is pretty and game they aren't really the engine that makes the movie run. That falls to the main trio of supporting players, Mary Astor, Edna May Oliver and especially the delightfully wacky Frank Morgan.

Astor is all sly cunning as a gold digger with an amazing wardrobe and Edna May grumbles and fusses as only she can enduring hilarious indignities along the way. But it is Morgan and his dithery befuddlement and kindly manner who steals the picture. The blending together of all their terrific work manages to take the ordinary material and add an extra punch to it that makes it laugh out loud funny in several spots and an undiscovered gem.

"Paradise for Three" is a wonderful movie, full of laughs and winter sports. The delightful and handsome Robert Young is a contest winner who is mistaken for a millionaire by villainous Herman Bing, with Frank Morgan (at his befuddled best) as the real millionaire, mistaken for a hobo. It's also got Sig Rumann, and Mary Astor as a shameless gold-digging hussy. 10 out of 10.

Set in the absolute seat of anti-Semitism and after Austria was annexed by Germany comes this little light comedy, "Paradise for Three" starring Robert Young, Frank Morgan, Mary Astor, Edna May Oliver, Henry Hull, Reginald Owen, and Florence Rice.

Many, many classic films are set in European locations, even though for years, they were done on Hollywood sets for the most part. Was it because of the European market? To give the films an exotic feel? Even if the film were adapted from a foreign book, a studio could still set it in the U.S. But no, it was always Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, etc.

Why would anyone set a film in Vienna in 1938? No idea, except that Hollywood (and I guess the U.S.) ignored what was going on in Europe for several years. Even when it was acknowledged, studios were careful in their films not to state that people were Jewish (in the Mortal Storm they were non-Aryans) or talk about the Nazis (in the Mortal Storm they showed swastikas but never used the word Nazi), at least at first.

Robert Young is Fritz Hagedorn, a constant contest winner (26 in all) who wins the Tobler Soap motto competition. In second place, unknown to anyone, is the big guy himself, Rudolph Tobler (Frank Morgan). The prize for both is a ski vacation in the Alps, which Tobler takes under an assumed name and brings his butler (Owen) along as an associate.

The hotel is ready to lay out the red carpet for Tobler because his housekeeper (Oliver) has called to say the contest winner is a wealthy gentleman is arriving and has to have the best of everything. She has to hang up before she can give his fake name, so when Fritz arrives, he gets a suite and all the perks. When Tobler arrives, they take him for a bum and throw him up in a freezing cold attic room.

Believing Fritz to be the rich one, Mary Astor sets her eyes on him and makes a play. While in the hotel room with Fritz and Tobler, Fritz opens some brandy. When Tobler tastes it and identifies it by name, as a very expensive brandy, she realizes she's got the wrong guy. So she changes lanes.

Fritz meanwhile is falling for Tobler's daughter (Rice). She tells him that she's poor, knowing he doesn't want to marry out of his class.

Very funny film with some wonderful character acting from the hotel people (Hull, Herman Bing, Sig Ruman), a great dishwashing scene, Tobler being introduced to the features of his hotel room (broken window in the middle of window, ice in the sink, rock hard mattress), and Edna May Oliver skiing. By the way, she was 55 at the time of this filming and died at 59.

The acting from the rest of the cast is delightful. I guess Hollywood least of anywhere cared what was going on in the rest of the world. Just put in a few yodelers, show some mountains, and that's it.

A delightful little comedy, A rich widower tycoon, under iron control of the dictator at home, the governess for the whole family - the father and the daughter. The man (Morgan) has his escapades - nothing romantic, or I will say romantic with respect to the other gender. But the governess, officially only housekeeper, Mrs Kunkel (Edna Mae Oliver) won't let him blink without her permission (nothing romantic here either, she behaves more like a strict and watchful mother). Naturally the baby inside him wants to break free, and gets the chance when his slogan gets selected as one of the prize-winning slogans, submitted under assumed name (of his own company, but clearly not influenced). The reward is a fortnight in Alps and he grabs at the opportunity with both hands. He takes his butler with him, to avoid Mrs Kunkel's suspicion. But she is smarter than he thought. Again as usual motherly feelings, she ensures that thought incognito, but he is well taken care of at the hotel, by calling the manager and telling that the a millionaire incognito is arriving as a prize winner and the necessary care should be accorded (including a pair of siamese kittens - Morgan's favourite pet). In hotel, since the name wasn't told, not even the assumed name, the first of the two winners to arrive, Fritz Hagedorn (Young) an unemployed man, is mistaken for the millionaire and given all attentions, by hotel as well as a gold-digger, Mrs Irene Mallebre (Astor) - till she identifies the right one from the behaviour of the second winner who was really the millionaire. She arranges to get herself in a compromising position - which would get her the man or a few millions (under breach of promise). Meanwhile, warned by the accompanying Butler, Mrs Kunkel has arrived and with her, with opposite intention, the daughter, to see that her father is allowed to have his fun and Mrs Kunkel doesn't spoil it. The daughter promptly falls in love with the actual pauper. Who for a change, doesn't hide his financials from her, and agrees to fall in love (or express it) only when she too masquerades as a poor, working girl (paid poor relative and companion of rich aunt Mrs Kunkel). Now both the father and daughter are in mess due to their masquerade - one under breach of promise, and other due to lying, pretending to be poor, to get her man. Sorting that out is never much of trouble in stories, but here there had been some innovative ways. Good screwball comedy, not something too new as a story, (but may be at that time it was a novel one ? ) but that doesn't reduce the enjoyment quotient.

The movie doesn't have any politics, so I am surprised why some of the reviewers have to bring that in here. We may discuss those aspects when the movie itself is political. The background - Austrian - had been kept since the original story was that way, and it tried to remain faithful to it. The story was of 1924 - much before the Nazis had really assumed the power. The writer of the story, by the way, was pacifist - which neither of the warring sides were, and to the credit of Nazis, he had been interrogated, kept under observation, but neither put behind bar, not stopped from moving out of the country - and he always came back to it. Anyway I too shouldn't go into politics, there are movies where that could be taken up during review - both of UFA as well as Hollywood - since both were equally biased and wrong.