Vénus en uniforme

Jane Wyman is great as Marcy Lewis, an ambitious flight stewardess, in the golden era of flying, where flight attendants and flight crew were somewhat celebrity. Those days are gone obviously. Most people fly the friendly or unfriendly skies. The film shows Marcy, a young woman from Ohio, with aspirations to become one of the best flight attendants anywhere. During her fabulous career, she is courted by three men who all happen to be called Mike. There is Captain Mike Denison, the pilot who she offends as he offers her a lift to the airport on her first day. Then there is Mike Tracy, the science scholar and bartender, and Mike Lawrence, the advertising executive. They are played by some of Hollywood's leading men like Van Johnson. The supporting cast is equally impressive with Phyllis Kirk. It's a good film despite the fact that it's outdated by decades. Of course, there is one scene where Marcy is constantly sexually harassed by two male passengers aboard the flight.

Jane Wyman is a fledgling airline stewardess -- note the tie-in to American Airlines. She is bright, creative, a bit ditzy, and has three beaux, all named Mike: Van Johnson, Howard Keel and Barry Sullivan.

We're definitely entering the cultural 1950s, with Miss Wyman's character considered an oddball, with a view to marriage, and "no ambition to be the oldest stewardess in the business." Careers for women are temporary matters, and her choices are good providers -- an airline pilot and a successful ad executive -- and an idealistic teacher. This was an era far different from ours, when people dressed well to travel on airplanes, and smoked cigarettes while doing so. Airlines were looked on as travel, instead of our modern idea of transportation, when every passenger, from infant to wheelchair-bound nonagenarian is looked on as a potential bomber (given how people dress these days). Stewardesses were the smiling faces of the airlines, sexy drink servers who could deal with emergencies. And that is what this movie offers.

Miss Wyman offers an amusing shadow of her 'ditz' personna from her bleached-blonde-comedienne phase from the early 1940s. Charles Walters demonstrates that his excellence as a director of musical drama does not carry over particularly well into comedy.

Jane Wyman is perky, freshly-scrubbed and impertinent (as usual) playing an stewardess-trainee with American Airlines. She clashes lightly with pilot Howard Keel and passenger Van Johnson up in the air before having a run-in with Barry Sullivan on the ground. All three men--each named Mike--quickly come around with romantic notions--this is the kind of '50s comedy where men can't wait to get hitched--but Wyman is so busy hatching ideas and shooting from the hip that she barely notices all their attention. What begins as a smartly-written and executed glimpse at a stewardess's life in the sky is soon hustled right into romantic comedy territory. The question is obvious: which Mike will our heroine choose? However, I didn't find any of these potential suitors capable of handling Wyman, who is continually mouthing off in a wide-eyed, nonchalantly feminine way. This puff-piece, directed with snap but no flair by Charles Walters, is nearly impossible to critique seriously; if pressed, I would have to say the fistfight in the photographer's apartment wouldn't really be worthy of front page news in the paper (did the fight last long enough for the reporters and shutterbugs to show up?). Walters captures first-day-on-the-job jitters exceptionally well, but Sidney Sheldon's screenplay goes soft too fast. The final line between the men is amusing, but what we don't get see at the fade-out is a career girl who feels alive up in the air quickly tied down in suburbia with kids tugging at her apron. **1/2 from ****

Honestly, there was no way I couldn't like this movie. As soon as I started watching it, I was hooked. Naturally, it was cheesy and unrealistic (IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE AND YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHICH MIKE SHE PICKS, DON'T READ ON!). Look, I wasn't expecting a surprise ending. Van Johnson was the first of the "Mikes" in the credits, so naturally my money was on him. I was just hoping for a better explanation of why he got the girl. He didn't do anything the other two Mikes didn't do. Through out the entire movie, Jane Wyman never even showed any favoritism toward him. I hate to say it, but this was an obvious case of "the biggest star" gets the girl. But don't get me wrong. I just think that with a little bit of better writing, they could have pulled it off better. But don't think this movie wasn't worth watching. I loved it!

Personally, I would have picked Howard Keel =P

"Three Guys Named Mike" is a story about a fledgling airline hostess from a small town who gets to fly the friendly skies and expand her horizons. Marcy Lewis (Jane Wyman) embraces her new way of life, experiences the joys of interacting with the public (people from different lands with their varied views) and meets three bachelors who happen to have the same first name. Marcy knows that married women cannot be hostesses, but she's not really trying to find a husband--she's too busy revolutionizing the ad world and the flight industry. But that doesn't stop men from throwing themselves at her. Particularly Howard Keel (a pilot), Van Johnson (a graduate student in scientific studies), and Barry Sullivan (a successful adman).

All four major players play their roles well, but the script is a trifling that is more interesting as a documentation of the flight procedures and customs of the time. While watching Wyman in this role, I kept thinking of June Allyson and, according to notes in the trivia section, the role was written for her. Ms. Wyman's voice also reminded me of Doris Day's at times.

Even with its paternalistic and sometimes sexist approach to the training and employment of stewardesses, the airlines industry (especially American Airlines) get a commercial from Hollywood in this film.