Tout le plaisir est pour moi

Much has been said to deride this film, it's stars, it's musical format and general premise but I enjoy it from start to finish. Another musical (from Britain) also released in the mid-fifties ; "Let's Be Happy" was equally dismissed by critics and public and both films are remembered by devotees only. It's a pity that both of these musicals brought to a cruel halt the film careers of Betty Grable and Vera-Ellen respectively ; two of filmdom's brightest and loveliest ladies still in their prime.

The above mentioned musicals are two of my favourites and how overjoyed I am that they have both been preserved on DVD in wide-screen and glorious colour. I'm one very satisfied customer.

..and with Marge and Gower Champion and Jack Lemmon...it is lots of fun. Fun is what Betty Grable was about...and this film is at its best during those sequences aimed at amusing. ...These days people do not understand Betty Grable very well. In her day she was everyman's and every womans ideal. Indeed no woman has broken Betty's box office record (eleven years in the top ten). And, in the forties and early fifties, women still dominated the box office to an amazing degree--Mom chose the films the family was going out to see. Though it was a bit early to be obvious, Betty in many ways represented a manifestation of what we would now call a liberated woman. She was nearly always working (in revealing clothing!), and she was self supporting. In real life she was a very successful working mother--and particularly during WWII she was an inspiration to women manning the homefront as much as an inspiration to the armed forces fighting overseas. She was pretty, talented, popular, and the highest salaried woman in the United States. Now she is remembered primarily as a 'pin up'--which she also was, but the title tends to diminish the many other factors that created her popularity. One thing is certain, in "Three for the Show" or any other of her starring films--she will entertain you royally within the limitations of the material she was given.

If you have managed to somehow miss this musical, watching it 60+ years after it was released is a revelation. Betty Grable's appeal makes sense to me at last, in this her last major film at the age of 39. The plot in a nutshell: A successful performer has been widowed by World War II. She marries her late husband's songwriting partner, played by Gower Champion, but the new marriage becomes a racy ménage a trois when her first husband, played by Jack Lemmon, shows up alive and eager to claim his conjugal rights. Grable plays her cards right, through a series of dreamy song and dance sequences with music by George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Hoagy Carmichael. The extraordinary dance team of Marge and Gower Champion has never looked better, nor have "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Just One of Those Things," and "I've Got a Crush on You" ever sounded better. Some critics say Grable imitated Marilyn Monroe; I prefer to think that her performance was a gesture of handing over the "Hollywood's hottest blonde" crown to Monroe and quitting while she was ahead, which she definitely was in this film. Favorite line from Grable: I've got what most women want-a lover and a husband and they're both legal!"

It was only a matter of time before a movie musical would be made with an "Enoch Arden" plot. This 1955 Columbia musical was it. Although the film writing credits list a W. Somerset Maugham play, that play itself was a version of the 1864 poem, "Enoch Arden," by Alfred Lord Tennyson. If not an exact take-off, the play was surely inspired by Tennyson's poem, which Maugham would certain have read and known as a British citizen.

The only similarity with Maugham's "Home and Beauty" (written in 1915 and staged in 1919), is that the male character had been reported missing in action (MIA) in the Korean War (then called a conflict). And, there is a short sequence when the two males connive and turn their backs on the woman. Otherwise, "Three for the Show" clearly is a modern comedy musical rendition of the "Enoch Arden" story. And it is most obviously inspired by the 1940 comedy-romance movies that were made, more than anything else.

So, anyway, this is a very good film. Although the story seems a little hokier in this modern setting of the Broadway stage. The two male friends were a writing team that had written a number of successful plays. But, when Marty Stewart is listed as missing by the War Department during the Korean War, wife Gwen Howard after a couple years marries Vernon Lowndes who had been Hudson's partner. Jack Lemmon as Stewart and Betty Grable as Julie Lowndes, provide much of the comedy.

But this film has a tremendous value beyond the comedy and the plot. That is its musical parts, especially the dance numbers and routines. Marge and Gower Champion had danced in several films that showed their talents in one or two numbers. But those supporting roles could hardly begin to show the range and beauty of their dancing. This film does that. It's their best and a wonderfully entertaining musical that showcases great dancing. I think that this single film of the Champions rates with the many outstanding dance musicals of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. For that reason alone, this is a real keeper.

On a production note, "Three for the Show" was made by Columbia Pictures. Musicals were still somewhat popular in 1955, though beginning to fade in numbers. Since its founding in 1918, Columbia had reached the second tier of movie studies, right under the big five during Hollywood's golden era (MGM, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, RKO and United Artists). But by the 1950s, Columbia had moved up and was then one of the Big Six, along with Universal - with those two studios replacing UA. By the end of the 20th century, with the demise of MGM and RKO, Disney had grown to be the largest movie company, with Columbia and Universal close behind. Warner Brothers and Fox rounded out the Big Five into the early 21st century.

What an interesting pedigree Three For The Show had, dating all the way back to 1920 when W. Somerset Maugham's play Too Many Husbands debuted on Broadway with a long forgotten cast. It had a military background instead of a show business one, though the military does figure prominently in the plot.

Collaborators Jack Lemmon and Gower Champion have a hit show on Broadway for producer Myron McCormick that stars Betty Grable. Lemmon goes into the Air Force during the Korean War and goes MIA. He's reported killed and Grable who was married to Lemmon, now marries Champion. Then of course Lemmon returns and they've a situation the reverse of My Favorite Wife.

In the meantime poor Marge Champion is champing at the bit because she's got a thing for Gower. I think you can figure out where this one is going.

The numbers come from a variety of sources, some original, some Broadway, some classical. Betty Grable in what proved to be her next to last film did more serious type dancing here than in any other. But next to the Champions, she really did not look that good. It was unfair to cast her with them.

Grable also did not like working for Harry Cohn, she was used to another imperious studio mogul over at 20th Century Fox who had kind of eased her out of her number one spot for the fast rising Marilyn Monroe. But she thought he was a pussycat next to Cohn. Two For The Show was Betty's first outside film after 14 year at Fox.

Jack Lemmon proved to have a couple of good singing notes as he does accompany the rest on a number or two. He liked working with Grable because he felt she was unpretentious with a good sense of humor as apparently a lot of her colleagues did.

As a film though, Three For The Show will never rank first rate in the work of either Lemmon or Grable.