Three little words

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Movie
German title Three little words
Original title Three Little Words
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1950
length 102 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Richard Thorpe
script George Wells
production Jack Cummings
music André Previn ,
Bert Kalmar ,
Harry Ruby
camera Harry Jackson
cut Ben Lewis
occupation
synchronization

Three Little Words (original title: Three Little Words ) is an American film musical by Richard Thorpe with Fred Astaire and Vera-Ellen from 1950. It is a biopic about the songwriting duo Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar .

action

New York around 1918: Step dancer Bert Kalmar and his dance partner Jessie Brown performed successfully in the city's vaudeville theaters. For a while he has been trying his hand at songwriting, while secretly dreaming of putting his own magic show on stage as a magician. When he proposes to Jessie, she rejects him for the time being, because his career in show business is too important to him at the moment. However, she wanted to let him know when she was ready for a wedding. Then Bert appears disguised as a magician in a small theater. There he meets Harry Ruby, who will accompany his show on the piano and assist him as an assistant. Harry behaves so clumsily that all magic tricks go wrong and to Bert's annoyance the audience breaks out in roaring laughter.

Bert is now concentrating more on his dance performances with Jessie. When one day he injured his knee behind the scenes and is not allowed to dance for at least a year, Jessie hopes that he will finally have more time for her and therefore suggests they get married. However, Bert worries that he will not be able to take care of her because of his injury and tells Jessie to find another dance partner. Offended, Jessie runs away and decides to go on a solo tour. Bert then meets Harry Ruby again, who wants to make a name for himself as a composer. When Bert recognizes Harry as the man who ruined his magic show, he is very angry at first, but can then forgive him. They join forces as the duo "Ruby & Kalmar" and henceforth write one hit after the other.

When Bert thinks that he can finally dance again and becomes cocky, so that his knee hurts again, he realizes how much he misses Jessie. Harry now wants to bring Bert and Jessie back together and therefore suggests a trip to Buffalo , where Jessie can currently be seen on a show. When Jessie sees Bert and Harry sitting in the audience, she asks them both to go on stage to sing a song with her. Bert and Jessie make up and, back in New York, finally step in front of the altar. Meanwhile, Harry hooks up with the attractive nightclub singer Terry Lordel, who only uses him to advance her own career. Bert, who sees through Terry's wrong game and wants to spare his friend greater grief, ensures that Harry can play far away in Florida with his favorite baseball team, the Washington Senators . When Harry finally returns to New York, Terry has already married a saxophone player.

In the meantime Bert has written his own play and found a banker to invest. However, Harry thinks that the piece is no good. To save Bert from a failure, he gets the banker not to finance the production of the play after all. Harry then falls in love with the actress Eileen Percy. They had met before auditioning for a musical, for which Harry had preferred Terry. Eileen has since become a movie star. When Bert finds out after a party that it was Harry who had made sure that his play was not performed, he ended their partnership. While Harry is now writing songs on his own, Bert goes to Hollywood , where he works successfully as a screenwriter. Eileen, who is now married to Harry, finally gets in touch with Jessie to reconcile Harry and Bert. Together, the two women manage to persuade Bert and Harry to appear on a radio show in which they perform their big hits in a medley. Finally, Harry plays his latest composition, Three Little Words , to which Bert has secretly contributed lyrics and which is now to Harry's delight.

background

Composer Harry Ruby and songwriter Bert Kalmar wrote numerous hit songs for stage and film musicals from 1917 until Kalmar's death in 1947. The title-giving song Three Little Words (Eng. "Three Little Words") is one of her most famous songs and was used in her first film work in 1930 under the title Check and Double Check .

In Richard Thorpe's musical about their collaboration, Harry Ruby made a guest appearance as a baseball player. For Ruby, the movie turned out to be an ambivalent pleasure; he wrote in his memoirs:

“Kalmar signed the contract for the film just two days before he died. My father, eager to see the film about his son, counted the days and minutes until it was released. He died the day the film premiered in New York. "

Debbie Reynolds can be seen in one of her first roles and received numerous fan letters for her appearance, whereupon MGM decided to sign her permanently. Gloria DeHaven played in a supporting role her own mother Mrs. Carter DeHaven, who had appeared as an actress in many plays and silent films and who had been in contact with the songwriting duo as Kalmar's mother-in-law.

Three Little Words premiered in the United States on July 12, 1950 . The film was released in Germany on October 12, 1951.

Music and dance numbers

Reviews

The lexicon of international films describes Drei kleine Wort as “a [g] dismal biographical musical whose thin plot is filled with song, dance and humor”. The lyrics are also "only insufficiently Germanized".

According to Variety , the film is "a charming, entertaining piece of show business". Led by Fred Astaire as Kalmar and Red Skelton as Ruby, "the entire cast is doing a fine job under the artful direction of Richard Thorpe." The film critic Leonard Maltin described the film as a “standard MGM musical” that had “a lively cast” and “beautiful songs” to offer.

Awards

At the Oscar ceremony in 1951 was three little words in the category Best Original Score in a music film for the Oscar nominated, but the film was subject Annie Get Your Gun . Fred Astaire won the Golden Globe for Best Actor - Comedy or Musical for his performance . Debbie Reynolds was also nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Young Actress. In addition, screenwriter George Wells received a nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award .

German version

The German dubbed version , for which all the songs in the film were translated into German, was created in 1951 in the MGM synchronization studio in Berlin . Erik Ode wrote the dialogue book and also did the dubbing.

role actor Voice actor
Bert Kalmar Fred Astaire Erik Ode
Harry Ruby Red Skelton Georg Thomalla
Eileen Percy Arlene Dahl Friedel Schuster
Charlie Kope Keenan Wynn Franz Otto Kruger
Al Masters Paul Harvey Siegfried Schürenberg
Marty Alex Gerry Erich Dunskus

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Kalmar signed the contract for the movie just two days before he passed away. My father, who waited for the movie of his son, counted the days and minutes for its release. He died the morning the picture opened in New York. " Ken Bloom: The American Songbook. The Singers, the Songwriters, and the Songs . Black Dog & Leventhal, New York City 2005, ISBN 1-57912-448-8 , p. 255.
  2. ↑ Three little words. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 27, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ “[T] he picture is a charming, entertaining cavalcade of show business […]. Toplined by Fred Astaire as Kalmar and Red Skelton as Ruby, the entire cast does fine work under the skillful direction of Richard Thorpe. " See Three Little Words . In: Variety , 1950.
  4. ^ “Standard MGM musical about famous songwriters Kalmar and Ruby and their climb to fame; bouncy cast, fine tunes. " Leonard Maltin : Leonard Maltin's 2005 Movie & Video Guide . Plume, 2004, p. 1415.
  5. ↑ cf. synchrondatenbank.de