Three Girls About Town | |
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Theatrical Poster
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Directed by | Leigh Jason |
Produced by | Samuel Bischoff |
Written by | Richard Carroll |
Starring |
Joan Blondell Binnie Barnes Janet Blair |
Cinematography | Franz Planer |
Edited by | Charles Nelson |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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75 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Three Girls About Town is a 1941 Columbia comedy film directed by Leigh Jason. The story is written by Richard Carroll and stars Joan Blondell, Binnie Barnes and Janet Blair (in her film debut).
The Merchants Hotel is hosting a convention for morticians and a mediation meeting between aircraft manufacturers and their workers. This makes hotel manager Puddle worry about an article in the papers criticizing the hotel's policy on employing hostesses.
The article upsets more people on the staff, and Tommy Hopkins, who is in charge of press information at the hotel is scolded by his fiancé Hope Banner, who is also head hostess. Tommy has tried to get Hope to get another job with "regular" hours, but he hasn't spread this information to the press.
Hope works the long and uncomfortable hours to send her younger sister, Charity, to a private school. However, right after Hope and Tommy's argument, Charity announces that she will quit school to be a hostess like her older sister. Hope is shocked and tries to convince her otherwise, together with another hostess, Faith.
Meanwhile, a dead body is found in another part of the hotel in one of the rooms, by housekeeper Maggie and some of the maids. After telling Puddle, he decides to dump the body in an alley for someone else to find. As they try to do so, they are interrupted by the chief of police and a group of women outraged by the article about the legality of the hiring of hostesses in the hotel. Hope manages to fend them off by telling them there is no illegal hiring.
Tommy realizes that the dead body is in fact the labor mediator who has yet to show up at the mediation meeting. He phones a newspaper and tell them about this. When Hope and Faith finds out, they move the body to not ruin the hotel's reputation. But when the chief of police comes near, they have to hide it in a guest's room. Unfortunately the body is discovered by the guest and he runs off to call the police.
Meanwhile, Hope and Faith retrieve the body and hide it on a laundry cart. Tommy takes the body off the cart and uses it as an extra player in a game of cards, calling him "sleepy Joe". The corpse wins the forst round, and the others call it a "lucky stiff". Hope and Faith find the corpse at the card game and puts on a show, scolding the stiff, claiming it is Hope's lost husband. They manage to carry "Joe" out of there, but again bump into the chief of police in the hallway.