Three Little Words (film)
| Three Little Words | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Richard Thorpe |
| Produced by | Jack Cummings |
| Written by | George Wells |
| Starring |
Fred Astaire Red Skelton Vera-Ellen Arlene Dahl |
| Music by |
André Previn Harry Ruby |
| Cinematography | Harry Jackson |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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102 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,470,000 |
| Box office | $4,526,000 |
Three Little Words is a 1950 American musical film biography of the Tin Pan Alley songwriting partnership of Kalmar and Ruby and stars Fred Astaire as lyricist Bert Kalmar, Red Skelton as composer Harry Ruby, along with Vera-Ellen and Arlene Dahl as their wives, with Debbie Reynolds in a small but notable role as singer Helen Kane. The film, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was written by Academy Award winning screenwriter George Wells, directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Jack Cummings. Harry Ruby served as a consultant on the project, and appears in a cameo role as a baseball-catcher. It was the third in a series of MGM biopics about Broadway composers; it was preceded by Till the Clouds Roll By (Jerome Kern, 1946) and Words and Music (Rodgers and Hart, 1948) and followed by Deep in My Heart (Sigmund Romberg, 1954).
This warm and engaging film was one of Astaire's favourites, possibly because of the nostalgic vaudeville connection. As Hollywood film biographies of the period go, it takes fewer liberties with the facts than usual, and Astaire and Skelton's onscreen portrayal of the partnership is considered psychologically accurate, and is complemented by a mutual chemistry, some quality acting by both, and some fine comedy touches by Skelton. Unusually for Hollywood songwriting biographies of this period, two of the songs, "Thinking of You" and "Nevertheless", became major hits on the film's release, reaching first and second place respectively, in the U.S. charts.
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