THREE LITTLE GIRLS IN BLUE

Blaine, Vera-Ellen and Haver

THREE LITTLE GIRLS IN BLUE (1946). Director: H. Bruce Humberstone.

Three farm sisters in 1902 -- Pam (June Haver), Liz (Vivian Blaine) and Myra (Vera-Ellen) -- learn that they haven't inherited as much from their late aunt as they were expecting. So they go to Atlantic City and book a suite while Pam pretends to be an heiress. with Liz playing her secretary and Myra playing her maid. The plan is to attract a wealthy husband whom she will also, naturally, fall in love with. Pam quickly gets two suitors: Van (George Montgomery of The Brasher Doubloon) and Steve (Frank Latimore of In the Meantime, Darling). Meanwhile Myra finds herself very attracted to hotel employee Mike (Charles Smith of Henry and Dizzy) and vice versa. Of her two gentlemen callers Pam prefers Van, but will the fellow propose before their money runs out? 

Frank Latimore and George Montgomery

If Three Little Girls in Blue sounds familiar it's because it was already filmed at least twice as Three Blind Mice and Moon Over Miami. The plot is creaky but it's been dressed up with enthusiastic players and technicolor. There are several song numbers, with the suspicion being that the forgettable ditties are new while the best songs -- "On the Boardwalk in Atlantic City" and especially "You Make Me Feel So Young" -- are classics. All of the performances are good, with Charles Smith particularly notable as the likable Mike. As usual Vera-Ellen impresses with her dancing skills. Celeste Holm, who made her film debut in this picture, shows up late in the movie as Steve's sister. At times she channels "Oklahoma's" Ado Annie (she was in the Broadway show) and other times is the bitchily genteel Southern belle.

Verdict: Amiable, pleasant and well-played poop. ***. 

IN THE MEANTIME, DARLING

Jeanne Crain and Frank Latimore

IN THE MEANTIME, DARLING (1944). Produced and directed by Otto Preminger.

Maggie (Jeanne Crain of State Fair) is a somewhat spoiled, upper-class gal who arrives at a seedy hotel off base to marry Lt. Daniel Ferguson (Frank Latimore). Maggie loves Danny, but she is dismayed by the lack of privacy and living conditions in the hotel, which is run by the widow Armstrong (Jane Randolph), whose husband was killed overseas. Maggie tries to pitch in with the other gals but finds she has little training for anything. Then Danny mistakenly believes that Maggie has gotten pregnant ... In the Meantime, Darling is a minor but still significant film that looks at the problems of women who every day have to face the fact that their husbands may go off to war and never come back, and there is an air of poignancy and sorrow because of it. There is an especially lovely and sobering scene when Maggie goes into Mrs. Armstrong's apartment and sees the wedding pictures and other photos, then comes upon the announcement of her husband's posthumous awards from the Army. Crain and Latimore both give excellent performances as the lead couple, and there is nice work from Gail Robbins [The Fuller Brush Girl] as another wife named Shirley. (One can't realistically imagine this marriage lasting, however, as Shirley's husband, Phil, played by Stanley Prager, is not only fat and homely but rather insensitive to his wife's needs as well.) Clarence Muse is also notable as Henry, the black porter for the hotel, who does not play in a subservient fashion and whose character's son is also in the Army overseas. Henry is treated as a three-dimensional African-American character, a rarity in this time period. Other cast members include Eugene Pallette, Mary Nash (as an especially disagreeable mother-in-law), Olin Howland, Elisabeth Risdon, Glenn Langan, and even Blake Edwards in the acting phase of his career in an uncredited bit. This was the first picture for Latimore, who also appeared in 13 Rue Madeleine with James Cagney, Shock with Vincent Price, and ultimately amassed 70 credits.

Verdict: Warm and sentimental in the right way, and very well-performed. ***.

THE DOLLY SISTERS

June Haver, Betty Grable and John Payne

THE DOLLY SISTERS (1945). Director: Irving Cummings.

Latsie Dolly (S. Z. Sakall) brings his two nieces from Hungary to America where Jenny (Betty Grable) and Rosie (June Haver) become a popular singing and dancing sister act. Jenny falls for entertainer Harry Fox (John Payne) but their romance hits a couple of snags. Lest you think that the Dolly Sisters were a mere invention of 20th Century-Fox, these gals actually existed, and a true story of their lives would have shocked the hell out of staid 1940's movie house patrons. In this sanitized version of their backstage history, the focus is on the love affair and marriage of Jenny and Harry -- Harry Fox was also a real person -- but the latter was only one of Jenny's husbands -- and lovers. This movie completely ignores the fact that the two gals became more famous for gambling and bed-hopping with wealthy men than they did for their singing and dancing! A car crash which necessitated plastic surgery for Dolly is presented in the movie, and would seem like a lame attempt to add "drama" were it not for the fact that it actually happened. Reginald Gardiner [Black Widow] plays a duke who dallies with Jenny after she and Harry part ways, and Frank Latimore [Shock] is a real-life store owner, Irving Netcher, who marries Rosie. Trudy Marshall [Mark of the Gorilla] has a nice bit as Lenora, a woman who has the misfortune of falling for Harry even though he's still in love with Jenny. While the screenplay is mediocre, The Dolly Sisters is bolstered by sumptuous Technicolor, high-class cinematography from Ernest Palmer, professional performances (from Sig Ruman and others), and some pleasant songs (Gordon and Monaco), although the best numbers are standards such as "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows." Two ladies who make an impression are Collette Lyons as (fictional?) entertainer Flo Daly and an uncredited chorus cutie who plays "Rosie Rouge" in a production number devoted to make up. (This song, in particular, has a weird off-kilter melody, if you can even call it that.) I have no idea what they were like in real life, but as embodied by Haver and Grable, the Dolly Sisters come off as a decorative but not terribly mesmerizing or especially talented vaudeville act.

Verdict: Smooth and entertaining and good to look at it nothing else. ***.

SHOCK

Vincent Price and Frank Latimore

SHOCK (1946). Director: Alfred Werker.

Waiting at a hotel for the husband she thought had died in the war, Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw) sees a man (Vincent Price) across the way bop his wife on the head with a candlestick, and goes into shock. Later the Doctor Cross who treats her is this very same man -- and murderer. Egged on by his callous lover and nurse Elaine, (Lynn Bari), Cross decides to do away with Anabel before she can talk, but he at least has a conscience. Will he do it or won't he? This is an okay suspense film with decent if unspectacular performances; Price is fairly artificial but as smooth and entertaining as usual. Shaw and Frank Latimore as her husband are both effective, as is Bari (Trauma; Sunny Side of the Street). The appealing Latimore was introduced in Otto Preminger's In the Meantime, Darling in 1944 and subsequently appeared in Purple Noon and many other films both in the U.S. and abroad. Werker directed much better films than this, including The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Kidnapped.

Verdict: Minor but more than passable suspense film. **1/2.