Musical biopic about the songwriting team of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby (Fred Astaire and Red Skelton). I have never heard of these gentlemen before this movie, nor do I know how historically accurate this is. I will go out on a limb and assume not so much. Astaire and Skelton are both good. Skelton actually reins it in a bit. Not much of his usual slapstick, save for a few diversions in the brief baseball scenes. Vera-Ellen does a terrific job with the dancing but looks frightfully thin. It's always rough for me to watch her movies when she had that disturbingly tiny waist. Arlene Dahl has a mostly bland role as Skelton's love interest. She doesn't stand out. Keenan Wynn appears in a supporting role. Sexy Gale Robbins gives a great performance of "All Alone Monday." The songs are all nice. The film's highlight is the Debbie Reynolds/Carleton Carpenter "I Wanna Be Loved by You" number, with Reynolds playing Helen Kane (who dubbed the singing herself). All in all, it's a nice little MGM musical. Not the best but pleasant and enjoyable.

By 1950 we'd had bio-pics of Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, giants all but in 1950 MGM offered a bio-pic of what in England we would call the Second Eleven, not quite the very highest level but just a tad behind. Three Little Words has been sadly neglected despite being far more accurate factually than all the other four put together. Where fact has been embellished is in small details - for example the two men never quarreled and never split up, there was a film actress named Eileen Percy and she did marry Harry Ruby but in the interests of dramatic tension a quarrel and a split was fabricated. Fred Astaire is alwayd worth the price of admission even when saddled with something as inept as Second Chorus and here, as Bert Kalmar he treats admirers to some excellent dancing and equally excellent acting. Though I've never been able to warm to Vera Ellen she cannot be faulted as Astaire's wife, similarly Red Skelton's appeal has always eluded me but here he manages to subdue this usual OTT schtick and turns in a fine performance as Harry Ruby. Throw in Gloria de Haven performing the great ballad Who's Sorry Now and we're talking wonderful movie.

Three Little Words purports to tell the story of the fabled songwriting team of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby and for the film the unlikely team of Fred Astaire as Kalmar and Red Skelton as Ruby were brought in to star. It's a good thing the real Kalmar and Ruby had a lot more chemistry than Astaire and Skelton do.But as in all these musical biographies of songwriters, it's the songs that are the real star. Kalmar and Ruby wrote some great ones, no doubt about it. Songs like Nevertheless, Thinking of You, Who's Sorry Now are still sung and will be sung for the next millennium. Both these guys had their eccentricities, Kalmar fancied himself a magician and Ruby was a big baseball fan. Kalmar wanted to be Mr. Blackstone and Ruby would have swapped every song he ever wrote for a chance to play in the Major Leagues with any of the New York based teams. Astaire is strangely lacking in dance routines in this film. They are confined to some vaudeville type numbers as befitting the fact that Kalmar was a song and dance man until a knee injury made him turn to writing. Red Skelton's antics were confined to some scenes on the baseball diamond where his good friend, the clown prince of baseball Al Schacht played by infielder George Metkovich provided some good humorous moments for Skelton.Incidentally one big error in the film identified Al Schacht as a pitcher. Schacht was a catcher, his vaudeville partner was Nick Altrock who was a pitcher and a good one, but he's not in the film.Arlene Dahl and Vera-Ellen play the women in the lives of Ruby and Kalmar. Vera-Ellen dances well with Astaire and her singing is dubbed by Anita Ellis. Debbie Reynolds is in this in one of her earliest roles as Boop Boop a Doop singer Helen Kane who did introduce Kalmar and Ruby's I Wanna Be Loved By You. And Gloria DeHaven playing her own mother who died that year and she sings Who's Sorry Now.Kalmar and Ruby also wrote Groucho Marx's theme, Hooray For Captain Spaulding. I'm still wondering why it was only confined to the two of our leads in rehearsal, why Groucho himself didn't appear. In real life he was a very close friend of Harry Ruby's. Kalmar and Ruby wrote the score for Duck Soup as well and later on they wrote Go West Young Man for Groucho in Copacabana.The song Three Little Words was NOT introduced on Phil Regan's radio show. It was written by Kalmar and Ruby for the Amos and Andy film Check and Double Check where Duke Ellington and his orchestra played it with the Rhythm Boys singing. They also recorded the song with the Rhythm Boys who were Al Rinker, Harry Barris, and their lead singer, a fellow named Bing Crosby.Kalmar had passed away when this film was released in 1950. Ruby went on after a fashion. Oscar Hammerstein, II helped finish a Kalmar lyric to a Ruby song that became A Kiss To Build A Dream On which was sung by Louis Armstrong the following year and was a big posthumous hit for half the team. And Harry Ruby wrote the famous television theme to The Real McCoys later on in the Fifties. Other than their respective avocations for prestidigitation and baseball, Kalmar and Ruby were a pair of normal fellows and led pretty dull lives. But that's the problem when you try to do biographies of people like them. So relax and listen to some really great songs by a pair of normal guys.

Three little words is a very entertaining, though somewhat forgotten musical about the great overlooked songwriting team of Kalmar and Ruby. It is pure fiction, but nevertheless very fun and entertaining. As Astaries wife, Miss Vera Ellen again proves she was the best dancer of em all. And quite a beauty and singer, also,esp. on Thinking of you. Speaking of beauty, other gorgeous women like Arleen Doll, Gayle Robbins, and Miss Gloria De Haven perform some incredibly beautiful songs, like Whos sorry now. And a young doll named Debby Reynolds sings I wanna be loved by you, the hit song of Helen Kane, looking and sounding just like Ms. Kane. Trust me, you will love this musical. Soundtrack album is available, also.