Three Little Words (film)

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 VeraEllen and Arlene Dahl as their wives, with Debbie Reynolds in a small but notable role as singer Helen Kane. The film, released by MetroGoldwynMayer, 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 baseballcatcher.

This film provides an object lesson in how to integrate the many songs and dances seamlessly and naturally into the script a principle first introduced into the Hollywood musical by Astaire as far back as 1934. Hermes Pan collaborated with Astaire on the choreography which takes the opportunity provided by VeraEllens technical prowess to showcase dance routines notable for leg kicks, lifts and Hermes Pans innovative combination of the two the hurdling lift, first invented for The Yam number in Carefree 1938. These routines are contrasted with some choreographically primitive numbers typical of vaudeville c. 1920. The spirit of the partnered dances expands on the theme of marital contentment previously explored in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle 1939 and the prior years The Barkleys of Broadway 1949. VeraEllens singing voice was dubbed by Anita Ellis.According to MGM records the film earned 3,019,000 in the US and Canada and 1,507,000 elsewhere, resulting in a healthy profit of 1,252,000. ........

Source: Wikipedia