Sorry, this movie sucks

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Fred Astaire (Bert Kalmar) and Red Skelton (Harry Ruby) forge a strange relationship as songwriters, turning out some wonderful hits. This light, interesting story highlights their careers. Bert is a song writer, and he and Vera Ellen (Jessee Brown) have a very successful song and dance act. However, he really wants to be a professional magician. Harry is a wannabee song writer, and a hopeless baseball fan. Harry walks out on Jessee to pursue his magic act. He meets Harry when Harry substitutes as Bert's helper in his magic act. The results are funny, but tragic for Bert's act. Harry becomes his new worst enemy. After resuming his career with Jessee, Bert injures his knee, forcing postponement of his dancing career. He falls back on his songwriting to make a living. Meeting Harry in the publisher's office, he writes lyrics to one of Harry's songs before realizing just who Harry is. Fur flies, and Bert leaves in anger. However, the song becomes number one, and he is forced to call a truce with Harry. Soon they are writing a series of hit tunes. Harry, knowing that it will split up the songwriting team, helps Bert and Jessee reunite, and they marry. However, Bert and Jessee decide to forgo vaudeville for songwriting. During the ensuing years, Bert saves Harry from gold-diggers and Harry keeps Bert from producing a very bad play which would have cost him his fortune and his pride. Unfortunately the play was written by Bert. Through the years the hits continue to roll, including Broadway Shows and Movies. Eventually Bert finds out that Harry sabotaged his play, and the friendship and partnership ends. After Harry marries Arlene Dahl (Eileen Percy) their wives quietly arrange for them to appear on a radio show together. They both refuse until their wives insist. The Harry and Eileen go to Bert and Jessee's to plan the radio show. After an uncomfortable start, Harry brings up a tune he has been pushing since they first met. They decide to work on the tune, then argue, then fight. The next night, on the radio show, after doing a medley of some of their hit songs, Bert unveils the words to "Three Little Words". Sappy, Happy ending. Highlight of the movie is when Vera Ellen sings, then she and Fred dance to the fabulous, haunting melody "Thinking of You" Personally, I put this dance on par with "Dancing in the Dark" from "The Band Wagon".

I loved every aspect of this movie. It is truly a shame that it doesn't receive more attention. I can only attribute that to the fact that it is biographical in nature and that the names Kalmar and Ruby are not familiar to today's viewing audiences.what they are missing is some wonderful song and dance routines, and some great back and forth between to legendary performers. It's truly a shame that so many misconceptions abound about such a wonderful film. Personal taste aside, I would like to clear up a few factual misconceptions about the actor Red Skelton and his portrayal of Ruby. Perhaps the last reviewer is unaware of just how appropriate the role of Harry Ruby was for Skelton. Skelton composed symphonies and was highly intelligent. His humor may have seemed lowbrow, but he was somewhat of a genius in his own right. He also bears a strong physical resemblance to Harry Ruby who actually has a cameo in the film. And if all of this is not enough of a selling point for you, you must know that you have not lived until you have seen Debbie Reynolds as Helen Kane performing "I wanna be loved by you"

This was a wonderful, feel-good movie with tons of songs, many of them appealing. There also were some great dancing scenes, no surprise there since Fred Astaire is one of the stars. Astaire and Vera-Ellen paired up well for those numbers.This is one of the few films, even in the musicals, in which all the characters were nice people. In other words, there were no villains, no nasty people, which is refreshing to see now and then. It is supposedly the true-life account of songwriters Bert Kalmar (Astaire) and Harry Ruby (Red Skelton). Ruby is good at writing tunes, but not with lyrics. Kalmar supplies the lyrics and dance. Skelton also shows he had a decent singing voice.The only unhappy moments in the movie are the squabbles between the two leading men, but that's not overdone and sometimes it's humorous. Skelton's character is the nicer of the two.The leading ladies are wholesome-looking beautiful women. Vera-Ellen is a Shirley Jones-type pretty blonde with a great dancer's body. She's enjoyable to watch. Arlene Dahl, who was stunning, is the other leading female but her role was minor, unfortunately.The movie is a good mixture of song, dance, comedy and drama and is an underrated film in that it that doesn't get a lot of publicity. Astaire was quoted as saying this was his favorite film. I agree. It's my favorite of his, too.

The first time I saw "Three Little Words" was when I was a teenager on vacation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My Dad was not a fan of Red Skelton, but he endured the pain of it jut as he was subjected to watching Betty Hutton screaming with red-face in "Annie Get Your Gun", but as far as the movie "Three Little Words" goes, I loved it. Being a tap dancer myself, I could tune in quite well to a singing and dancing movie. This has to be considered one of Fred Astaires best movies he ever made. His dance numbers were created by Hermes Pan, thank God, because any film in which Astaire created his own dance sequences showed a very good reason why Astaire should let the others attempt this job. As a result, all the numbers are excellent, especially the dancing of he and Vera-Ellen in the "Thinking of You" number, and what about Gloria DeHaven? Here she is playing her own mother Mrs. Carter DeHaven. That must have been a thrill for her, and did she sing "Who's Sorry Now?" to perfection!As far as this being Debbie Reynolds screen debut. Not so! Her film debut was in "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady" filmed by Warner Brothers starring Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, and the best dancer Hollywood has ever had to offer - June Haver, but Haver's talent was always underestimated and not given the credit for being the fine performer that she was!But, what can you say about "Three Little Words" except - sit back, get out the pop-corn and the soda's, relax and watch an excellent cast have a field day doing some of the finest singing, acting, dancing, that you will ever witness on the silver screen. It's just too bad that these old movies can't be seen on the large silver screen so that our younger generation can see what entertainment was, is, and always will be all about! Don