After seeing like twenty films the last few days I decided that I need a little break. So I’m very sorry, Red Skelton, but I only watched one of your movies.
Three Little Words (1950)
The film I watched is the biopic of the songwriting duo Kalmar & Ruby, starring Fred Astaire and Red Skelton. Another prominent player is Vera Ellen who is Fred’s dancing partner – until he gets injured and has to take a break from performing. After unfortunate first meeting, he is assigned to work on a song with a newbie Red Skelton who is dreaming of becoming a serious songwriter.
While Three Little Words does present the life story of Kalmar & Ruby, so it could definitely be called a biopic, it does include a lot of comedy (for Red’s sake, I imagine) and TONS of musical numbers. Of course, it makes sense since it’s a story of two songwriters, and it’s always a delight to watch Vera and Fred dance.
It’s mostly a fun musical with some funny moments but it can get more serious at points. There is a very touching and quite heartbreaking scene in which Fred Astaire is dancing on an empty stage alone after his injury and finding out that Vera Ellen is getting a new partner.
Red Skelton definitely got the less „juicy” part than Astaire. I saw him in Neptune’s Daughter not long ago and he was playing a completely different character there. Despite Three Little Words having humorous moments, Red pretty much portrays a nice, kind, soft-spoken man rather than a joke machine. And it works.
One more thing: at one point they’re writing I Wanna Be Loved by You on the street and they get approached by a young girl who starts doing the famous „boop-boop-a-doop”. She was only on the screen for a few short moments but I thought she was incredibly charismatic and just had to check out who that was. Turns out, it was Debbie Reynolds!
Swingin' at the Seance 