Review for Tom, Dick and Harry

Most of us associate the fabulous Ginger Rogers with her long-running partnership with song and dance partner, Fred Astaire. Well, before all that, the dame played it light and kooky in a series of screwball romantic comedies for RKO - and 'Tom, Dick and Harry' is a case in point.

Ginger Rogers plays a lovable, though naïve and simple home town gal, Janie, who, despite working as a telephone operator, seems to be able to capture the hearts of all about her. Rich and gregarious, or solid and hard-working, or bohemian and fun loving - the choice is hers, quite literally.


The movie starts with her steady squeeze, Tom (George Murphy), an incredibly ambitious and hard-working car salesman, proposing to her. However, Janie has always dreamed of marrying a handsome and wealthy man, and when she puts a call through for the son of the town's wealthiest man, she secretly hopes that she will meet him. As she is setting off for home, waiting at a bus-stop, she makes a wish and within seconds a young man pulls up in an expensive car and, presuming him to be the wealthy son, she jumps aboard and demands a lift home. What she doesn't know is that this handsome, fun-loving, care-free man is none other than Harry (Burgess Meredith, years before taking on the role of The Penguin in the TV version of Batman) who is merely a mechanic, delivering the car from the garage. Presuming him to be the wealthy son, she agrees to go on a date with him - and when they kiss at the end of the evening, small 'bells' seem to chime. Before long, Harry proposes and, despite him being just a laid back mechanic, she definitely thinks it's worth considering.


Eventually, Janie meets the wealthy son, a young playboy named Dick (Alan Marshal), and after a whirlwind date which involves flying to an exotic locale and drinking too much champagne, he also proposes. So now there are three proposals to consider - this last being the man of her dreams. Only now she really must decide which one it is to be - Tom, Dick or Harry. She invites them to her house together one morning to let all three now her final decision. Curiously, they all seem quite happy with this and turn up at the appointed time. Of course, I can't spoil things by letting you know her choice - but let's just say that after a false start, she goes with the chiming bells!


After each proposal, she has a 'day dream' about what life would be like with each person - and this is played for maximum laughs. The night before her final decision she dreams of all three.

There's also a nice cameo from a pre-Bilko Phil Silvers, showing plenty of early promise as an ice-cream salesman.


It's all great fun, and Ginger Rogers is charming, even when drunk on champagne. However, the idea that three fellas would wait patiently around with such good humour seems unlikely - but this isn't intended to be a documentary. Just some good light fluffy fun.


Even the opening credits are a hoot with all the names mixed up before unscrambling - we get Ginger Rogers as 'Snirgor Greeg', Murphy is 'Gregore Yumph', Meredith 'Essrude Mithgreb' and so on.

Paul Jarrico's very stagey script won an Academy Award nomination for Tom, Dick and Harry, which is fairly surprising. It's amusing enough, but compared to much contemporary work seems likeable if un-remarkable. Nothing like it would be likely to get nominated these days.

Based on the received single-layer disc, picture quality is relatively poor throughout. It's less an issue of wear and tear and more an issue of compression, so there is a (slight) chance that the retail version will fare better. But is sure isn't pretty and fans waiting for this release may well feel disappointed.

Mono audio is adequate throughout, and there are no extras on the disc.