THREE DARING DAUGHTERS

US, 1948, 115 minutes, Colour.
Jeanette Mac Donald, Jose Iturbi, Jane Powell, Ann Todd, Mary Elinor Donahue, Larry Adler, Edward Arnold, Harry Davenport, Moyna Mac Gill.
Directed by Fred M. Wilcox.

Three Daring Daughters is an attractive M.G.M. musical of the late '40s. It was one of the last star vehicles for the ever-popular Jeanette MacDonald? who had begun singing in films in the early '30s for Paramount - with Maurice Chevalier - had moved to M.G.M. and partnered Nelson Eddy in so many evergreen musicals of the time. She had some dramatic roles e.g. with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy in San Francisco.

Here she is Jane Powell's mother and the two of them have a chance to sing together. There is an attractive supporting cast including Jose Iturbi acting as himself. He has opportunity to play the piano, playing duets with his sister Amparo, conducting orchestras. Jane Powell also has a chance to sing a range of serious songs as well as join the cast with the song popular at the time 'The Dicky bird'.

The film is typically attractive and glossy M.G.M. production: a girls' school, apartments in New York, a luxury liner, nightclubs, palatial offices. The family is, of course, affluent. Mother is divorced, a successful career-woman who has overworked and is ordered on holidays by kindly doctor Harry Davenport. Her daughters want their father back - Mother has not told them he has gone off as a reporter to Africa. Everyone seeks the help of kindly (this time) Edward Arnold - who has a running joke about visitors interrupting his meals. There are complications on the luxury liner, especially with Moyna MacGill? (Angela Lansbury's mother) as a gossipy tourist The pace gets slightly frantic for an M.G.M. musical with complications about daughters, mother and prospective stepfather - all works out well in the end. Not a memorable musical, but pleasant. Directed by Fred M. Wilcox who made such memorable films as Lassie Come Home and The Forbidden Planet.