TOM, DICK AND HARRY
US, 1940, 86 minutes, Black and white.
Ginger Rogers, Burgess Meredith, Alan Marshall, George Murphy, Phil Silvers, Joe Cunningham, Jane Seymour, Lenore Lonergan.
Directed by Garson Kanin.
Tom, Dick and Harry is a pleasant comedy of the early '40s. It is clearly in the screwball comedy tradition - though this is a bit broader and has enjoyable satire. The film was directed by playwright and author Garson Kanin, who also made Bachelor Mother and The Great Man Votes at this time. His career has been in theatre and in writing, especially with his wife Ruth Gordon. His attempts at direction with Some Kind of a Nut and Where It's At in the late 1960s were unsuccessful. Ginger Rogers, who won an Oscar for Kitty Foyle in 1940, is a lively heroine. A young Burgess Meredith is an engaging hero. There are some enjoyable fantasy dream sequences.
1. Pleasant American romantic comedy? Humour? Characterisations and stereotypes? The importance of dream and fantasies? The comment on American romance and dreams?
2. The vivacity of Ginger Rogers and the stars? The particular styles of the men? Garson Kanin as writer, playwright, film director - his eye for satire and performance? The bright score?
3. Janie and the typical American girl: seeing her at home with her family, the contrast with her sister Butch, her work for the telephone company? Her dreams of romance and wealth? Tom and his dates, his business, the intrusion of the ice cream seller? The preoccupation about making money and success? The contrast with Harry and her thinking he was a millionaire, the outing and the dancing, bells ringing but her wanting to marry a millionaire, her dealing with Harry's tricking Tom into driving them? The irony of her being given a lift by the millionaire? The humour of the dancing and the bowling? The contrast with Dick and the lift, interrupting his phone calls to his fiancee, the flight to Chicago, her trying to act as a woman of the world in terms of flying, dancing, theatre, drinking? The final dilemma?
4. The importance of the dreams for showing Janie's response to each of the men? Her fears for the future? Her choices? Tom being so busy as to keep her working with the children (Tom as child)? His becoming President? The contrast with Harry and the happy home life, happy-go-lucky. even ignoring prizes on the radio quiz programmes? The fashionable and wealthy lifestyle with Dick? The humour of her dream of marrying the three and having to cope with them all as husbands?
5. Her decision and the insight into the unreality of her dreams? Bells ringing for true love? The gentle puncturing of the unreal dreams?
6. George Murphy's genial style: Tom as the car salesman, putting success above everything, his putting off his date with Janie etc.?
7. Harry as the nice man, his philosophy of life, enjoying the ordinary things, setting Tom up?
8. Richard and his suave manner, the phone calls to his fiancee and his response to Janie? The credibility of his wanting to marry her after the evening in Chicago?
9. The contribution of the supporting characters: the family, Butch, Richard's snobbish girlfriend, Phil Silvers as the ice cream seller?
10. The coming down on the side of true love and the ordinary way of life?
