Three little words

Tin Pan Alley’s legendary songwriting team of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby are given the MGM treatment here by Busby Berkeley and musical stars Fred Astaire and Red Skelton, although the film is as much about the performances of the stellar cast as it is about the lives of Kalmar and Ruby. It’s 1919 and vaudeville is in full swing. Bert’s (Astaire) dance career is going well (despite his aspirations to be a musician), ably supported by vaudeville wife Jessie (Vera-Ellen), and obtaining success with numbers such as “Mrs and Mrs Hoofer at Home”. Fate steps in when Bert must take up the more sedentary activity of writing lyrics after injuring his knee. He eventually meets Harry Ruby, a fellow lyricist and frustrated baseball player, and the two pool their talents and reach immediate success writing hits for Broadway and the movies. Their fairytale rise to fame is eventually undone by a trivial misunderstanding, and highlights the rocky nature of their professional and personal relationship. Their future as a successful songwriting team is left in the hands of the women who love them, and who have the potential to reunite them. Cameos are provided by Phil Regan and Harry Mendoza as themselves. Songs include “I Wanna be loved by you”, “Who’s sorry now” and “Thinking of you”.