Three Sailors And A Girl (1953)

Mediocre musical has the Navy and the Marines investing their savings in a Broadway show. But when the show bombs out in an out of town tryout in Boston, they risk losing their life savings. It’s sort of a lame unsophisticated version of the great Minnelli musical THE BAND WAGON. Only problem is that when the show is re-tooled and becomes a Broadway hit, it looks just as bad as the version that bombed. Film has some fun cameos for Broadway buffs including Moss Hart, George Abbott, Walter Kerr and Ira Gershwin as themselves, even Burt Lancaster has a gag cameo. Leroy Prinz’s choreography has some life but the songs by Sammy Fain and Sammy Cahn are nondescript at best. Jane Powell has one good novelty number and she and Gene Nelson dance very well together but we also have to put up with Powell’s trilling and Gordon MacRae’s bellowing and Jack E. Leonard’ s lame comedy schtick. Co-starring Sam Levene and Veda Ann Borg.