SimonJack This is one of those movies when one wonders, after watching it, what the title had to do with the film. In this case, it is mentioned once – as the name of a mine that Mrs. Rimplegar (played superbly by Mary Boland) had poured a lot of money into – to the point of bankrupting her family. But, in afterthought, the title could be construed to describe the wacky family and household of the Rimplegars.This isn't quite screwball comedy, but it comes close in places. The script for 'Three-Cornered Moon" isn't very tightly written and organized. But the collection of characters, with their individual pursuits and traits add up to some good laughs. Claudette Colbert here has the look yet of a young starlet. The movie came out before she turned 30. Within the year, she would lose the very youthful look and become the more mature young woman in appearance for which most moviegoers remember her. Her role in this film is more subdued. Richard Arlen is the lead actor, but his role is less than that of most of the young men of the Rimplegar clan. They were played well by Wallace Ford, Tome Brown and William Bakewell. The rest of the supporting case were all quite good. This comedy of frenzy has a nice theme – of the once rich and selfish learning how to work and share for the good of all. That theme should have played very well in 1933. It was right in the middle of the depression and Dust Bowl. America had its highest unemployment ever. Many families were suffering and wanting. Hollywood did a lot to help lift the spirits of America during this time with its many wonderful comedy films and inspirational stories. At least one reviewer noted that there were many movies of this type during that time. True, but this is one of the early ones, and a good warm-up for some much better films that followed. With a little more work on the script and some better direction, "Three-Cornered Moon" could have been a much better film. As it is, it's a fun movie with several good laughs that most viewers should enjoy.

kidboots In DeWitt Bodeen's superb career article on Richard Arlen (Films in Review June/July 1979) he related that Arlen had never wanted to be a star - he was far happier with the roles that Paramount found for him than the "star" roles handed out to others. The "dependables" often had careers as long as they wanted to act - critics could always pan a star but an actor who had a key supporting role was often praised for making the pictures worth watching. This was why, after playing the oldest college footballer (along with Jack Oakie) in movie history in "College Humor", he was immediately cast as Alan Stevens, the affable doctor in "Three Cornered Moon", which actually is the name of the mining stock that loses the family their fortune.This was an early example of the type of nutty comedy that became more popular as the decade progressed. It was all about the zany Rimplegar family who found themselves on the employment line when the Wall Street crash obliterated their wealth. A typical morning at the Rimplegars consists of zany mother Nellie (wonderful Mary Boland) making pancakes in her feathered nightgown ("the children would feel hurt if I didn't wear it") but can't cook them as feisty Jenny (Lyda Roberti) proclaims (all throughout the movie) "go way - the stove, she's mine"!! Where would the movies be without Lyda - at one stage she is told a bunch of flowers is called a George, so whenever she sees a flower she says "George, beautiful George" - she's a scream!!! There is also Kenneth (Wallace Ford) who is having woman trouble, Douglas (William Bakewell), an aspiring actor who is forever rehearsing his line!!! while Elizabeth (Colbert) ponders the meaning of life.She soon finds out as, through their mother's incompetence, they suddenly find themselves broke and desperately in need of jobs. Dr. Stevens walks into their catastrophe and he gives them a lecture on the realities of life and forces them all to look for work. Douglas finds an acting job with an even shorter part - "Yes"!! Young Eddie (Tom Brown), home from college finds a job as a lifeguard while Elizabeth gets one as a machinist but has to fend off her amorous married boss then has to come home to her novelist beau, Ronald (Hardie Albright) who lives in a fantasy world where he compares Elizabeth to a tree. Stevens also helps out the family finances by becoming a boarder (he really just wants to be near Elizabeth) and it is Ronald's frivolous head in the clouds attitude that makes her realise that life is to be lived and striven for and not dreamed away.Of course everything turns out okay but not before a health scare from Eddie (he is working two jobs) brings about a showdown and Ronald, who was living rent free and expected Elizabeth to work to support him, is shown the door.I just loved this movie. Claudette is always excellent in whatever she does, Mary Boland "out zanied" Billie Burke as the addle headed Nellie - "don't yell at me, you know I'm incompetent"!! and the movie would have been not half as good without Lyda Roberti. Hardie Albright was one of a string of young actors (David Manners, Gene Raymond) who came to Hollywood in the early 1930s, touted with much promise. To me, he always looked very intense and was at his best in those darker type of roles ie "The Ninth Guest" (1934) and as the hypocritical Reverend Dimmesdale in "The Scarlet Letter" (1934).

sobaok This stagy adaptation of the Broadway play tends to drag. If director Nugent and editor Loring had sped things along it might have worked. In spite of such stellar talents as Colbert (in a role originated by Ruth Gordan) and Mary Boland, Three-Cornered Moon is only passable entertainment. The story, about the irresponsible off-spring of a wealthy-widow-now-broke (Boland), has its charm and enough funny moments to make it worthwhile for die-hard Colbert fans. However, it is difficult as to why it was selected to be part of TCM's Claudette Colbert Collection. The rowdy antics of Colbert's on-screen brothers chasing each other around the house border on the ridiculous. Wallace Ford was 35 years-old, William Bakewell 25, but only 20 year-old Tom Brown fits the bill for these kind of shenanigans. And poor Lyda Roberti isn't given much to do -- what a waste. Her part fell flat and should have been re-written for the screen adaptation.

HarlowMGM THREE CORNERED MOON is an hard-to-find film but it is a fairly important movie given it's status as one of the first "screwball" comedies. In truth, however, it is as much a drama as a comedy but it does have many of the essential ingredients for the pending film genre with a family of wealthy eccentrics and a sensible if romantic heroine. Mary Boland is the matriarch for a family of four young adults who still live in the family mansion. None of them work but are suddenly through into "real life" when Boland's misadventures on the stock market in 1929 come to a belated crash four years later for the family and they wind up with a total of $1.65 in the bank. Boland's three sons and daughter Claudette Colbert are forced to work for the first time in their lives.Family friend, doctor Richard Arlen rents a room at the family estate to help them out financially while Claudette's longtime beau, unpublished novelist Hardie Albright also takes up residence though he still is not supporting himself and living off Colbert's assistance as he has been for years. While the male siblings tough it and work, "artist" Albright can't quite bring himself to working in (gasp) "an office". Mary Boland is delicious as always in one of her very first screen roles as a dizzy-headed matron. Beautiful young Claudette Colbert, a year away from superstardom, is very much in her element as the young heiress who learns about the real world, complete with remarkably frank sexual harassment from her boss at the shoe factory. Blonde bombshell Joan Marsh is appealing as the longtime girlfriend of Claudette's brother Wallace Ford while Lyda Roberti has an eccentric role as the family's Swedish maid who understands no English. Richard Arlen is pleasant as the prince in an RX coat although he doesn't have nearly the screen time despite his billing as the pampered fiancée Albright or brothers Ford, Tom Brown, and William Bakewell.THREE CORNERED MOON (named after the corporation that causes the family's fortune to dwindle) is a intriguing film that should be sought out by fans of thirties comedies and it's surprisingly clear-eyed view of how hard life was in the 1930's for many makes it quite unique among romantic films of the era.