vert001 Ginger Rogers seems to have held to the classical idea that actors are supposed to create distinct characters rather than repeatedly play variations on themselves (or at least on their established acting personas). I think that her changes of hair styles, hair colors, especially her changes of voices, sometimes confuse her audience, who expect these things from character actors (say, Alec Guinness) rather than from Hollywood stars. Janie from TOM, DICK AND HARRY is about as different as it can get. The typical Rogers character had been established as a tough cookie, guarded but caring, quick-witted yet possessing a hidden vulnerability. Janie, on the other hand, is kinda dumb, too self-centered to be particularly caring or vulnerable, and probably a pretty tough kid, though we hardly get a chance to see it. She is most definitely not your typical movie heroine.Actually, Janie is pretty much a proto-Valley Girl, right down to the muddied pronunciation and frequent porpoise-like squeals that Rogers endows her with. We have Janie's younger sister's word for it that Janie is older than she acts ('She gets more adolescent every day'). She seems to have been a telephone operator for some time, and her parents were courting "thirty years ago", so the girl must be somewhere in her twenties. Rogers was 29 at the time. I don't think she was too old for this part, she was merely playing an immature young woman.Janie's immaturity especially comes out in her inability to say no to any marriage proposal. Those three proposals are the whole movie, and happily director Garson Kanin moves things along briskly so that tedium never really sets in. We see Tom (George Murphy) first. His relationship with Janie seems passionless (he tends to show his affection by tapping her on the shoulder rather than kissing her), and Janie seems to realize it. She receives his proposal with a distinct lack of enthusiasm, yet Tom does seem the proverbial 'good catch', being handsome, cheerful, and giving every indication of becoming a good provider. When he finally gives out an off-handed, "I love you", it's enough for her to jump on. Janie's subsequent dream quickly gives her second thoughts.The dream sequences in TOM, DICK AND HARRY were probably more innovative than they now seem. I, at least, don't recall seeing anything like them before TD&H came out, but I have the impression that they were done to death in subsequent television sitcoms. MANY SPOILERS FOLLOW: Anyway, I believe that there's less suspense in Janie's final choice than Kanin intended. Tom, a character usually played by Ralph Bellamy, is out by virtue of being dull. True, George Murphy has a lot more bounce in his step than Ralph ever did, but love absent eroticism was not the movie way even during the heights of the Hays Code.Burgess Meredith gives a charming performance as our proto-hippie Harry (actually, all three suitors are excellent at what they're expected to do). An auto mechanic who wants no part of the rat race of success, many things other than 'the bells' tell us that he's the one for Janie in the end. Their meeting is deftly cute in the finest screwball tradition, they quickly traverse the 'hate/love' path so often traveled by Ginger with Fred ("It's the right dress. I got the wrong fella."), and Harry is even able to bring out the latent intelligence in Janie, who listens to his musings with an open mind and even grasps his statistical arguments better than a large majority of the population would manage. And, dare I say it? Meredith and Rogers make a very nice couple.The courtship with Dick (Alan Marshal) seems the weakest of the three psychologically, though it may be the funniest. He's amused by her, he likely would find her attractive, but the idea that someone like Dick would actually ask Janie to marry him before their first date is over lacks any plausibility whatsoever. Harry, on the other hand, has been established as rather flaky himself, and his conversations with Janie have been positively deep compared to anything shared between Dick and Jane.The movie is funny and in some ways unusual. The acting is good and sometimes inspired (Rogers and Meredith). Two problems keep it from being better remembered. First, Janie is simply too self-centered for us to care very much what happens to her (does she ever have a thought concerning other people's feelings?). Second, who could believe that a marriage between Janie and anybody, even Harry, could last more than a couple of weeks? TOM, DICK AND HARRY isn't likely to give anyone a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, but it is good for quite a few laughs. That's more than most comedies can say.

Alex da Silva Ginger Rogers (Janie) has a steady boyfriend in salesman George Murphy (Tom). He's a salesman that loves his job of ripping people off. This personality type still exists today and we sometimes use the collective noun "arsehole" to describe these people. He proposes to her and she accepts. However, she meets Burgess Meredith (Harry) and goes on a date with him thinking that he is rich. He isn't but she also manages to become engaged once more. She's now engaged to 2 men - what is she to do? Well, she goes and gets herself engaged to a 3rd man of course - Alan Marshal (Dick). He's a millionaire and a bit dull if you ask me. Anyway, Ginger Rogers now has to come to a decision and pick one of these three contenders.......who will it be...? Unfortunately, this film is boring. There are flashes of humour, eg, the scene building up to the point where Murphy drops Meredith and Rogers off at a 'Lover's Lane' having just discovered that he's being cheated on, and the occasional line of dialogue as delivered by Meredith and Marshall is quite funny, eg, Meredith displaying complete joy at losing his job. Another amusing moment occurs when Meredith discovers that although a car that he is looking at is priced at $598, it will actually cost him $1,107 if he wants to buy it. Nothing different to today's deals then.The cast are OK but we get an irritating Phil Silvers (Phil) as an ice-cream seller who proudly plays his obnoxious self and Lenore Lonergan (Butch) who plays Ginger's younger sister in that typically unfunny 'younger sister knows best' style of comedy.You will want to know who Ginger picks so there is a slight degree of tension to the ending and it ends well. However, most of the story is just blurb and uninteresting with annoying dream-like segments that drag on.

Mary Anne Landers In the mood for a fun romantic comedy? I recommend "Tom, Dick, and Harry", a golden oldie released by RKO back in 1941.Janie, a blue-collar chick played by Ginger Rogers, can't decide which guy she wants to marry. And in the course of the story, she has "an understanding" with each of the three title characters. Tom is an ambitious white-collar car salesman (George Murphy); Dick is a millionaire playboy (Alan Marshal); and Harry is a bohemian mechanic (Burgess Meredith).In amusing dream sequences, Janie imagines what it would be like to be married to each of them. And in one envelope-pushing scene that must have just barely gotten past the censors, she imagines what it would be like to be married to all of them! If this storyline turned up in a romantic film or novel nowadays, the heroine would obviously have to end up with Dick. But this movie was made in the 1940s. Therefore none of her three suitors is her inevitable choice. And the film demonstrates wonderfully how the heart knows best, even if it can be full of surprises.

krorie Ginger Rogers could act, sing, dance, you name it. She did get her just desserts, unlike several other gifted performers of the period such as Cary Grant, with an Academy Award for "Kitty Foyle." "Tom Dick and Harry" was Ginger's next picture following her award winning performance. Perhaps that is why it is not so well known today, because it fell in the shadow of "Kitty Foyle." Too bad for this is definitely a winner in all departments. The delicious dream sequences are like no others, not even those by Salvador Dali for Hitchcock's "Spellbound." Not only are they surreal but they are also hilarious.As the title indicates, Janie (Ginger) must decide among three suitors, Tom, Dick, and Harry, each having asked her to marry him. Tom is the ambitious one, Dick the rich one, and Harry the lovable deadbeat. There is even a very racy part where all three disrobe and are about to jump into bed with her. The audience can tell my the look on Janie's face that this idea certainly appeals to her. But, alas, she must put a stop to the fun before the blessed event actually takes place (This is 1941 remember). The viewer may be a bit surprised with her final choice among Tom, Dick, and Harry at the end of the movie. One reason this all works is not only because of the talent before the camera but also because of the talent behind the camera. The director Garson Kanin was one of the most successful and capable directors and later writers of screwball comedies to come out of Hollywood. He would later help write the script for the Tracy and Hepburn classic "Adam's Rib."Phil Silvers has a funny cameo on lover's land (Inspiration Point)where he is trying to sell ice cream to all the young lovers parked there by the "No Parking" sign. You can imagine how much success he has.Ginger plays the role of Janie a telephone operator. Her performance in "Tom Dick and Harry" inspired the creation of Ernestine the Operator by Lily Tomlin. So the fun continues. Also George Murphy who plays Tom tells Janie in a dream sequence that he has been promoted to the office of President. She replies, "You've already told me that." Tom retorts, "No, not president of the company. President of the United States." This was considered just a funny line at the time. It is now ironic that later in real life Murphy was elected Congressman and became the inspiration for Ronald Reagan to enter politics.