Three Girls About Town
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Leigh Jason
Joan Blondell
Robert Benchley
John Howard
Binnie Barnes
Janet Blair
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
As the Merchants Hotel readies for a morticians convention and the mediation committee meeting of a group of aircraft manufacturers and workers, hotel manager Wilburforce Puddle worries about a newspaper editorial critical of the hotel's policy of employing hostesses. Angered by the editorial, head hostess Hope Banner storms into the hotel press room to confront her fiancé, reporter Tommy Hopkins. Tommy denies that he had prior knowledge about the editorial, although he would like Hope to resign as hostess and find a "regular" job. Hope, however, argues that she needs the extra money to send her younger sister Charity to private school. After Hope leaves, Charity appears in the press room looking for her sister, and Tommy escorts her to Hope's room. There, Charity announces to Hope and her other hostess sister Faith that she intends to quit school and follow in her sisters' footsteps. Both Faith and Hope oppose her decision, asserting that she is too young and innocent to leave school. In another part of the hotel, housekeeper Maggie O'Callahan and several other maids are cleaning a guest's room when they discover a corpse and report it to Faith and Puddle. To avoid negative publicity, the sisters decide to deposit the body in an alley, but are interrupted by the arrival of the chief of police and a delegation of women who are incensed about the hotel's hostess policy. After Hope persuades them that the hostess operation is perfectly legal, they leave. When Puddle balks at carrying the corpse to the street, Hope pulls Tommy away from a group of reporters, who have been waiting for the labor mediator to arrive. Recognizing the cadaver as the missing mediator, Tommy phones his scoop to the paper. Fearful that the story will ruin the hotel's reputation, Hope and Faith drag the corpse to a fire escape, but when they see the police chief below, they stash it in a guest's room. When the guest finds the body in his bed, he rushes to the next room to call the police, and during his absence, the sisters steal the corpse and stash it in a laundry cart. Retrieving the body from the cart, Tommy carries it into the press room and introduces it to the reporters as his sleepy friend Joe. The reporters recruit Tommy and his friend for a game of cards, and after Joe wins the first hand, they declare him to be a "lucky stiff." After the sisters discover the empty cart outside the press room, Hope bursts in, chastises Joe as her wayward husband and insists on taking him home. When Hope sees the police chief in the hallway, she hauls the corpse into mortician Josephus Wiegel's room and dumps it in a coffin. Before Hope can retrieve the body, however, two hotel porters enter the room and wheel the coffin to the convention display room. Meanwhile, Tommy's editor, Fred Chambers, arrives at the press room to congratulate the reporter on his scoop. When Tommy informs Chambers that he has lost the body, the editor becomes irate and tells Tommy that the extra edition containing the story of the corpse is already on its way to the newsutands. Knowing that he will be fired unless he can recover the cadaver, Tommy begs Charity to tell him where it is hidden. Charity, a flirtatious vixen, sends him to the coffin display room, and after he leaves, she mischeviously tells Hope that Tommy proposed to her. Soon after, the special edition of the paper arrives at the hotel, and after the police chief reads Tommy's story, he begins to chase the reporter. Donning a disguise, Tommy rushes into the airport workers' mediation room and, posing as the mediator, appeals to their patriotism and averts a strike. Tommy's disguise fails to fool the police chief, however, and he is arrested. Realizing that her prank has cost Tommy his job, Hope decides to produce the corpse and enlists Puddle to help deliver it. The three are greeted by the police chief, who arrests them all. Delighted by the appearance of the corpse, Chambers offers Tommy a contract and a raise. As they carry the corpse to the lobby, a drunk wandering the hallways recognizes the body and, with a clap of his hands, brings the mediator back to life. After the drunk explains that the mediator was a subject in a suspended animation experiment, the police chief releases his prisoners. Tommy then announces that he plans to be married, and Hope thinks he intends to wed Charity. When Tommy proposes to Hope, she turns Charity over her knee and begins to spank her, and Tommy and Faith join in the festivities of spanking her.
Director
Leigh Jason
Cast
Joan Blondell
Robert Benchley
John Howard
Binnie Barnes
Janet Blair
Hugh O'connell
Paul Harvey
Frank Mcglynn
Eric Blore
Una O'connor
Almira Sessions
Dorothy Vaughan
Walter Soderling
Ben Taggart
Chester Clute
Ferris Taylor
Frank Gaby
Eddie Laughton
Dick Elliott
Charles Lane
Bess Flowers
Nora Cecil
Minna Phillips
Alec Craig
Ray Walker
Larry Parks
Bruce Bennett
Lloyd Bridges
John Tyrrell
Lester Dorr
Joseph Crehan
Grady Sutton
Ken Christy
William B. Davidson
Eddie Dunn
William Newell
George Hickman
Buddy Messinger
Arthur Aylsworth
Arthur Loft
Harrison Greene
Monty Collins
Harry Seymour
Harry Anderson
Barbara Brown
Vera Lewis
Jessie Arnold
Sarah Edwards
Charles Halton
Eugene Anderson Jr.
Robert Emmett Keane
Harry Harvey
Patricia Farr
Bert Roach
Hal K. Dawson
Alan Edwards
John Farrell
Tim Ryan
Dink Freeman
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although the names of Binnie Barnes and Janet Blair directly follow that of Joan Blondell in the opening credits, Barnes and Blair receive fourth and fifth billing respectively in the closing credits. According to a news item in Los Angeles Times, Columbia originally intended to star Constance Bennett and Virginia Bruce along with Blondell in this film. Although a Hollywood Reporter news item notes that Frank Partos was to have worked with Richard Carroll on the script, the extent of Partos' contribution to the released film has not been determined. This picture marked the screen debut of actress-singer Janet Blair (1921-2007).
