They Say Good Things Come in Threes

Or is it bad things? One thing is sure, it's a real "three for all" in here today! We're taking a gander at movies (and a few TV shows) that all focused on the adventures of three ladies thrown together by either family or fate. Our cover photo from Three Bad Sisters (1956) looks to be one to watch out for, not only for its campy aspects, but because delicious John Bromfield is shown shirtless in a trim little bathing suit! As you'll see, this concept has been a popular storytelling device for many years as it allows for a variety of personalities to collide against one another. Often, one of the gals would end up dead by the end! Rarely are my collections definitive, but I try to gather as many as I can. Will your own favorite make the cut?

These sorts of films helped give Joan Crawford a foothold in the movie business and she capitalized on the exposure. Here, in Sally, Irene and Mary (1925) she is shown at right opposite Constance Bennett with Sally O'Neil in the middle. (O'Neil portrayed Mary, not Sally! Ha!)

1928's Our Dancing Daughters had top-billed Crawford with Dorothy Sebastion and Anita Page.

The same trio was back again for 1930's Our Blushing Brides, though not as the same characters they'd portrayed in the prior film. (The 1929 movie Our Modern Maidens also starred Crawford and Page and bore a similar title to these others, but didn't chiefly concern three gals.)

In 1932, Bette Davis, Joan Blondell and Ann Dvorak played Three on a Match, after which bad luck did set in for the ladies.

Less a remake than a reworking of the 1925 film, 1938's Sally, Irene and Mary had Alice Faye, Marjorie Weaver and Joan Davis as manicurists aspiring to become entertainers.

1941 found the concept still fruitful with Ziegfeld Girl, which featured the star trio of Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner. (By the way, I love to listen to Tony Martin singing "You Stepped Out of a Dream" as the showgirls waft around in elaborate gowns and headdresses!)

A Letter to Three Wives (1949) was co-written and directed by the masterful Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starred Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern and Jeanne Crain. Each lady frets over which of her husbands has fled with another woman.

In what became a thing in the 1980s & '90s, the movie was remade for television in 1985. This A Letter to Three Wives starred Loni Anderson, Stephanie Zimbalist and Michele Lee.

Similar in conceit, Three Secrets (1950) had Ruth Roman, Eleanor Parker and Patricia Neal each worrying if whether a young plane crash survivor might be her own illegitimate son, given up for adoption years before.

When this one was redone as Three Secrets in 1999, they couldn't even bother to cast three stars in the roles, thus it became a Jaclyn Smith movie with Katy Boyer and Nicole Forester merely along for the ride...

One hugely-popular threesome of ladies came with 1953's How to Marry a Millionaire, which starred Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe. (The basic concept had seen the light of day before in 1932's The Greeks Had a Word for Them, 1938's Three Blind Mice and Moon Over Miami in 1941!)

Though you can barely see the title amidst the grass in this picture, How to Marry a Millionaire was later recreated as a syndicated television series that aired from 1957-1959.)

The property was far from done being exploited, however. In 1990 a TV remake was done called Rich Men, Single Women. This one isn't even connected to the original via imdb.com, but you know we love to dig up the obscure here at The Underworld and it is indeed a remake (or rip-off!) regardless of what anyone says. A 2000 telefilm called How to Marry a Billionaire had three MEN looking for wealthy spouses!

1954's Woman's World had Bacall returning to the format, but this time as one of three wives whose husbands are each vying for the same corporate promotion. She was joined in this one by June Allyson and Arlene Dahl.

Another very successful stab at the formula came in 1954 with Three Coins in the Fountain, with Jean Peters, Maggie McNamara and Dorothy McGuire as a trio of ladies hoping for love in Rome, Italy.

After allowing a decade to pass, the movie was remade (by the same director - Jean Negulesco, who specialized in these films), set in Madrid, Spain and cast with Ann-Margret, Carol Lynley and Pamela Tiffin. This time out, it was called The Pleasure Seekers. (An unsold TV-pilot in 1970, using the original title, starred Cynthia Pepper, Yvonne Craig and Joanna Moore.)

And, yes, the relentless train of remakes included a rendition of this one, now shortened to just Coins in the Fountain (1990) and featuring Stepfanie Kramer, Loni Anderson and Shanna Reed.

1957 found Taina Elg, Kay Kendall and Mitzi Gaynor as three co-habitating showgirls in Les Girls.

The roommate formula was in full swing again in 1959 with The Best of Everything, with office employees Diane Baker, Hope Lange and Suzy Parker doing the honors.

Did you know that the aforementioned movie was developed into a daytime soap called The Best of Everything in 1970 with Patty McCormack (middle-top) among the cast? The source novel had four protagonists, hence the foursome shown here. (The 1959 movie did also feature a fourth young lady, Martha Hyer, but her story was pared down. For those curious, Joan Crawford's firebreathing role from the movie was portrayed in the soap by Gale Sondergaard.)

1963 gave us Come Fly With Me, about a trio of stewardesses and their tangled love lives. Lois Nettleton, Dolores Hart and Pamela Tiffin enacted the roles. This was Hart's final movie before departing (see what I did there?) the biz to become a nun.

Also in 1963 came For Love or Money, in which Mitzi Gaynor, Julie Newmar and Leslie Parrish were three leggy sisters whose mother Thelma Ritter wanted them to be fixed up with wealthy husbands. Kirk Douglas was an attorney hired to help achieve that task.

This was also the year that Petticoat Junction (1963-1970), about three lovely sisters living at a hotel along a railway stop, hit the airwaves. Linda Henning, Pat Woodell and Jeannine Riley initialized the roles, though the latter two would be recast a couple of times over the course of seven seasons.

Possibly the Ne Plus Ultra of movie girl trios, at least in these circles, was Valley of the Dolls (1967) with Sharon Tate, Barbara Parkins and Patty Duke. Remarkably, there is no scene in the 123 minute movie that has all three gals interacting at once!

The 1970 sequel Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (starring Cynthia Myers, Dolly Read and Marcia McBroom) got so far afield from the original during pre-production that it ultimately became a separate entity entirely. Phyllis Elizabeth Davis' character Susan had originally been Barbara Parkins' role of Anne and Charles Napier's Baxter was initially Paul Burke's Lyon before the connection between the films was severed.

A 1981 miniseries revisited the material. Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls starred Catherine Hicks, Lisa Hartman and Veronica Hamel. Even this was not the end! A 1994 late-night syndicated soap called Valley of the Dolls brought the trio out once more and even included glimpses of nudity here and there. (And Hollywood is always threatening to remake it as a feature with people like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and others who are already living it!)

1970 also gave us the Saturday morning cartoon series Josie and the Pussycats, which was a childhood favorite. After one 16-episode season, the gals were back for another, but as Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space!

The less said about 2001's live-action version Josie and the Pussycats, with Tara Reid, Rachel Leigh Cook and Rosario Dawson the better...

Another highly-successful series starring three young ladies was Charlie's Angels (1976-1981), about three female undercover detectives. The initial trio of Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Farrah Fawcett was only in place the first season, though that is arguably the most famous combination. Several recasts followed, though Smith stayed on board throughout.

Unlike many big-screen re-imaginings, Charlie's Angels (2000) proved commercially successful and even had its own sequel Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle in 2003, but, as you can imagine, I've never seen either one.

The 1977 Saturday morning cartoon Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels managed to merge (steal from!) both Josie and the Pussycats and Charlie's Angels in the visual formation of its girl trio.

Threesomes of ladies were still at it as the 1980s dawned with Jane Curtin, Jessica Lange and Susan St. James as larcenists in How to Beat the High Co$t of Living (1980.)

Tangled love lives and relationships were at the heart of 1986's Hannah and Her Sisters, starring Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey and Dianne Wiest.

A girl group made up of life-long friends Kathryn Grody, Diane Keaton and Carol Kane was the subject of The Lemon Sisters (1989.)

Three sisters with quite varied looks were the witches of Hocus Pocus (1993), portrayed by Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy.

Hitting it out of the park, box-office-wise, were Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler, who made up The First Wives Club (1996.)

The TV series Charmed (1998-2006) focused on three sisters (Holly Marie Combs, Shannon Doherty and Alyssa Milano) endowed with witchcraft and ran for eight seasons. The set turned out not to live up to its name, though, and Doherty was shown the door after reports on on-set squabbling. Rose McGowan was brought it to complete the fractured trio.

Diane Keaton, who seemed something of a fixture in this sub-genre, teamed up with Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow as three sisters struggling with the oncoming death of their father Walter Matthau in Hanging Up (2000.) And that, my friends, is my cue to hang it up on this posting!