Nanette a trois amours

Janet Gaynor is a country bumpkin who finds herself in New York with Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone while her fiancée is missing in "Three Loves Has Nancy," a wonderfully funny comedy. Montgomery, Gaynor, and Tone are all hilarious as parts of this strange menage. Gaynor, as Nancy, stood up on her wedding day by "George," is sent by her family to New York to find him. After a series of events, she winds up being used by writer Montgomery to get a rapacious female and her mother off his case. When Franchot Tone, his publisher, friend, and neighbor, gets a sniff of Gaynor's southern cooking, the two men battle it out for her attention. Montgomery considers her a jinx and wants to be rid of Nancy - or so he thinks - until Tone decides he's in love with her.

There are quite a few laugh out loud scenes in this film. It's highly recommended. The "goof" described by IMDb indicates that perhaps two men were cast on different days as Tone's father, an uncredited role, but only one actor is listed. Anyway, it's great fun.

Three Loves Has Nancy is a wonderful comedy from 1938 about a woman from a small town who goes to New York to find her missing fiancée. In the process, she meets a city author and his drunken friend who proceed to fall in love with her as well. What ensues is a madcap dash to win her affections in the process of her scatterbrained antics.

Janet Gaynor plays Nancy, the simple and "neighborly" star. Gaynor is wonderful in the role with a consistent accent and constant seriousness that brings plenty of laughs.

Robert Montgomery plays Mal Niles, the writer and perhaps the most grounded and standard of the lead characters.

Franchot Tone is absolutely hysterical as Bob Hanson, a drunk turned sober lovestruck fool. Although he is quite lovable in this film, he varies from his traditional portrayal, bringing lots of attention to his character.

This film, broadcast by Turner Classic Movies, is highly watchable and enjoyable both due to the content and the beautiful picture quality.

Author Robert Montgomery goes on a lecture tour. On the road he is insulted by Janet Gaynor, who also ruins all his suits, so we know how this is going to turn out. Back in New York, he discovers Miss Gaynor has come in search of her fiancee, Grady Sutton. Meanwhile, Miss Gaynor works as cook to Franchot Tone, Montgomery's publisher.

It's another attempt fbyMGM to produce a screwball comedy. I think they should have realized their success with MY DEAR MISS ALDRICH was a fluke and given up, or yanked Seitz away from endless Andy Hardy movies and used him as director. Instead, they gave the job to Richard Thorpe. Thorpe seems to have reverted to Poverty Row type and not done any retakes. As a result, Montgomery is always grouchy. This is no fun at all. While amusing things do happen, and Miss Gaynor is as pert as ever, the movie never gels. Miss Gaynor vanished from the big screen for nineteen years. She should have taken Reginald Owen with her.

This tale about a small town girl who goes to the big city is supposed to be a screwball comedy, but it offers the thinnest of plots, a disjointed storyline, and few real laughs.

Janet Gaynor stars as Nancy, the girl around whom the story revolves, but she lacks the magnetism--homespun or otherwise--to explain why Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone would be drawn to her so vehemently.

Regardless, they are all working with a script that substitutes non sequiturs for real humor, and a one-note fish-out-of-water story for emotional depth. The result is mere amusement.

I don't think another actress could have saved this film, but Gracie Allen, Irene Dunne or Jean Arthur might have given it a stronger comedic base. The writers of this film were pitching screwball, but they missed the plate entirely.

Janet Gaynor plays a Thirties version of Tammy in Three Loves Has Nancy and her three guys are Robert Montgomery, Franchot Tone, and Grady Sutton. Want to take odds on who she winds up with?

Montgomery plays a popular author who Gaynor meets at a book signing and later on a train to New York. She's going because her fiancé Grady Sutton left her at the church and she's off to New York to find him. With a country innocence that belies a certain amount of country common sense she involves herself in the lives of Montgomery and his next door neighbor and publisher Franchot Tone in her search for the jilting Sutton.

Somebody had to have seen this film before creating the Tammy character that Debbie Reynolds made popular in the Fifties. Gaynor has the whole thing, accent and all, uncannily down. Montgomery and Tone play the same roles that they both did in so many films for MGM, the debonair man about town. I leave it to you as to who looks better in a tuxedo.

I wish there had been more of Gaynor's family, especially Guy Kibbee as her father and Charley Grapewin as her grandfather. The film would have been better for it.

Three Loves Has Nancy is all right entertainment, but nothing new here. Nothing that hadn't been done before or definitely would be done again later.