Paradise for Three (1938)

hyped garbage

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Set in the absolute seat of anti-Semitism and after Austria was annexed by Germany comes this little light comedy, "Paradise for Three" starring Robert Young, Frank Morgan, Mary Astor, Edna May Oliver, Henry Hull, Reginald Owen, and Florence Rice.Many, many classic films are set in European locations, even though for years, they were done on Hollywood sets for the most part. Was it because of the European market? To give the films an exotic feel? Even if the film were adapted from a foreign book, a studio could still set it in the U.S. But no, it was always Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, etc.Why would anyone set a film in Vienna in 1938? No idea, except that Hollywood (and I guess the U.S.) ignored what was going on in Europe for several years. Even when it was acknowledged, studios were careful in their films not to state that people were Jewish (in the Mortal Storm they were non-Aryans) or talk about the Nazis (in the Mortal Storm they showed swastikas but never used the word Nazi), at least at first.Robert Young is Fritz Hagedorn, a constant contest winner (26 in all) who wins the Tobler Soap motto competition. In second place, unknown to anyone, is the big guy himself, Rudolph Tobler (Frank Morgan). The prize for both is a ski vacation in the Alps, which Tobler takes under an assumed name and brings his butler (Owen) along as an associate.The hotel is ready to lay out the red carpet for Tobler because his housekeeper (Oliver) has called to say the contest winner is a wealthy gentleman is arriving and has to have the best of everything. She has to hang up before she can give his fake name, so when Fritz arrives, he gets a suite and all the perks. When Tobler arrives, they take him for a bum and throw him up in a freezing cold attic room.Believing Fritz to be the rich one, Mary Astor sets her eyes on him and makes a play. While in the hotel room with Fritz and Tobler, Fritz opens some brandy. When Tobler tastes it and identifies it by name, as a very expensive brandy, she realizes she's got the wrong guy. So she changes lanes.Fritz meanwhile is falling for Tobler's daughter (Rice). She tells him that she's poor, knowing he doesn't want to marry out of his class.Very funny film with some wonderful character acting from the hotel people (Hull, Herman Bing, Sig Ruman), a great dishwashing scene, Tobler being introduced to the features of his hotel room (broken window in the middle of window, ice in the sink, rock hard mattress), and Edna May Oliver skiing. By the way, she was 55 at the time of this filming and died at 59.The acting from the rest of the cast is delightful. I guess Hollywood least of anywhere cared what was going on in the rest of the world. Just put in a few yodelers, show some mountains, and that's it.

Of all the innumerable B movies churned out by MGM to fill the lower half of a double bill it was inevitable that every once in a while one would jell into an mini classic. Paradise for Three is one of those happy accidents.The story of hidden identities and crossed signals played for laughs certainly wasn't new even in 1938 but director Buzzell moves things along at breakneck speed and is fortunate to have the cast filled out with some of the best character actors working at that time.The nominal leads are Robert Young and Florence Rice and while Young is his usual polished, amusing self and Rice is pretty and game they aren't really the engine that makes the movie run. That falls to the main trio of supporting players, Mary Astor, Edna May Oliver and especially the delightfully wacky Frank Morgan. Astor is all sly cunning as a gold digger with an amazing wardrobe and Edna May grumbles and fusses as only she can enduring hilarious indignities along the way. But it is Morgan and his dithery befuddlement and kindly manner who steals the picture. The blending together of all their terrific work manages to take the ordinary material and add an extra punch to it that makes it laugh out loud funny in several spots and an undiscovered gem.

MGM certainly used a low budget to make PARADISE FOR THREE, and it shows when it comes to the outdoor winter scenes supposedly taking place on ski slopes at an Alpine resort. The use of process photography for all those mountain tops covered with snow is obvious.Nor did they use a top cast but the results are splendid nevertheless.An up and coming Robert Young has the star role of a contest winner who is mistakenly thought to be a millionaire by Herman Bing and Sig Rumann when he arrives at his destination at a swank hotel. He immediately attracts the attention of Mary Astor, hard on her luck as far as money is concerned and looking for an easy catch.But the fun begins when Frank Morgan decides to check on how the hotel treats the lower class and finds himself mistaken for a mere contest winner without money. The pretty blond Florence Rice plays his daughter who naturally falls in love with penniless Robert Young, who doesn't know she's a rich girl until the final reel.It's predictable and silly, with great support from Edna May Oliver as Morgan's housekeeper of thirty years who joins the group at the hotel to look out for Morgan's health and keeps an eye on his "woman trouble" with Astor. She makes the most of an amusing role in true Edna May Oliver fashion.This is one that's little known today. To put it in context, it probably played the lower half of bills in the "double feature" days which is why I call it a programmer. I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of those B-films that surprised audiences by being more entertaining than the main feature, which happened occasionally.

I just saw this movie and i was surprised.I had saw a movie that was made in 1955 Dire Manners in Schnee sometimes back. Like the twilight zone this other version was the same way. Well I learned that This was based on a book by Erich Kastner. He lived in that region it's just MGM saw the novel first.In 1955 it was remade in Germany.But this American version was a lot better. The version made in 1955 was too Hiemantish.But what an Irony. The first version was an attempt to make Florence Rice a star. The remake was attempt to make Johanne Heesters daughter a star. Neither worked. Germany never saw this version until 1995 on TV. So the filmmaker was not aware that it had already been a film.This version is better .