Despite the title, Mary (played by Marjorie Weaver) hardly gets a look-in as both the scriptwriters and the director focus on Sally Day (the lovely and enchanting Alice Faye) and to a lesser extent, Irene Keene (the lively comedienne, Joan Davis). In fact, the cast is so well lined with expert comedy sketches (played by the likes of Fred Allen, Gregory Ratoff, Barnett Parker, Jimmy Durante, Eddie Collins, Gypsy Rose Lee), plus the romantic interludes with Tony Martin, that Miss Weaver is actually no more than a vague figure in the background. The songs, however, are not particularly memorable and their staging is no great shakes, but Jimmy Durante renders one of them in his own inimitable style, while Alice Faye's appealing presence and tuneful voice more than make up for any shortcomings in the tunes themselves. But frankly, it's actually in the comedy scenes that the movie excels: Gregory Ratoff fulminating delightfully as he shatters every mirror in an enormous Hollywood- style barber shop; radio comedian, Fred Allen, who, surprisingly and delightfully, is as funny visually as he is verbally (I love the sequence in which he glibly explains to the shaken passengers that there will be no extra charge for their wild ride). And it's really no wonder that the comedy scenes take top honors in this movie as the direction was in the hands of William A. Seiter, a comedy specialist – in fact, many would say Hollywood's number one comedy specialist. The "many" would include Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, The Marx Brothers, The Ritz Brothers, Jimmy Durante, Shirley Temple and W.C. Fields – not to mention Gypsy Rose Lee's socialite impresario in this movie, rubber-faced Eddie Collins as the captain, and Andrew Tombes as the delightfully cowardly minister. As mentioned above, the only aspect of this solidly entertaining movie that is somewhat disappointing is the rather threadbare staging of the musical numbers (although the costumes are first class). In all other respects, production values are first rate. Available on an excellent 20th Century Fox DVD.
Review of Sally, Irene and Mary
