Three Guys Named Mike

Honestly, there was no way I couldn't like this movie. As soon as I started watching it, I was hooked. Naturally, it was cheesy and unrealistic (IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE AND YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHICH MIKE SHE PICKS, DON'T READ ON!). Look, I wasn't expecting a surprise ending. Van Johnson was the first of the "Mikes" in the credits, so naturally my money was on him. I was just hoping for a better explanation of why he got the girl. He didn't do anything the other two Mikes didn't do. Through out the entire movie, Jane Wyman never even showed any favoritism toward him. I hate to say it, but this was an obvious case of "the biggest star" gets the girl. But don't get me wrong. I just think that with a little bit of better writing, they could have pulled it off better. But don't think this movie wasn't worth watching. I loved it!

Personally, I would have picked Howard Keel =P

Have you ever noticed the amount of movies from the 1950s that were shot on location, showing grand landscape shots in aerial views, and sometimes out of airplane windows? Airplane travel wasn't what it is now; back in the day, it was an event, not an everyday occurrence. People dressed up in "travel clothes", looked forward to the meal served on the plane, and forged a connection with the stewardess for a few hours. If you're at all curious about the training and occupation of a 1950s stewardess, Three Guys Named Mike gives you a great education.

Jane Wyman stars as a young passionate woman starting her career as a stewardess in American Airlines. She balances over-confidence with total fear in order to cope on her first few trips, and while I normally can't stand her as an actress, Jane does give every emotion as her character's supposed to. Still, I absolutely hate her classic haircut, and I find her posture and mannerisms off-putting. Had the movie starred Claudette Colbert, Loretta Young, or Doris Day, it would have been understandable that three men would fight over here-but Jane Wyman? I don't get it.

The three men are Howard Keel, Van Johnson, and Barry Sullivan. Howard is an incredibly handsome airline pilot, Van is a poor science researcher, and Barry is an advertising executive. If you're wondering how Jane will ever choose between such fantastic prospects, you obviously have never laid eyes on Howard Keel in his captain's uniform. He should have just grinned into the camera for ninety minutes straight; the movie would have been fantastic. As it is, I couldn't understand why Jane would ever look at another man after meeting Howard!

I didn't end up liking the movie because Jane's character was an idiot and always made mistakes. But if you like movies that follow the same vein as Tom, Dick, and Harry, you can give this one a shot. At least you'll have eye candy to drool over.

"Three Guys Named Mike" is a story about a fledgling airline hostess from a small town who gets to fly the friendly skies and expand her horizons. Marcy Lewis (Jane Wyman) embraces her new way of life, experiences the joys of interacting with the public (people from different lands with their varied views) and meets three bachelors who happen to have the same first name. Marcy knows that married women cannot be hostesses, but she's not really trying to find a husband--she's too busy revolutionizing the ad world and the flight industry. But that doesn't stop men from throwing themselves at her. Particularly Howard Keel (a pilot), Van Johnson (a graduate student in scientific studies), and Barry Sullivan (a successful adman).

All four major players play their roles well, but the script is a trifling that is more interesting as a documentation of the flight procedures and customs of the time. While watching Wyman in this role, I kept thinking of June Allyson and, according to notes in the trivia section, the role was written for her. Ms. Wyman's voice also reminded me of Doris Day's at times.

Even with its paternalistic and sometimes sexist approach to the training and employment of stewardesses, the airlines industry (especially American Airlines) get a commercial from Hollywood in this film.

Jane Wyman was one of the cutest actresses ever to grace the silver screen and she proves here that she still had IT in abundance in this anachronistic 1951 romp in which she portrays a stewardess adapting to the heady life and unique romantic opportunities that the flight attendant profession once represented for smart career-minded women a long, long time ago. American Airlines would have paid a hefty product placement fee in 2005 for all the great promotion they receive in this film, parts of which were shot aboard a real DC-3 (The Spirit of Washington) as it cruises the skies. The sunny natural cabin lighting does not do Van Johnson any favors inasmuch as the nasty scar across his forehead which MGM's make-up people always managed to conceal so adroitly is prominent to the point of distraction. I found his sardonic graduate-level researcher character to be a bit of an imperious drip. Sullivan is rarely anything more than a plot device: he never seems to be seriously in the running for her hand while Pilot Howard Keel is at his handsomest and he and Miss Wyman seem to share a real chemistry, so I was kept pleasantly off-balance throughout. There are some exciting scenes of downtown Chicago from the air (look for the River winding along Wacker Drive past the Merchandise Mart) and they have a camera fixed beneath the DC-3's fuselage which provides some stunning footage of actual landings. The uniforms are fun, and it effectively shows us the world of air travel that existed just prior to the dawn of the jet age. It's a memorable little trip for commercial aviation buffs, made only five months before Wyman's ex went back to the altar with Nancy Davis and turned her into the second Mrs. Ronald Reagan.

Jane Wyman is great as Marcy Lewis, an ambitious flight stewardess, in the golden era of flying, where flight attendants and flight crew were somewhat celebrity. Those days are gone obviously. Most people fly the friendly or unfriendly skies. The film shows Marcy, a young woman from Ohio, with aspirations to become one of the best flight attendants anywhere. During her fabulous career, she is courted by three men who all happen to be called Mike. There is Captain Mike Denison, the pilot who she offends as he offers her a lift to the airport on her first day. Then there is Mike Tracy, the science scholar and bartender, and Mike Lawrence, the advertising executive. They are played by some of Hollywood's leading men like Van Johnson. The supporting cast is equally impressive with Phyllis Kirk. It's a good film despite the fact that it's outdated by decades. Of course, there is one scene where Marcy is constantly sexually harassed by two male passengers aboard the flight.