The Trials And Tribulations Of An Airline Stewardess (ah, Flight Attendant) Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight-Jane Wyman’s “Three Guys Named Mike” (1951)-A Film Review

DVD Review

By Laura Perkins

Three Guys Named Mike, starring Jane Wyman, Van Johnson, Howard Keel, Barry Sullivan, 1951

What the hell. Yes, what the hell am I doing reviewing this little advertising promotion for American Airlines circa 1951 (and circa propeller planes) Three Guys Named Mike posing as some sort of romantic comedy of the air. Poor Icarus was a bright boy by contrast. Why Greg Green, our illustrious site manager the guy who gives out assignments and who allegedly previews these things, thought this thing was worth any cyber-ink is beyond me. My longtime companion and now occasional fellow reviewer, ah, writer here Sam Lowell would say two things about this turkey of a film. First WTF instead of my polite “what the hell” and then turn the thing from dross to gold by running the whole piece as a “slice of life” piece from a now well bygone phase of aviation passenger experience which is certainly part of the American cultural experience which this site is all hopped up on. That’s Sam though and you can tell why he has survived for forty years in the business and a slew of overlords including recently departed high school friend Allan Jackson. And will survive Greg’s whims too.       

Okay this thing is already set up in the first paragraph. Marcy from nowhere Indiana, played by schoolmarm-like Jane Wyman is head over heels to blow that small town scene and fly the world as an airline stewardess never having been on plane one but that is no problem. She doesn’t want to be an airline hostess on some unnamed Podunk Tiger Airlines but the very real American Airlines in the propeller era (circa 1951 and hence that “slice of life” jive Sam would try to sling if I had asked him his opinion which I did not on this one). That airline got about a billion dollars’ worth of presumed free advertisement on this one-whether they come out with egg on their face or not for hiring this dunce or not. (By the way speaking of “slice of life” I would be remiss if I did not mention that “airline stewardess” is old hat these days when one and all are called flight attendants. Also old hat is the changeover from all lovely young fully made-up women to the now anybody male or female who you might be served by on any particular flight. That is my contribution to the “cultural” expression so coveted on this site.)     

Onward. During Marcy’s tenure she gets hit on by the usual rum-dum travelling salesmen who today would be charged, and rightly, so with sexual harassment along with their meals. Those guys don’t count though-only guys named Mike do if you paid attention to the title of the film in the headline. None of these guys strike out –at least at first. There is Mike the pilot keeping the whole thing in-house, played by hunk Howard Keel, Mike the crackerjack ad man, played by hunk Barry Sullivan, and Mike the otherworldly research scientist, played by hunk Van Johnson. Which begs the question why three hunks would take a tussle with a schoolmarm like Marcy. The whole cabal meet up in Los Angeles where Marcy was based just then in the days before mega-sprawl and you could actually afford to live in the burg on the slight pay of a stewardess. Naturally with three guys chomping at the bit there are war clouds in the air. Not to worry though after a bout with a photographer who very definitely would be wrapped up and tied as a sexual predator these days the trio make their bids for Marcie’s finger. (Remember going back to “slice of life” these were the days when this job was a short hop sowing wild oats on the way to marriage. Marriage which took you out of the contest. Gone- no married women allowed.) And the winner is-Mike-the Mike with the hunky otherworldly look. Let me turn my thumbs down quickly and be done with it.