Three Wise Fools ** (1946, Margaret O’Brien, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Edward Arnold, Thomas Mitchell) – Classic Movie Review 12,275

Three Wise Fools (1946, Lionel Barrymore).

Director Edward Buzzell’s 1946 MGM black and white fantasy film Three Wise Fools stars Margaret O’Brien, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Edward Arnold, and Thomas Mitchell.

This sentimental tale of orphaned young girl Sheila O’Monahan (Margaret O’Brien) rejuvenating the lives of three old curmudgeons is just the kind of mawkish morality tale the world seemed to thrive on in 1946. It is loosely based on a 1918 Broadway play by Austin Strong, filmed as a 1923 silent by King Vidor.

Those reliable old scene-sealers Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone and Edward Arnold play the evil old men with considerable vigour, and you can’t help feeling that they were more fun before waif-like Margaret O’Brien works her magic on them. It is all terribly Oirish (leprechauns) and terribly yukkie, but nothing stops the veteran star players, or the confidence of director Buzzell and studio MGM, and there is always a nice, long support cast of attractive actors to watch.

The screenplay changes characters and plot elements, introducing supernatural small people, who live in an ancient tree on an American estate. Harry Davenport, who plays The Ancient, one of the fairies who narrates the story in flashback, starred in the 1918 play.

Writers: John McDermott (story and screenplay) and James O’Hanlon (screenplay).

Lionel Barrymore and Lewis Stone were friendly rivals for the same roles at MGM, but here they are together, and there was plenty of work for both of them. They enjoyed the longest ever contracts at the studio.

It had a $1,274,000 budget, and earned $2,096,000, but still lost $66,000.

The cast are Margaret O’Brien as Sheila O’Monahan, Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Richard Gaughnt, Lewis Stone as Judge James Trumbell, Thomas Mitchell as Terence Aloysius O’Davern, Edward Arnold as Theodore Findley, Ray Collins as Judge Watson, Jane Darwell as Sister Mary Brigid, Charles Dingle as Paul Badger, Harry Davenport as The Ancient, Henry O’Neill as Prof. Horace Appleby, Cyd Charisse as Rena Fairchild, Warner Anderson as The O’Monahan, Billy Curtis as Dugan, Olin Howland [Olin Howlin] as Witness, Ernie Adams, Emmett Vogan, Ray Teal, William Tannen, Henry Sylvester, Betsy Stoddard, Mary Ellen St Aubin, John Sheehan, Lee Phelps, Garry Owen, Robert Emmett O’Connor, Tim Murdock, George McDonald, Jerry Maren, Nita Krebs, Michael Kirby, Teddy Infuhr, Bud Harrison, A Cameron Grant, Marjorie Davies, Barbara Billingsley, Charles Bates, Billy Barty, Martin Ashe, Bob Alden, and Gary Gray.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,275

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