Three Broadway Girls; Greeks Had A Word For Them, The

2826. THREE BROADWAY GIRLS (The Greeks Had A Word For Them) (1932-USA). With JOAN BLONDELL, INA CLAIRE, MADGE EVANS, LOWELL SHERMAN, BETTY GRABLE. Directed by LOWELL SHERMAN. Adapted by SIDNEY HOWARD, based on the play by ZOE AKINS. Schatze Citroux, Jean Lawrence and Polaire Gwynn are three former New York showgirls who are fondly known as “The Three Musketeers Of Riverside Drive.” They are famed for being male-hungry and money-hungry. Schatze is the wisecracking one. Polaire is the classiest and most sensitive of the trio. Jean is the crassest and most blatantly manipulative. The latter has just returned from Paris. “Am I broke!” she exclaims. In the next breath she declares, “I can do with some fun!” Jean also tells her pals that “as long as we stick together I don’t care what happens.” How long will this harmony last? Jean observes that if worse comes to worse in the sugar-daddy department she always can turn to an old stand-by, a wealthy gentleman known as “Pops.” Only trouble is, while Jean was in Parrs it just so happens that “Pops” became Schatze’s france! Our gold-digging trio ends up playing romantic and sexual musical chairs with several other men. One is young playboy Dey Emery. Another is wealthy concert pianist Boris Feldman. This chic farce is loaded with sparkling dialogue, scripted by the noted playwright Sidney Howard who adapted Zoe Akins’ hit Broadway play. The story was refilmed in 1953 as “How To Marry A Millionaire.” All of the performances are first-rate, with Joan Blondell (cast as Schatze) and Lowell Sherman (who plays Boris Feldman and who also directed) especially fine. The film also is quite risque, from a half-naked Schaize’s declaration that she is “dressed to go out right now” as the film opens, to Jean’s hilarious and eye-popping “strip-search” near the finale. 79 minutes. Comedy