Paradise for Three

1938 film by Edward Buzzell

June 4, 1938 (1938-06-04)

Running time

78 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget$359,000^[1]Box office$751,000^[1]

Paradise for Three, titled Romance for Three in the United Kingdom, is a 1938 American romantic comedy film starring Frank Morgan as a wealthy industrialist who learns about his Austrian workers by surreptitiously living among them. It was adapted from Erich Kästner's novel Three Men in the Snow, published in 1934.

Paradise for Three is the third of several film adaptations of Kästner's novel. It was preceded by the French film A Rare Bird in 1935. Other films bearing the title of the novel were released in 1936, 1955 and 1974.

Cast

Frank Morgan as Rudolph Tobler / "Edward Schultz", industrialist
Robert Young as Fritz Hagedorn, contest winner
Mary Astor as Irene Mallebre, gold-digging divorcee
Florence Rice as Hilde Tobler / "Hilde Schultz", Rudolph's daughter
Edna May Oliver as Julia Kunkel, Tobler's housekeeper
Reginald Owen as Johann Kesselhut, Tobler's butler
Herman Bing as Mr. Polter, bell captain
Henry Hull as Sepp, kitchen worker
Sig Ruman as Karl Bold (as Sig Rumann), hotel manager
Walter Kingsford as William Reichenbach, Tobler's assistant

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Frank S. Nugent called Paradise for Three "a light, slight and agile farce, something in the nature of a dividend from a Metro preferred stock company" and "a genial show."^[2]

According to MGM records, the film earned $421,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $330,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $118,000.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
^ Nugent, Frank S. (1938-02-16). "A Farce, as Its Title Implies, 'Paradise for Three' Opens at Rialto—New Swedish Film Is Shown". The New York Times. p. 17.