When magicians, morticians, and union representatives all gather in a convention hotel managed by Robert Benchley, some strange situations are bound to arise, and so they do in this charming and genuinely eccentric comedy. While drunken conventioneers (including Eric Blore) run amok, a mysterious corpse keeps cropping up at inconvenient moments, “singing” in a barbershop quartet and winning a poker game. Stalled labor negotiations threaten to shut down the nation’s wartime defense industries, and cops and reporters try to get a handle on the happenings, as a Greek chorus of Irish cleaning women looks on. “Convention hostesses” Hope (Blondell) and Faith (Binnie Barnes) must cope with it all while also managing their kid sister Charity (Janet Blair), a boarding-school escapee and budding nymphomaniac. Matthew Kennedy wrote, “Ringing with nimble dialogue and flabbergasted personnel, Three Girls About Town is altogether delightful.”

—Juliet Clark

• Written by Richard Carroll. Photographed by Franz Planer. With Joan Blondell, Robert Benchley, John Howard, Binnie Barnes. (75 mins, B&W, 35mm, From Sony Pictures)