The rumor gained widespread notoriety in August 1990 and spread like wildfire in the media and the Internet in the following months, just as the film’s sequel ( Three Men and a Little Lady) was about to hit the theaters. The figure in the window looks slightly different in appearance from the standee shown later in the film because the distance and angle of the shot make it appear smaller, and the curtains obscure its outstretched arms.Īll indoor scenes for Three Men and a Baby were shot on a Toronto soundstage no actual residential structures were used for interior filming.Īctor Tom Selleck discussed this legend with Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon in February 2017:Īs with most rumors involving strange or hidden images in popular films (such as The Wizard of Oz), this wild tale about a Three Men and a Baby “ghost” began after the film was released on home video. (The standee shows up once more in the film, as Ted Danson can be seen standing next to it when the baby’s mother comes to reclaim her child.) This remake of the 1985 French film Trois Hommes Et Un Couffin (Three Men And A Cradle) is set in New York, but is one of the many films shot, for financial. The standee prop was created as part of a story line involving a dog food commercial in which Danson’s character (an actor) appears, but references to the figure were cut from the finished version of the film.
The figure behind the curtains is a “standee” (a stand-up cardboard cutout used for advertising displays) of Ted Danson, dressed in a top hat, white shirt, and tails, that was left in front of a window on the set and thereby “sneaked” into the background of one scene. In stock folkloric fashion, the mother immediately goes insane and has to be confined to a mental institution, where she has remained ever since.Īs usual, the truth is much more mundane. Even wilder versions have the mother spotting her dead son, dressed in his burial clothes, in the film.
More detailed versions of the rumor have the boy’s mother suing the film studio after they refuse her request to remove the image from the film, and making the rounds of various TV talk and news magazine programs (e.g., Oprah, Geraldo, 60 Minutes) to repeat her strange tale of woe. The dead boy’s despondent parents supposedly moved out after their son’s death, and the house was rented or bought by a film studio, who allegedly used it for interior scenes of Three Men and a Baby. Handsome and successful career men trade wine, women and song for diapers, formula and Dr. Other versions of the legend merely mention that a boy died in the house, without specifying how. Yep it's all telegraphed comedy, and the ending holds no surprises for anyone once Nancy Travis as Mary's mother comes back to claim the child.The most common form of this rumor claims that a nine-year-old boy committed suicide with a shotgun in the Three Men and a Baby house, a detail apparently inspired by the jagged black outline created as the curtains move away from in front of the figure’s left-hand side, with the black portions of the figure forming an outline that resembles a long gun standing on its end, barrel down: Starring Tom Selleck, Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg as the "no parenting skills" bachelors, Leonard Nimoy's film, (yes, Spock) sees quality interplay between the guys and some bona fide funny sequences as they in turn attempt to do right by Mary. Critic Reviews for Three Men and a Baby Three Men and a Baby is a lot of fun, and more progressive than you might expect. Take three of Hollywoods stars (Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, Ted Danson), add one adorable baby girl, and the result is the funniest blockbuster comedy hit of the year Three handsome Manhattan bachelors find their dating and mating rituals irreparably damaged when an. The Oscar-winning actor from Michigan has appeared on numerous TV movies and television shows such as The Young and the Restless, Magnum, P.I., Murder She Wrote. Yet it has a frothy cleanness so lacking in many more similar big budgeted movies that came after it. Three Men and a Baby was the biggest box office hit of 1987, surpassing Fatal Attraction and eventually grossing US167 million in the United States alone. Yes it looks a touch twee now, and the irritating drug-smuggling sub-plot (also in the original) grows more tiresome with subsequent revisits. Take three of Hollywoods hottest starts (Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, Ted Danson), add one adorable baby girl, and the result is the. A remake of successful 1985 French film Three Men And A Cradle, this Hollywood version took the box office by storm to make a domestic profit of over $155,000,000. Three bachelors have their lives flipped upside down when little baby Mary is left on their doorstep.