Mary (Lisa Blair) and Jack Holden (Ted Danson), in “Three Men and a Baby.” Touchstone Pictures/MovieStillsDB
Posted on 02/19/2026 7:53:42 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Three Men and a Baby” is an unlikely comedy that ended up being the top-grossing film of 1987 because of its poignant themes. Despite its stereotypical caricature of bringing up babies, this light-hearted snipe at intentionally single-parent families argues that babies need not just mothers but fathers, too.
In the 100-minute gag that this film is, it might take as many as three bungling men to care for a baby. In real life, a caring father and mother will do just fine.
Sure, any couple won’t mind occasional help from friends or family, even the bungling kind. In its prankish, poignant fashion, the film celebrates babies and how life-transforming they can and should be. They’re unbelievably, often irritatingly, hard work, but they’re always worth it.
Mary (Lisa Blair) and Jack Holden (Ted Danson), in “Three Men and a Baby.” Touchstone Pictures/MovieStillsDB
What the three enjoy most, though, is partying and philandering, or so they think. All that changes when they find, abandoned on their doorstep in a snug basket, a baby named Mary (played in turn by twins Michelle and Lisa Blair).
She’s the fruit of a fling Jack had with struggling actress Sylvia (Nancy Travis). Mary threatens to turn the world of these three men upside down, as there’s no sign of the mother.
As the bachelors are compelled to care for Mary on their own, each man figures to pawn off baby duties to the next man—or woman. Soon, however, all three are wondering if they’re happier when caring for Mary.
Could a woman know that a man’s touch is indispensable to rearing, not just having, babies? It’s a woman who came up with this story. French screenwriter and director Coline Serreau, on whose 1985 film this one’s based, seems to have known what neuroscience took decades to demonstrate.
Mary (Lisa Blair) with Michael Kellam (Steve Guttenberg), in “Three Men and a Baby.” Touchstone Pictures/MovieStillsDB
Babies demand attention. They have to be fed, cleaned, clothed, protected from self-harm, comforted, and put to sleep. Frequently. But here’s the thing: Every demand is a baby’s excuse to be embraced, cuddled, and caressed. It’s nearly impossible to do any of these things half-heartedly. Try it.
By their very existence, babies are saying that they need not just some of the love both parents can give for some of the time; they need all of it, all the time.
Babies demand extraordinary patience and understanding. Watching the men here, annoyed at what comes naturally to babies, it seems babies also demand forgiveness.
That’s the opportunity parents are offered—to become more humane when life threatens to tease the opposite out of them. They can either squander that chance or make the best of it.
The three bachelors loathe commitment. After a party, they’re shaking their heads in post-partum, er sorry, post-party depression: “So many women. So little time!”
Funnily enough, fatherhood becomes him. His mother (Celeste Holm) wisely reminds him that parenting is a gift. It’s a chance to grow out of his seemingly protracted, self-preoccupied adolescence. She tells him, “Jack, you’ve always run away from responsibility. Now you have to turn and face it.”
Jack’s mother (Celeste Holm) advises her son (Ted Danson) to be responsible, in “Three Men and a Baby.” Touchstone Pictures
Once, apparently done with diaper duty and everything that comes with it, Jack tells his buddies, “Guys like us shouldn’t be raising kids anyway. She’s better off with her mother.” However, his tenor and his tone bear about as much conviction as a baby refusing a bottle of warm milk.
Do these men become less masculine because Mary brings out their seemingly embarrassing paternal instincts? Quite the opposite. Watch a gaggle of girls gravitate toward the men, who are enjoying a day out with chubby Mary at the park. The girls mill around Mary, but their eyes linger on the men who hold her so protectively.
Remember Mrs. Merriweather in “Gone with the Wind”? Spying macho Rhett Butler, fussing over his adorable baby Bonnie, she sighs, “There must be a great deal of good in a man who could love a child so much.”
Check the Internet Movie Database website for plot summary, cast, reviews, and ratings. You can watch “Three Men and a Baby” on Prime Video, Disney+ and DVD.
These reflective articles may interest parents, caretakers, or educators of young adults, seeking great movies to watch together or recommend. They’re about films that, when viewed thoughtfully, nudge young people to be better versions of themselves.
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it’s 2026, and we pretty much have the tech for three men to actually combine sperm to knock up a surrogate. Let me get my party hat—- not
I would argue that the one key reason why America has gone down the tubes socially, economically, morally, politically and etc. is due to the absence of fathers in the home.
Which the absence of man is a result of the rejection of God in society.
It’s been “Three Baby Daddies and One Woman” for quite some time but Hollywood buries that truth.
The notion of men raising a baby without a mother being a comedic absurdity back then.
I agree.
And this is this is one of those subjects we are not supposed to talk about. Remember how Dan Quayle was crucified for touching upon the subject of single mothers? And how the entertainment business tends to mock the importance of fathers?
It is rare to hear anyone in public life talk about the importance of fathers, or how it is bad that we have normalized single motherhood to the extent we have.
Nancy Travis was the best part of that movie.
In Living Color - Three Champs And A Baby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XliESKveks
“Pretty funny, Ali!”
Good movie, but here is the original “three men and a baby” the name was “3 godfathers”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Godfathers
“3 Godfathers is a 1948 American Western film in Technicolor directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz and Harry Carey Jr. The screenplay was written by Frank S. Nugent and Laurence Stallings based on the 1913 short story The Three Godfathers by Peter B. Kyne. The story is a loose retelling of the biblical Three Wise Men in an American Western context”
Here’s another version called “hell’s heros”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell%27s_Heroes_(film)
Plot
Four men (Bob Sangster, “Barbwire” Gibbons, “Wild Bill” Kearney and José) rob the bank in the town of New Jerusalem. José and the cashier are killed, while Barbwire is shot in the shoulder. The three outlaws escape the posse, fleeing into the desert. However, their horses run off in a sand storm and they have little water.
When they reach a water hole, they are dismayed to find that not only is it dry, but there is a pregnant woman stranded there. She gives birth to a boy. Before she dies from her ordeal, she makes the three the child’s godfathers and begs them to take him to his father, Frank Edwards... the cashier they murdered.
Bob wants to abandon the boy, but the other two are determined to honor the woman’s request. They start walking the 40 miles (64.4 km) to New Jerusalem. Weakened by his wound, Barbwire eventually can go no further. He makes the others continue on without him, then shoots himself. That night, they stop to rest. When Bob wakes up the next morning, he finds Bill gone. A note Bill left explains that he went further into the desert to conserve the little remaining water for Bob and the baby. Bob goes on, discarding his belongings along the way, including finally the loot. At one point, he leaves the baby, but then picks him up again. His strength gives out just as he reaches a water hole with a sign warning it is poisoned. Desperate, he comes up with a plan to save the baby. He drinks his fill, knowing that he will have about an hour before it kills him. He stumbles into New Jerusalem’s church, where the congregation is celebrating Christmas. Then, his task completed, he dies without uttering a word.
Cast
edit
Charles Bickford as Bob Sangster
Raymond Hatton as Tom Gibbons
Fred Kohler as Wild Bill Kearney
Fritzi Ridgeway as Mrs Frank Edwards
Joe De La Cruz as Jose
Walter James as Sheriff
Maria Alba as Carmelita
Buck Connors as Parson Jones
The Three Stooges did it better...
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