Three Wise Fools on AllMovie

Even if the film had been released without opening and closing titles, it wouldn't have been hard to identify Three Wise Fools as an MGM production. Margaret O'Brien stars as Sheila O'Monhan, a wide-eyed Irish colleen who insists that she sees leprechauns (as, indeed, does the audience). She enters the lives of three dour, crusty old gentlemen: Dr. Richard Gaunght (Lionel Barrymore), Judge Thomas Trumbull (Lewis Stone), and industrialist Theodore Finley (Edward Arnold). Thanks to a curse imposed upon them by Sheila's grandfather, the three men have all found success at the expense of personal happiness. But there's still a chance for their salvation, and that chance manifests itself in an old tree which Sheila believes is the home of the leprechauns. The finale finds Gaunght, won over by Sheila's childish faith in The Unexplained, chaining himself to the tree to avoid its removal by Finley and Trumbull. Anyone who can't guess how this little bit of blarney turns out should have his or her film-buff card revoked.