Three Men in a Boat (1956 film) is happy to get away from his job at the bank. Harris is glad to get away from Mrs. Willis who is pressing him to marry her daughter Clara; and 'J' is more than anxious to take a holiday from his wife, Ethelbertha. George meets three girls, Sophie Clutterhouse and sisters Bluebell and Primrose Porterhouse, who are also taking a ride up the river, and he hopes to see them again. The travellers get into all kinds of complications with the weather, the river, the boat, food, the Hampton Court Maze, tents, rain and locks. They do connect with the
Three Men on the Bummel or Academic fencing. The mensur sword duels are described at length, with little humour, and with Jerome expressing extreme disapproval for the tradition. Jerome would have been aware of Mark Twain's humorous travelogue, "A Tramp Abroad" (1880), based on a walking tour through similar parts of Germany, with extensive comments on the language and culture. "Three Men on the Bummel" follows in this vein. At least one of Jerome's remarks, however, is remarkably prescient: Jeremy Nicholas says that the book is "unfairly chastised as being an ineffectual afterthought" to "Three Men in a Boat", and that "the set pieces (the