Men in Black (1934)

 

Studio: Columbia. Runtime: 18 minutes. Production Number: 152. Release Date: September 28, 1934. Director: Raymond McCarey. Story and Screenplay: Raymond McCarey. Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Jerry "Curly" Howard (Themselves), Dell Henderson (Dr. Graves), Jeanie Roberts (Hiccupping nurse), Billy Gilbert (D. T. patient), Ruth Hiatt (Whispering nurse), Bud Jamison (Doctor), 'Little' Billy Rhodes (35 year old patient), Hank Mann (Window glass installer), Bobby Callahan (Messenger), Lucile Watson (Matron), Phyllis Crane (Anna Conda), Arthur Rankin, Arthur 'Pat' West, Charles Dorety, Neal Burns, Joe Fine, Charles King (Interns), Eve Reynolds, Betty Andre, Billie Stockton, Eve Kimberly, Helen Splane, Irene Coleman, Carol Hughes, Carmen Andre (Nurses). Cinematographer: Felix Adler. Editor: James Sweeney. Music: Archie Gottler, Edward Eliscu. Shooting Days: 5 (8-28-1934 to 9-1-1934). 

Note: I have previously written about this short on my Movies With Michael blog. This is essentially a revised and expanded version of my post on that blog.  

"Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard." 

"For duty and humanity!"

Despite the title, this film has nothing to do with aliens or Johnny Cash. Instead, the title references a feature length hospital drama starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy called Men in White (1934). This short may not be a direct parody of that film but it does feature the Stooges as doctors. 

In this film, Moe, Larry and Curly graduate from medical school with the highest temperatures in their class. Actually, they only graduated because they had spent too many years in the senior class for too many years. As they graduate, they promise to do whatever they can for "duty and humanity." What follows is a series of comedic bits involving the Stooges running amuck in a hospital. 

 This is a very enjoyable short. When the film focuses on the Stooges themselves, it is hilarious. The surgery scene is hilarious with one big laugh after another. The Stooges get some great bits of dialogue throughout, many of which are very funny. The "for duty and humanity" catchphrase gets funnier each time it is repeated. Many of the running gags are wonderful. I love the running gag of the boys entering and coming out of a door with a different mode of transportation including a horse and mini-racing cars.

However, the film is weaker when it focuses on the supporting characters. These supporting characters are a lot less funny than the Stooges. The high-voiced nurse is especially unfunny. The filmmakers were trying too hard to make her into Gracie Allen. However, she has none of the charm or humor that Gracie Allen had. Her lines are more likely to make you groan than laugh.  

The building used in the film's opening was The Cedars of Lebanon Hospital (4833 Fountain Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90029). Joan Howard Mauer (Moe's daughter) gave birth to her two sons there. It is now a Church of Scientology.

Ray McCarey (born September 6, 1904, in Los Angeles; passed away December 1, 1948, in San Bernardino County) was not one of the typical Stooge directors, having only directed this and Three Little Pigskins (1934) for the team. However, he did direct Shemp (without any other stooges) in a short entitled Salt Water Daffy (1933). Comedy fans might know McCarey best for directing the Laurel and Hardy feature, Pack Up Your Troubles (1932). He also directed an excellent Our Gang short, Free Eats (1932). He would go on to direct such feature films as You Can't Fool Your Wife (1940), Torchy Runs for Mayor (1939), It Happened in Flatbush (1942) and The Falcon's Albi (1946). Ray McCarey was the younger brother of one of my favorite directors, Leo McCarey.

To advertise the film publicity stills were shot with the Stooges and Jeanie Roberts (who played the high-voiced nurse in the short). These were adlibbed by the Stooges during a break from filming. They can be seen below.

A lot changed from script to screen in this movie. One of the strangest was a switching of Moe and Larry's lines in one scene. In the original script, Larry asks a patient what her name is, she responds "Anna Conda." Moe would have said to this "Anna Conda - 95th and 1/8th." In the actual film, Moe asks the patient for her name and both Larry and Moe get the punch line. The Stooges themselves adlibbed a scene in this film. In this scene Moe tells Larry, "Move that cart." Larry responds, "I'll move it when I'm ready." Moe says in a tough voice "Are you ready?" Larry says "Yeah! I'm Ready!" This routine later became one which would be associated with the team. They would perform it again in Three Dumb Clucks, We Want Our Mummy, I Can Hardly Wait, Who Done it? and The Three Stooges in Orbit. Also cut out was a joke involving Curly vaccinating a woman. Curly would have asked if she wanted it on the arm or the leg. She would have responded "Where it won't show." Curly would have asked "What business are you in?" She would have responded "I'm a fan dancer." Curly would say "Stick out your tongue." A running joke in this film is that the Stooges would always run through a glass door in break it. There was one joke involving this that did not make the final cut. Here is how the script describes that joke, "The three stooges dash madly towards the door, but as they open it the laborer, in the corridor, had evidentially been picking something up in front of the door and the impact of his body against the door breaks the glass again, spreading it all over the floor." Joan Howard Maurer believed that the gag was probably cut out because it was too violent and also wasn't funny. Another scene cut involved the stooges working on a man whose knee hurts. He would have said "Oh my knee - oh my knee" to which Moe would responded "What's the matter? You being singing mammy songs?" Latter Larry would have said "I'll take his reflex." Curly would have responded "I'll take his watch." They would have later been in raincoats with beer spigots and mallets to test his reflexes. This film would have also had a completely different ending. Beautiful triplets would have told the stooges they would marry our heroes, "providing you do the most wonderful thing in the world for humanity." They would have got out an axe and said, "We're going to subdivide you." Yes, that ending deserved to wind up on the cutting room floor. It is interesting to note the Curly is not called Curly in the script but rather "Dr. Jerry."  

This marked the only Stooges short to be nominated for an Oscar. However, it lost to the Technicolor musical short La Cucaracha (1934). 

The music over the opening credits is an instrumental version of the song I Thought I Wanted You by Archie Gottler and Edward Eliscu, which was also heard before Punch Drunks (1934). 

The bit with the Stooges using a mallet as an anesthetic, would late be used in Dizzy Doctors (1937), Calling All Curs (1939), All the World's a Stooge (1941), A Gem of a Jam (1943), Hot Ice (1955) and the feature length, Have Rocket Will Travel (1959). 

The aforementioned "I'll do it when I'm ready" gag would later be used in 3 Dumb Clucks (1937), We Want Our Mummy (1939), I Can Hardly Wait (1943), Who Done It (1949) and the feature length Three Stooges in Orbit (1962).  

The following are exhibitors' reviews from the Motion Picture Herald.


March 9, 1935"Men in Black: Three Stooges - Maybe you call this a comedy, but my patrons did not. Who told the stooges they could act? This is poor comedy and entirely too silly to be funny. Let's have better shorts and less of this kind of entertainment. Running time 19 minutes. -J.J. Medford, Orpheum Theatre, Oxford, N.C. general patronage."

March 27, 1937"Men in Black: Three Stooges - Very good. Played it twice so you know what we think of it. - Harlan Rankin, Plaza Theatre, Tilbury, Ontario, Canada."

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used

The Three Stooges: Book of Scripts by Joan Howard Maurer.

The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Joan Howard Maurer, Jeff Lenburg, Greg Lenburg.  

https://threestooges.net/filmography/view/3

https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/115703

https://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/1175/

Book Review: Great Movie Comedians

 

Note: This post originally appeared on my Movies With Michael blog.

Well written and well researched Leonard Maltin's 1978 book remains essential reading for all fans of classic movie comedy. 

The book starts with an introduction that discusses the work of silent film comedians that do not receive their own chapters later in this book. This introduction is just as much essential reading as what follows. Offering a brief history of some of these forgotten clowns and how they contributed to the broad history of screen comedy, while also explaining what keeps them from entering into the pantheon of "Great Movie Comedians" like those that receive their own chapters here makes for compelling reading. Quotes for those who worked with these comedians firsthand provide even greater insight to who these comedians were and what comedy filmmaking was like in the silent era. This is one of the rare books where I wish that the introduction had gone on longer. 

The actual chapters cover 22 of the best comedians (or comedy teams) to ever grace the silver screen. These are Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon, Charley Chase, Raymond Griffith, Marie Dressler, Laurel and Hardy, Will Rogers, Joe E. Brown, The Marx Brothers, W.C. Feilds, Mae West, The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, Red Skelton, Jerry Lewis and Woody Allen. Each of this chapters provides a brief history of the comic's career, some critical insight and a filmography. The critical insight truly shows Maltin's talent as a critic and a writer. He has great admiration for the talent of each of these performers, while also allowing himself to critique the flaws in some of their work. While I may not agree with all his critical opinions (I have a much higher opinion of Harry Langdon's self-directed efforts), they are all well written and insightful. Naturally the history may not be as in depth as what you might read in an entire book dedicated to one of these comics, but for the brevity of these chapters, they are surprisingly insightful. The quotes from those who worked with these comics are invaluable even to film buffs, who may know the majority of the information in this book. Though today, we may take the filmographies for granted it is important to remember how in the pre-internet days, how valuable a simple list of each of these performer's films was to any film buff. 

If I were to find fault with any of these chapters, it would be the one about Harry Langdon. This is the rare occurrence where Maltin gets his film history wrong. He gives too much credit to Frank Capra and too little to Langdon himself for the creation of Langdon's screen character. However, this is not completely Maltin's fault. One must remember that at the time this book was written there was still a lot of research to be done on Langdon, and his films were not easy to see. Because of this it is easy to have believed Frank Capra's claims to have been instrumental in the creation of Langdon's character. I can't say that I wouldn't have made the same mistake at the time. Today one can see that Langdon's character was already on his way to being formed by the time that Frank Capra began working on Langdon's films. Yet even with this, I am very grateful to Leonard for calling attention to Langdon at this time period. 

This is a truly excellent book.         

Book Review: The Great Movie Shorts (1972)

 

 

Note: This post was originally featured on my Movies With Michael blog. 

Leonard Maltin's The Great Movie Shorts is a seminal book on classic short subjects. While this book is still incredibly enjoyable and informative today, to truly appreciate it, you must put into the context of the time it was written. At this time most writings about movie focused on "important" films, nearly all of which were feature length. A whole book long study of the live action short subject of the 1930's and 40's was something virtually unheard of. Today there have been many books written about classic short subjects (Leonard Maltin would even co-write another on (with Richard W. Bann), The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang). As such this could have been a very basic history and still been an important book. That this is such a well-researched and incredibly informative (even today) book at this time makes it all the more impressive. 

This book is broken up into multiple different sections. The first of these is brief history of each major (and some not so major) Hollywood studio and their output in the short subject field. The second is a survey of many of the classic short subject series. This section makes up the bulk of the book and as well as the surveys each series gets a filmography giving you a list of each film, acting and directing credits and a plot summary. This section includes the most popular and famous series such as Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, Our Gang (AKA The Little Rascals), Joe McDoakes, Pete Smith (whose shorts play on TCM regularly) and Charley Chase. Also included are the sound shorts of the beloved silent comedians Buster Keaton and Harry Langdon (the talkie work of legendary silent comedy producer Mack Sennett is even chronicled in this book). Here you get a great picture of an overlooked part of the work of some true Hollywood legends. There are also many series here that even the most avid cinephiles will not have seen or maybe even heard of. Not all the series listed here are comedies as we also get a look at such series as Crime Does Not Pay, John Nesbit's Passing Parade and Screen Snapshots. After this comes surveys of various genres that were not talked about in depth elsewhere in this book (newsreels, travelogues, musicals and sports). 

With all this the book marks a perfect introduction to those who wish to get further into classic short subjects, letting you know all aspects of the classic live action short subject, so that whatever your interests may be, you will know when to start. Maltin's writing also often fully reflects his passion for the subject and will make you want to seek out many of the films he has written about. Yet this book is equally essential to seasoned movie buffs. It's in-depth filmographies, look at obscure films (as well as the better-known ones), surprisingly in-depth histories and especially its quotes from many of those who worked on these films (many of whom Maltin talked to firsthand) make this just as essential reading for true cinephiles. Beyond this the book is simply a lot of fun to read. 

This book would be reissued and updated in 2015, when it would be retitled Selected Short Subjects" From Spanky to the Three Stooges. 

This book should have a treasured place in every movie buff's library. It certainly has a very cherished place in mine. 

Punch Drunks (1934)

 

Studio: Columbia. Runtime: 17 minutes. Production Number: 116. Release Date: July 13, 1934. Director: Lou Breslow. Story: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Jerry "Curly" Howard. Screenplay: Jack Cluett. Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Jerry "Curly" Howard (Themselves), Chuck Callahan (Mr. McGurn), Dutch Hendrian, Frank Moran (Mugs), Dorothy Granger (Curly's girlfriend), Al Hill (Killer Kilduff), William J. Irving (Kilduff's manager), Chet Brandenburg (Kilduff corner man), Ray Jones, Jack Kenney, Harry Keatan (K. O. corner men), Billy Bletcher (Announcer), Larry McGrath (Referee), Arthur Housman (Timekeeper), Harry Watson (Michevious boy), Jack 'Tiny' Lipson, Arthur Rowlands, Don Brodie (Spectators), Charles King (Man on truck), Ed Brandenburg (Pedestrian). Cinematographer: Henry Freulich. Editor: Robert Carlisle. Music: Harold Arlen, Archie Gottler, Ted Koehler, Edward Eliscu, Louis Silvers. Shooting Days: 4 (5-02-1934 to 5-05-1934). Working Title: Symphony of Punches. 

With only their second short for Columbia, the Stooges truly hit their stride. 

In this short film, Moe is a boxing manager. He meets Larry and Curly in a restaurant, he learns the Curly goes wild if he hears Pop Goes the Weasel and he will knock out anyone around him. Moe decides that Curly could be the next champ, so he brings Curly and violin playing Larry along with him to make boxing history. 

This is a pure classic. The storyline is delightfully silly in all the best ways. For a film so early in the team's career, it already shows more knowledge of the team's strengths than most of the films that preceded it. Curly is the real star of this short and he truly gets time to shine. His over the topic antics have never been funnier and more memorable than they are here. Moe and Larry also get some great time to shine here. Moe gets some great and funny lines. However, Larry gets the best bit of business here. Him running around trying to find something playing Pop Goes the Weasel is a wonderful running gag (pun intended) and the punch line is hilarious. In fact, every gag in this film hits very well. The climatic boxing match is simply laugh after laugh. Even the bits that don't involve the Stooges are funny. The battle between the kid and the timekeeper is especially funny. It is no wonder this film is so beloved by Stooge fans. 

This is the only Stooges film on which the Stooges receive story credit. Though all three of them received story credit many Stooge buffs believe that Moe wrote the treatment himself and put Larry and Curly's names on there as well. In the original treatment Curly went crazy when he hears Stars and Stripes Forever. According to director Lou Breslow this was changed to Pop Goes the Weasel because it was the funniest song, that they did not have to pay royalties for. 

Curly going wild when he hears Pop Goes the Weasel was repeated with Curly Joe DeRita in the later feature length movie, Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze (1963). Curly would be driven wild in a similar way by other stimuli in such shorts as Horses' Collars (1935), Grips, Grunts and Groans (1937) and Tassels in the Air (1938). 

In one scene Moe orders "burnt toast and a rotten egg." When asked why he states, "I got a tapeworm and that's good enough for him!" This same joke was used in Three Sappy People (1939) and Beer Barreled Polecats (1946). 

When Moe asks Curly, "Give me a hand," Curly answers "which one." This gag would be repeated in Ants in the Pantry (1936), How High is Up (1940) and Pardon My Clutch (1948). 

When he tries to lift up a car, the wheel falls down on Moe's foot. This would later be repeated in Pardon My Clutch and Wham-Bam-Slam (1955). 

This is a rare directorial effort from Lou Breslow (born July 18, 1900, in Boston, Massachusetts; passed away November 10, 1987, in Los Angeles), who spent most of his movie career working as a writer. Though this is his only credit on a Stooges film, he would work with other comedy teams including Abbott and Costello, The Ritz Brothers and Laurel and Hardy. 

    The song over the opening titles is I Thought I Wanted You, which is written by Archie Gottler (who directed Woman Haters (1934)) and Edward Eliscu. 

This film would later get a loose comic book adaption in Three Stooges #6, which was published in August 1954. This loose adaption would feature Shemp instead of Curly. 

For those of you keeping score, there are 30 slaps to the face and 1 eye poke here. 

Resources Used

The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer and Greg Lenburg

https://threestooges.net/filmography/view/2

Woman Haters (1934)

 

Studio: Columbia. Runtime: 19 minutes. Production Number: 112. Release Date: May 5, 1934. Director: Archie Gottler. Story and Screenplay: Jerome S. Gottler. Cast: Marjorie White (Mary), Larry Fine (Jim), Moe Howard (Tom), Jerry "Curly" Howard (Jack), Bud Jamison (Club chairman), Monte Collins (Mr. Zero), Don Roberts (Doorman), Billy Engle (Club member), Dorothy Layton, C. L. Sherwood (Bar Patrons), Charles H. Hickman (Bartender), Dorothy Vernon, A. R. Haysel (Mary's Parents), June Gittelson (Mary's Sister), Tiny Sandford (Mary's Uncle), George Gray (Mary's brother-in-law), Jack Norton (Justice of the Peace), Charles Meakin, Leslie Goodwins (Wedding Guests), Fred 'Snowflake' Toones (Porter), Walter Brennan (Conductor). Cinematographer: Joseph August. Editor: George Boemler. Sound Engineer: Edward Bernds. Art Director: Fredric Hope. Set Decoration: Edwin B. Willis. Recording Director: Douglas Shearer. Music: Archie Gottler, Con Conrad, Sidney D. Mitchell, Edward Eliscu. Lyrics: Archie Gottler. Shooting Days: 4 (3-27-1934 to 3-30-1934). 

Woman Haters is possibly the most important film of The Three Stooges' careers. It marked the first of the 190 short films that the team made for Columbia. Though the trio worked in feature length movies, on TV and onstage, it is these short films that they will always be remembered for. Much of this is due to that these films have been in heavy rotation on TV for many decades and various generations have grown up with these shorts since childhood. This also marks the Stooges first film since splitting with Ted Healy. Though their work with Healy was often quite entertaining, it seems very unlikely that the trio would have reached the same pop culture heights as a foursome. 

Being the first of the trio's shorts for Columbia, this film differs greatly from the shorts that were soon to follow. The Stooges have character names here. They are not going by Moe, Larry and Curly here. Instead, they are called Jim, Tom and Jack. While teams like The Marx Brothers and Abbott and Costello often used character names in their films, this doesn't quite seem to fit the Stooges. Though perhaps this is because we are so used to hearing their own names that any other feels strange to us. This film also has a musical quality. Not only is there a musical number here but the entirety of the dialogue is spoken in rhyme. This of course would only be used in this one film. One big difference between this and most later shorts is one that causal fans may not notice but Stooge-philes will notice immediately. That is that Larry is the central figure here. It would be common later on for Moe or Curly (or later Shemp or Joe) to be the center of the story, but this was not often the case for Larry. Affectionately referred to by Stooge lovers as "the Stooge in the middle," Larry would later often take somewhat of a backseat to the other two Stooges as his character often did not have Moe's take charge attitude or Curly's (and later Shemp's and Joe's) over-the-top antics. Despite this many true Stooge buffs consider Larry their favorite because his reactions to the other two Stooges is often the funniest part of many classic Stooge bits. 

In this film, the trio joins a woman haters club and declares that they never will marry. However, Jim (Larry Fine) marries Mary (Marjorie White) without his friends Tom and Jack (Moe Howard, Jerry "Curly" Howard) knowing. When Jim and his wife go on a train trip, Tom and Jack happen to be going along. Jim has to hide the fact he is married from his friends and fellow woman haters. 

Though it may lack the laughs of later Stooge comedies, this is a charming film. The storyline, while familiar is a pretty good one. The main song is delightful and a very pleasant listen. The Stooges are excellent here, bringing a lot of fun, comedic energy to every scene they are in. However, what really makes this film stand out is Majorie White. She is truly excellent here and one of the Stooges' best leading ladies. Rather than being overpowered by the Stooges' zaniness, she holds her own with the comic trio. Believe it or not, she even steals a few scenes from them. One of the few truly funny moments here, comes directly from her (a scene with Curly lying on a couch). 

Unfortunately, the rhyming dialogue doesn't fully work here and can come off as more distracting than anything else. The biggest flaw for Stooge fans though is that there are very few real laughs to be had here. There are some chuckles but no actual laugh-out-loud moments. 

On March 6, 1934, Ted Healy's movie contract came up for renewal, and this is when the Stooges split with their former boss. One reason for this was that they grew tired of simply being Healy's comic sidekicks and wanted to get out from under his shadow. However, what cemented the decision was their meager pay. Moe would later state, "In the early days, what Ted paid us was laughable. And there were times when Ted didn't get paid so we wouldn't get paid. This was later reflected in the period at MGM, where some weeks Ted would give me one hundred, some weeks only fifty dollars. I went along with it since I understood his financial situation was such that he couldn't pay us what he owed us." However, one (let alone three) could only put up with this type of payment so long. In a meeting, Moe told Healy and Paul Dempsey (Healy's agent) to make a paper releasing them from working for Healy. 

Splitting from Healy obviously left the question as to where exactly the Stooges could go after this. One columnist wrote, "Sad note. Ted Healy and his completely mad Stooges have come to a parting of the ways. The Stooges felt they could make more money and get along better sans their discoverer. Wezel see."

 The Stooges signed their contract with Columbia on March 19, 1934. They signed a one-picture contract that would allow for future comedies if reception to their first film was positive. There was a 60-day waiting period after this first film (Woman Haters) was released to see whether Columbia would be interested in making more films with them. If Columbia decided to make more films with the Stooges, they would make eight two-reel comedies over the course of 40 weeks and would receive 12 weeks off (where they would be free to make other movies if they wished). For Woman Haters they would only be paid $1,000 which was to be split three ways between them. 

This marks the only Stooge film directed by Archie Gottler (Born May 14, 1896, in New York City; Passed away June 24, 1959, in Hollywood). His career as a film director was rather brief and mostly confined to musical shorts for Columbia. However, he had a quite successful career as a composer and songwriter. He even wrote music for such Broadway shows as Ziegfeld Follies of 1918 (Which premiered at the New Amsterdam Theatre (214 W. 42nd St., New York, NY) on Jun 18, 1918, and ran there until September 14, 1918), Broadway Brevities of 1920 (Which ran from September 29, 1920, to December 18, 1920, at the Winter Garden Theatre (1634 Broadway (At W. 50th St.), New York, NY)) and The Mimic World (Which played at the Century Promenade (Central Park West at 62nd St., New York, NY) from August 17, 1921, to September 10, 1921). 

The writer for this film was Jerome S. Gottler (Born December 2, 1915, in New York City; Passed away November 1, 2005, in Los Angeles), son of Archie Gottler. Decades later he would be a writer on another Stooges short, Sweet and Hot (1958). Appropriately that film was another musical. 

This film's cinematographer, Joseph H. August (Born April 26, 1890, in Idaho Springs, Colorado; Passed away September 25, 1947, in Culver City, California) had a great movie career. He began his career with the 1913 short film, The Lure of the Violin. During the silent era he would work on many of William S. Hart's great westerns. In the talkie era he would work on such prestigious movies as Twentieth Century (1934), The Informer (1935), Gunga Din (1939), The Battle of Midway (1942) and They Were Expendable (1945). He would work with the Stooges on only one more film, the feature length movie, The Captain Hates the Sea (1934). 

 

Rather than being released as a Three Stooges short, this was released as the 5th entry in Columbia's Musical Novelties series. All the music in this film comes from the first four shorts in the series. The song My Life, My Love, My All was originally titled At Last and came from a previous short in the series titled Umpa (1933). The song was written by Archie Gottler, Sydney Mitchell and Con Conrad. Gottler provided some new lyrics specifically for Woman Haters. 

As well as not technically being a released a Three Stooges short, the Stooges also were not the first billed. Top billed here is Marjorie White (born July 22, 1904, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; passed away August 21, 1935, in Hollywood, California). Marjorie White was definitely being groomed for stardom. She had major roles in such movies as Happy Days (1929), New Movietone Follies of 1930 (1930), Just Imagine (1930), Possessed (1931) and comedy team Wheeler and Woolsey's best movie Diplomaniacs (1933). Unfortunately, her career would be cut short when she died in a car crash at the age of 31. Woman Haters was her last film.  

This also marked the first time the Stooges worked with character actor Bud Jamison (Born February 15, 1894, in Vallejo, California; Passed away September 30, 1944, in Hollywood). Jamison was a veteran of silent comedy. He appeared in some of Charlie Chaplin's films for Essanay as well as some of Harold Lloyd's Lonesome Luke shorts. He would make 38 films with the Stooges. 

One gag in this film involves the Stooges lifting their glasses to each other with the result of all the glasses breaking. The Stooges would later repeat this gag in Goofs and Saddles (1937) and Musty Musketeers (1954). 

The following is a review from The Film Daily. 

"With Ted Healy's former trio of Stooges as the chief comedy motivators, and the dialogue delivered in rhyme, this concoction with music is a generally enjoyable affair. Plot deals with a woman hater's club which the three stooges join. Then one of them falls for a dame and embarks on matrimony, with the other two lads giving chase to bring him back. A good deal of the comedy action takes place in a Pullman car, with the usual farcical developments."

Though it may not reach the heights of their best work, this was a fun start to the Stooges work with Columbia. 

-Michael J. Ruhland 

Resources Used

The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer and Greg Lenburg

https://threestooges.com/woman-haters/

https://threestooges.net/filmography/view/1

https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/archie-gottler-4219

 

Hollywood Party (1934)

 

Studio: MGM. Runtime: 68 minutes. Production Number: 695. Release Date: May 24, 1934. Directors: Roy Rowlande, Charles F. Reisner, George Stevens, Allan Dwan, Russell Mack, Sam Wood, Edmund Goulding, Richard Boleslavsky. Screenplay: Howard Dietz, Arthur Kober, Herbert Fields, Bert Green, Edgar Allan Woolf, Charles F. Reisner, Richy Craig Jr., Henry Myers, Robert E. Hopkins, Harvey Gates. Cast: Jimmy Durante (Himself), Lupe Velez (Herself), George Givot (Liondora), Polly Moran (Henrietta Clemp), Charles Butterworth (Harvey Clemp), June Clyde (Linda Clemp), Eddie Quillan (Bob Benson), Richard Carle (Mr. Knapp), Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy (Themselves), Ted Healy, Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Jerry "Curly" Howard (Themselves), Jack Pearl (Baron Munchausen), Jed Prouty (Theatre manager), Edwin Maxwell (Buddy Goldfarb), Ray Cooke (Theatre patron), Tom Kennedy (Beavers), Arthur Treacher (Valet butler), Frances Williams (Singer), Baldwin Cooke (Arrivals valet), Ben Carter (Elevator operator), Florence Wix, Tenen Holtz (Elevator passengers), Eddie Tamblyn (Bob's friend), Leonid Kinskey (Jake the cabbie), Walt Disney (voice of Mickey Mouse), Gene Morgan (MC), Robert Young (Himself), Shirley Ross, Harry Barris, The King's Men (Feelin' High singers), Edward Thomas, Sidney Bracey, Sherry Hall (Butlers), George Beranger (Barber), Ray Corrigan (Gorilla), Henry Roquemore (Chef), Tom Herbert (Bartender), Ernie Alexander (Waiter), Clarence H. Wilson, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Nora Cecil, Frank Austin, Scotty Mattraw, Richard Cramer (Pedant scientists), Phyllis Crane (Eve), Tom London (Paul Revere), Art Jarrett (The Hot Choc-Late Soldiers singer), Ben Bard (Charley), Don Brodie, Bess Flowers, Jay Eaton, Larry Steers, Julia Griffith, Jack Byron, Russell Hardie, Bill Elliott (Party guests), Jack Hill, Bert Young, Hugh Saxon (Doormen), Jeanne Olsen Durante (Herself), Florine McKinney, Ruth Channing, Martha Sleeper, Celeste Edwards, Iris Lancaster, Kay Gordon, Irene Hervey, Pauline Brooks, Claire Meyers, Muriel Evans, Marcia Ralston (Chorines), Greta Garbo (archive footage). Cinematographer: James Wong Howe. Editor: George Boemler. Art Director: Fredric Hope. Set Decoration: Edwin B. Willis. Recording Director: Douglas Shearer. Music: Walter Donaldson, Richard Rodgers, Nacio Herb Brown, William Axt, Jimmy Durante. Lyrics: Lorenz Hart, Arthur Freed, Howard Dietz, Gus Kahn. Music Editor: W. Donn Hayes. Orchestrator: Roy Isnor. Choreography: Seymour Felix, Carlos Romero, David Gould, George Hale. Costumes: Adrian. Cartoon Background Art: Emil Flohri, Carlos Manriquez. Animators: Leonard Sebring (Soldiers and band departing and returning; battle scenes), Cy Young (Chocolate army marching; girls waving; sun), Louie Schmidt (embrace of chocolate girl and soldier; chocolate and gingerbread generals; calvary and ambulances; gingerbread spy discovers chocolate army) Crew under Ben Sharpsteen (George Drake (Ammunition wagons; Soldiers climbing candy canes and being hit be eclairs), Dick Williams (burglars; Soldiers in lollipop field)), Roy Williams (Artillery; candy cane ram attack), Jack Kinney (Cannons on parade; Gingerbreads soldiers); Frank Oreb (Tanks), Milt Schaffer (Spy returns to fort and sounds alarm); Bob Kuwahara (Candy cane hooked over battlement), Ugo D'Orsi (Gingerbread soldiers fire eclair cannons), Joe D'Igalo (Chocolate soldiers wheel dove into fort and capture gingerbread soldiers), Fred Moore (Most if not all Mickey Mouse scenes)  Shooting Days: August 14, 1933, to March 16, 1934. Cartoon Story Development: May-June 1933. Animation Dates: June 19 - August 19, 1933. Working Titles: Hollywood Revue of 1933; Star Spangled Banquet. 

Hollywood Party is an all-star comedy that's story is just a thin excuse for the comedic actors to do their stuff. This movie is best remembered today for being the only non-compilation movie to feature both The Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy (though they do not appear together.  as well as for a Technicolor Disney cartoon.

The story, such as it is, features Jungle movie star Schnarzan (Jimmy Durante) throwing a big Hollywood party. Unfortunately, Schnarzan has received new lions (for his jungle movies) from his friend Baron Munchausen (Jack Pearl), who paid for them with a bad check. The owners of the lions (Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy) come to the party to take their lions back. 

Ted and the Stooges only appear briefly in this film and frankly their bits are not all that memorable. However, this is still a really fun movie. Jimmy Durante is fun as the lead. However, the show is completely stolen by Laurel and Hardy. The comedy duo is at the top of their game here and gets some truly big laughs. The Disney animated sequence is also a delight, having the feel of one of the studio's great Silly Symphonies cartoons. Unfortunately, as with Meet the Baron (1933), the Baron Munchhausen simply isn't that funny, and Jack Pearl seems stiff in front of a camera. Also, though the laughs are good, there are times when there can be too long of a space between them.  

Leading up to the Hot Chocolate Soldiers Disney cartoon was a sequence with an animated Mickey Mouse interacting with a live action Jimmy Durante. These were completed well after the cartoon. Since Hot Chocolate Soldiers had nothing to do with the rest of the movie, the Disney studio had no interference from MGM. However, since the scenes with Mickey and Jimmy had to be incorporated into the "larger story," it was written by MGM's writers. The writers had trouble fully getting a handle on Mickey's character and there were several rewrites of this scene. MGM's writers at first made Mickey much too talkative and wise cracking (in the actual Mickey cartoons of the time dialogue was kept to a minimum). There was also the idea that Mickey would do various imitations of various Hollywood stars. In the finished films he only does one imitation (that of Jimmy Durante).   

Laurel and Hardy entered the film's production on September 21, 1933. They were directed by their former cameraman George Stevens and mostly improvised their scenes. In this 68-minute movie, Laurel and Hardy don't appear until the 51-minute mark. However, they are very much the focus of the rest of the film when they show up. Their best bit here is their egg battle with Lupe Velez. This was so great that the whole sequence would be remade in the Laurel and Hardy feature film, The Bullfighters (1945) with Carol Andrews now as Stan and Ollie's victim. 

As for the Stooges, this marked their last screen appearance with Ted Healy. The next film of theirs to be issued to movie theaters is their first Three Stooges short for Columbia. It is unknown what days their scenes were filmed here. 

Scenes featuring the Stooges, Durante and Laurel and Hardy appear in the compilation movie, MGM's The Big Parade of Comedy (1964).

-Michael J. Ruhland 

Resources Used

Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies by Randy Skretvedt.

The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer and Greg Lenburg

https://threestooges.net/filmography/view/213

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/disneys-hollywood-party-sequences/

https://pre-code.com/hollywood-party-1934-review-jimmy-durante-mickey-mouse/

The Big Idea (1934)

 

Studio: MGM. Runtime: 19 minutes. Production Number: 628. Release Date: May 12, 1934. Director: William Beaudine. Story: Ted Healy, Matty Brooks. Screenplay:  Matty Brooks. Cast: Ted Healy (Himself), Muriel Evans (Ted's Girlfriend), Bonnie Bonnell (Cleaning lady), Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Jerry "Curly" Howard (Themselves), Lew Harvey (Machine gunner), Billy Engle (Short painter), Robert Milasch (Tall Painter), Heinie Conklin (Drunk), Buster Brodie (Bald man), Henry Taylor, Eddie Bartell, Jimmy Hollywood (Radio Rouges), The MGM Dancing Girls (Themselves), Tut Mace (Dancer). Choreographer: Sammy Lee. Songwriter: L. Wolfe Gilbert.

The last short film that Ted Healy and the Stooges made for MGM, is really more of a Ted Healy solo short with the Stooges in bit roles. 

In this short film, Ted Healy is the president and only member of "Big Ideas Theatrical Productions." However, he has yet to think of a big idea. While he tries to think of a big idea, he is constantly interrupted. He eventually comes up with a plot idea about three radio performers. We then cut to these radio performers doing impressions of various radio stars. Cutting back to Ted's office, Ted comes up with the idea that these radio performers buy their own musical show. We then cut to a musical number. The scene with the radio performers and the musical number are deleted scenes from two feature films. These feature films are Dancing Lady (1933) and Going Hollywood (1933), which starred Bing Crosby and Marion Davies (a delightful film). 

Despite the Stooges' limited screentime, there are still somethings to enjoy here. Ted Healy is excellent in this role effortlessly going back and forth between being a loud-mouthed comedian and a straight man to the zany goings on. Some of the gags are quite familiar but work thanks to Healy's execution. The Stooges appear briefly throughout the film without doing much Stooge like. Towards the end, they get a pretty decent comedy bit all to themselves. 

However, it is the use of deleted scenes from other movies that really hurts this film. Going Hollywood benefited greatly because the radio scene didn't make it into that movie. This scene just simply isn't that good. The radio imitations are okay at best and are never actually funny (even for those who know the radio performers that are being kidded). Along with this the Amos and Andy bit goes on much too long.

When this short would be released to theaters, new title cards were given. Rather than crediting "Ted Heal with Howard, Fine and Howard," the new title cards stated, "Ted Healy and His Three Stooges." 

By the time this short was released, the Stooges had already split from Healy and were beginning making their famous and beloved series of two-reel shorts for Columbia (more about that in a later post). As this was going on the Stooges were still making quite a few live performances. They made their last two live appearances with Ted Healy on January 13, 1934 (at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles) and February 10, 1934 (at Loew's State Theatre in Los Angeles). These were star studded charity events. At the Biltmore Hotel, there were also performances by Russ Columbo, Bing Crosby, Jeanette MacDonald and Rudy Vallee. Even the orchestra was made up of movie stars. Charlie Chaplin played the violin, and James Cagney played the drums. Other performers at the Loew's State Theatre included Betty Grable, Leo Carillo, Billy Gilbert, George Raft and Mickey Rooney. 

The Stooges first performed live without Healy at the Warfield Theatre in San Fransico from April 20-26, 1934. Jack DeWees played the straight man role to the Stooges mayhem. Billed as "Howard, Fine & Howard," the team made quite positive impression. On April 21, 1934, the San Fransico Chronicle reported, "Ted Healy's Stooges, Howard, Fine and Howard, assisted by Jack DeWees keep the audience in gales of laughter with their nonsense." Starting in June of 1934, Howard, Fine and Howard would be performing without the aid of Jack DeWees. Beginning in October, the group would be billed as The Three Stooges for their live performances.   

Other 1934 performances of the Stooges included: April 29 at the El Campanil Theatre in Antioch, CA, May 18-24 at the Palace Theatre in Chicago, May 25-31 at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, June 25 at the Biltmore Hotel again, August 29 at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, September 9 at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, October 3-10 at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, October 13 at the Club Ballyhoo in Hollywood, November 1-14 at the Warfield Theatre, November 10 at the Bowery Nite Club, November 28 - December 4 at the Orpheum Theatre, December 11, 17 and 21 at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, December 19 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and December 31 at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. 

-Michael J. Ruhland

                                                       Resources Used

The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer and Greg Lenburg
A Tour De Farce: The Complete History of the Three Stooges on the Road by Gary Lassin

https://threestooges.net/filmography/view/204