Studio: MGM. Runtime: 20 minutes. Production Number 690. Release Date: August 26, 1933. Director: Jack Cummings. Story: Ted Healy. Screenplay: Matty Brooks. Cast: Ted Healy, Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard (Themselves), Bonnie Bonnell (Bonny Latour), Edward Brophy (Theater manager), Fred Malatesta (Restaurant manager), Martin Sperzel, Al Teeter, Jack Smith (Singing bartenders). Music: Al Goodhart. Lyrics: Gus Kahn. Working title: Beer Gardens.
The Stooges second short film for MGM was very much in the same vein as their first. As with Nertsery Rhymes (1933), this film is a musical revue with Ted Healy and the Stooges providing bits of comedy between the musical numbers. It also features Bonnie Boswell (credited as Bonny) once again in a supporting role (with her own song number) and has Jack Cummings once again as the director. However, unlike Nertsery Rhymes this film is in black and white.
In this short film the boys are thrown out of the Happy Hour Theatre because of Ted's women chasing ways. As the boys get jobs as waiters, Ted promises to give up women, but this proves to be harder than he thought.
This is one of the better films that the Stooges made with Ted Healy. The Stooges are at the top of their game here. Not only do their characters already feel fully developed this early in their movie career but their humor is also quite well developed here as well. There are some truly laugh out loud moments with the Stooges here, each in the vein of the Stooges later films.
Meanwhile the musical numbers are fine. The songs are pleasant but not exactly memorable. They are filmed in a mostly basic fashion. However, the male dancing trio are a lot of fun to watch and the use lighting is very clever in these scenes.
One of the supporting players in this film is Edward Brophy, one of my favorite character actors. Born on February 27, 1895, in New York City, Brophy had a career that stretched from the 1920's until his death in 1960. He made his screen debut in Yes or No? (1920) staring Norma Talmage. Probably his best-known role of the silent era was as the big man sharing a changing room with Buster Keaton in The Cameraman (1928). Brophy would continue working with Keaton in the talkie era with such films as Doughboys (1930), Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931), Speak Easily (1932) and What! No Beer? (1933). His best-known film role though was as the voice of Timothy Mouse in Disney's Dumbo (1941). Over his career he would appear (mostly in supporting roles in such movie classics as The Champ (1931), Freaks (1932), The Thin Man (1934), You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939), All Through the Night (1942) and The Thin Man Goes Home (1944). He would also play a reoccurring character in the B-Movie series starring Tom Conway as the Falcon. He would appear with the Stooges again in Hello Pop! (1933) and Swing Parade of 1946 (1946). He passed away on May 27, 1960 in Pacific Palisades, California at the age of 65 during the production of John Ford's Two Rode Together (1961), which would end up being his last movie.
At one point in this film, the Stooges sing, "You'll never know, just what tears are..." They also sang this song in Soup to Nuts (1930), Dancing Lady (1933), Fugitive Lovers (1934), Horses' Collars (1935), Half Shot Shooters (1936) and A Ducking We Will Go (1939).
The title of this film is a play on a Universal Pictures musical released the same year. That movie was called Moonlight and Pretzels (1933) and starred Leo Carrillo and Mary Brian. Despite being directed by legendary cinematographer Karl Freund (who also directed Universal's The Mummy (1932)), this musical is surprisingly laughably bad. That movie had rested in obscurity and been hidden from public eyes for decades. However, it had its first public screening in decades at the 2025 TCM Film Festival, where it was introduced by Jeopardy host, Ken Jennings.
The lyricist for the songs in this film was Gus Kahn (born November 6, 1886, passed away October 8, 1941), a legend in the music world. Various songs he wrote the lyrics for include Ain't We Got Fun, It Had to Be You, Yes Sir, That's My Baby and Dream a Little Dream of Me to name just a few. Writing the music was Al Goodhart (born January 26, 1905, passed away November 30, 1955), who had written the music for such songs as I Apologize, Happy Go Lucky You and Broken-Hearted Me and Fit as a Fiddle (which can be heard in the classic movie musical, Singing in the Rain (1952)).
The following are some exhibitors' reviews from the Motion Picture Herald. " BEER AND PRETZELS: Ted Healy and Stooges — Very funny. Feature this, you won't regret it. Good dance trio in this subject. Healy and stooges are a great combination. Running time. 18 minutes. - Perry L. Lessley, Diamond Theatre, Philadelphia, Pa. Neighborhood patronage." "BEER AND PRETZELS: Ted Healy and Stooges — They listed it as a Colortone Review but there is no color in it. It is not up to the standard of MGM Colortones. Without the color it is rather overdone as to silly gags. Running time, 18 minutes. - C.A. Pratt, Texas Theatre, Smithville, Texas. Small Town Patronage." "BEER AND PRETZELS: Ted Healy & Stooges— This is only fair entertainment of the slapstick variety. There are a few laughs but as a whole it did not, please our patrons. Let's have better shorts in the future. Running time, 19 minutes. - J.J. Medford, Orpheum Theatre, Oxford, N.C., General Patronage."
Resources Used
The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer and Greg Lenburg
https://threestooges.net/filmography/view/200
https://lantern.mediahist.org/
