Studio: MGM. Runtime: 20 minutes. Production Number 680. Release Date: October 14, 1933. Director: Jack Cummings. Story: Ted Healy. Screenplay: Matty Brooks. Cast: Ted Healy, Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard (Themselves), Bonnie Bonnell (Bonny), Kathryn Crawford, Geneva Mitchell, Mildred Dixon, Loretta Andrews, Mary Halsey, The Albertina Rasch Girls (Chorus Girls), Gus Arnheim and His Orchestra (Themselves), Matthew Betz (Airline Official in deleted scene). Songwriters: Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh. Choreographer: Busby Berkeley. Working Titles: Aviation Short; Around the World Backwards.
Plane Nuts is the fourth of five short films Ted Healy and his Stooges made for MGM and some Stooge fans consider it the best of the five. This also marked the fourth and final time the comedy team would be directed by Jack Cummings and the next to last time that Boonie Boswell would appear in a film with them.
A storyline is nearly non-existent in this short film. Instead, this film is a cinematic version of the team's vaudeville act, with some musical number spliced in.
As was the case with Hello Pop (1933), the musical numbers were not originally created for this film. Instead, they are reused footage from the MGM feature film, Flying High (1931). That movie was directed by Charles Reisner and starred Bert Lahr, Charlotte Greenwood, Pat O'Brien, Charles Winninger and Hedda Hopper.
This short is a real treat for any Stooge-phile. True it may not be one of the comedy team's funniest films, but it is the closest thing we will ever see to what Ted Healy and His Stooges were like on stage. Because of this regardless of whether one finds it funny or not any true Stooge love will find it a fascinating watch.
This film's main fault and its main virtue are exactly the same. This is that everything involving Ted and the Stooges is hopelessly stage bound. On one hand, this provides the film with great historical interest. One the other hand, confining the action to one place and lacking any cinematic touches, this short lacks the playful spirit and comedic freedom found in the Stooges' best work. There is also the sad truth that filmed stage acts rarely capture the magic of what is on stage. However, there are some funny gags in this short (especially involving the boys continually interrupting Ted trying to sing a song and the melodrama) and the Stooges and Healy are comedic performers who know perfectly how to deliver a gag.
Simply being clips from a feature film, the musical numbers are much more cinematic (They include some of the earliest work of the great Busby Berkley). These scenes are visually delightful. They are brilliantly shot in a way that is very cinematic, the costumes are wonderful, and the sets have a wonderfully abstract feel to them. It is a shame then that the songs themselves are instantly forgettable.
A deleted scene would have included Ted and the boys boarding a plane and flying around the world, only backwards. Photos of this scene appear in Moe's autobiography, Moe Howard and the Three Stooges (released posthumously in 1977). The scene is also discussed with production still shown in Leonard Maltin's television documentary The Lost Stooges (1990).
The following are exhibitors' reviews from The Motion Picture Herald.
"Plane Nuts: Ted Healy. Had a nice ensemble number and a few laughs. - Mayme P. Musselman, Princess Theatre, Lincoln, Kan. Small Town Patronage."
"PLANE NUTS: Ted Healy— If they like Ted Healy and His Stooges, it is a riot and our people do. Entitled to your best time. - C.L. Niles, Miles Theatre, Anamosa, Iowa. General Patronage."
"PLANE NUTS: Ted Healy. If this was a couple more reels in length, it could be run as a feature. Easily as good as the Marx Brothers. Just as silly and just as funny. Play this by all means and watch them roll in their seats. - Harry Pace, Broadway Theatre, Audubon, Iowa."
"PLANE NUTS: Ted Healy and his Stooges and pretty girls - Excellent musical revue (not in color). - D.E. Fitton, Lyric Theatre, Harrison, Ark. Small Town Patronage."
" PLANE NUTS: Ted Healy and Stooges— Lots of comedy in this one. MGM makes them right. Running time, 19 minutes. - A.H. Edwards, Orpheum Theatre, Orwigsburg, Pa. Small Town and Rural Patronage."
This film is available on the DVD set, Classic Shorts From the Dream Factory Volume 3. That set features all five of the shorts Ted Healy and his Stooges made for MGM as well as a short featuring Curly solo, Roast Beef and Movies (1934).
- Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer and Greg Lenburg
https://lantern.mediahist.org/
https://thefilmediary.wordpress.com/2023/03/12/plane-nuts-1933-review-the-three-stooges-4/
https://threestooges.net/filmography/view/202
Plane Nuts is the fourth of five short films Ted Healy and his Stooges made for MGM and some Stooge fans consider it the best of the five. This also marked the fourth and final time the comedy team would be directed by Jack Cummings and the next to last time that Boonie Boswell would appear in a film with them.
A storyline is nearly non-existent in this short film. Instead, this film is a cinematic version of the team's vaudeville act, with some musical number spliced in.
As was the case with Hello Pop (1933), the musical numbers were not originally created for this film. Instead, they are reused footage from the MGM feature film, Flying High (1931). That movie was directed by Charles Reisner and starred Bert Lahr, Charlotte Greenwood, Pat O'Brien, Charles Winninger and Hedda Hopper.
This short is a real treat for any Stooge-phile. True it may not be one of the comedy team's funniest films, but it is the closest thing we will ever see to what Ted Healy and His Stooges were like on stage. Because of this regardless of whether one finds it funny or not any true Stooge love will find it a fascinating watch.
This film's main fault and its main virtue are exactly the same. This is that everything involving Ted and the Stooges is hopelessly stage bound. On one hand, this provides the film with great historical interest. One the other hand, confining the action to one place and lacking any cinematic touches, this short lacks the playful spirit and comedic freedom found in the Stooges' best work. There is also the sad truth that filmed stage acts rarely capture the magic of what is on stage. However, there are some funny gags in this short (especially involving the boys continually interrupting Ted trying to sing a song and the melodrama) and the Stooges and Healy are comedic performers who know perfectly how to deliver a gag.
Simply being clips from a feature film, the musical numbers are much more cinematic (They include some of the earliest work of the great Busby Berkley). These scenes are visually delightful. They are brilliantly shot in a way that is very cinematic, the costumes are wonderful, and the sets have a wonderfully abstract feel to them. It is a shame then that the songs themselves are instantly forgettable.
A deleted scene would have included Ted and the boys boarding a plane and flying around the world, only backwards. Photos of this scene appear in Moe's autobiography, Moe Howard and the Three Stooges (released posthumously in 1977). The scene is also discussed with production still shown in Leonard Maltin's television documentary The Lost Stooges (1990).
The following are exhibitors' reviews from The Motion Picture Herald.
"Plane Nuts: Ted Healy. Had a nice ensemble number and a few laughs. - Mayme P. Musselman, Princess Theatre, Lincoln, Kan. Small Town Patronage."
"PLANE NUTS: Ted Healy— If they like Ted Healy and His Stooges, it is a riot and our people do. Entitled to your best time. - C.L. Niles, Miles Theatre, Anamosa, Iowa. General Patronage."
"PLANE NUTS: Ted Healy. If this was a couple more reels in length, it could be run as a feature. Easily as good as the Marx Brothers. Just as silly and just as funny. Play this by all means and watch them roll in their seats. - Harry Pace, Broadway Theatre, Audubon, Iowa."
"PLANE NUTS: Ted Healy and his Stooges and pretty girls - Excellent musical revue (not in color). - D.E. Fitton, Lyric Theatre, Harrison, Ark. Small Town Patronage."
" PLANE NUTS: Ted Healy and Stooges— Lots of comedy in this one. MGM makes them right. Running time, 19 minutes. - A.H. Edwards, Orpheum Theatre, Orwigsburg, Pa. Small Town and Rural Patronage."
This film is available on the DVD set, Classic Shorts From the Dream Factory Volume 3. That set features all five of the shorts Ted Healy and his Stooges made for MGM as well as a short featuring Curly solo, Roast Beef and Movies (1934).
- Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer and Greg Lenburg
https://lantern.mediahist.org/
https://thefilmediary.wordpress.com/2023/03/12/plane-nuts-1933-review-the-three-stooges-4/
https://threestooges.net/filmography/view/202
