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
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