The Three Little Pigskins (1934)

 

Studio: Columbia. Runtime: 18 minutes. Production Number: 156. Release Date: December 08, 1934. Director: Raymond McCarey. Story and Screenplay: Felix Adler, Griffin Jay. Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Jerry "Curly" Howard (Themselves), Walter Long (Joe Stacks), Lucille Ball (Daisy Simms), Gertie Green (Lulu Banks), Phyllis Crane (Molly Gray), Joseph Young (Pete), Milton Douglas (Henchman), Lynton Brent, Jimmy Phillips, Larry Wheat (Men panhandled by Moe), Bobby Burns (Man panhandled by Larry), Johnny Kascier (Man panhandled by Curly), Harry Bowen (Boulder Dam publicity man), Dutch Hendrian (Referee), William J. Irving, Charles Dorety (Photographers). Cinematographer: Henry Freulich. Editor: James Sweeney. Sound Engineer: Charles Althouse. Music: Louis Silvers. Assistant Director: Morey Lightfoot. Shooting Days: 5 (10-25-1934 to 10-30-1934).

In this short film, Moe, Larry and Curly are down on their luck as the great depression has left them broke. However, they are eventually hired to promote a university football team. This leads them to be mistaken for the college's star athletes. A crooked gangster hires them to play on their football team. 

This is an excellent film. It is one of the best of the early Columbia shorts. Unlike other early Columbia shorts, there are not pacing problems here. There is no big break between laughs instead the film gives you one laugh after another. Not only this but all the laughs come directly from the Stooges' characters. Though the Stooges' films are best known for over-the-top slapstick, the best laughs in any Stooge short are often due to the characters. Some of the verbal jokes here are very corny ( "No, I'm 36... Larry's a minor, he's 44.") but they work because they fit the characters so well and Moe, Larry and Curly's delivery is fantastic. Even the slapstick gags come from the characters. What makes the slapstick football game so funny is not the gags themselves, but Larry and Curly's compete obliviousness to even the most basics about football. If they were knowingly cheating or acting zany, these gags wouldn't be funny. It is how sincere these characters are in their naiveté of the sport that makes them hilarious. 

This film was originally going to end with the Stooges telling the story to their children, who were miniature versions of them. However, the scenes were deleted. In these deleted scenes, Alex Hirschfeld played little Moe, Joe Levine played little Larry and Billy Wolfstone played little Curly. Though the ending was taken out of the film, stills still exist from it. 

This film featured an early screen appearance by an actress who would later also become a comedy legend. This was none other than Lucillie Ball. Ball would late state about making this film, “The only thing I learned from The Three Stooges was how to duck. I still got wet!”

In this film the Stooges fall down a broken dumbwaiter. This gag would later be reused in Nutty but Nice (1940). 

One exchange of dialogue goes as follows. "Let's play post office." "That's a kid's game." "Not the way I play it." This exchange would later be used in Quiz Wizz (1958). It also appears in the Abbott and Costello movie, Hold That Ghost (1941), which features Shemp in a supporting role. 

This film unfortunately resulted in major injuries. Moe called it, “a humdinger of bangs and bruises.” Curly broke his leg falling down the dumbwaiter and Larry lost a tooth after a mistimed punch. The worst occurred during the scene in which the Stooges were tackled while they had their picture taken. Larry remembered telling director Raymond McCarey, “Look, we can’t do this scene. We’re not stuntmen and if one of those gorillas falls on us, we’ll never be able to finish the picture. We’ve never used stunt doubles before, but we certainly need them now.” McCarey told them, “Listen, fellows, you know how to take falls. You’ve done enough of them. It’ll take hours to find doubles for you. Besides, we can’t afford them. Don’t worry, you won’t get hurt.” Moe responded, “You’re darn right we won’t get hurt. We’re not doing the scene." After much arguing the stooges eventually got stunt doubles. Two of the stunt doubles and all four actors playing the photographers got serious injuries including broken limbs. In his autobiography Moe stated, “McCarey was speechless and sat in his director’s chair with his head in his hands.”

For those of you keeping score, there are 30 face slaps and 1 eye poke in this film. 

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/4#google_vignette

https://threestooges.com/three-little-pigskins/