Merry Christmas

 

Scooby-Doo! Meets the Boo Brothers (1987)

 

Note: This post was originally posted on my Movies With Michael blog. Since this made-for-TV movie prominently features caricatures of The Three Stooges, I am posting it here as well. 

 

Out of the three Scooby-Doo! movies (the others being Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf and Scooby-Doo! and the Ghoul School) made for the Hanna-Barbera Super Stars 10 (a series of 10 made for TV Hanna-Barbera movies) this is the closest any of them come to the traditional Scooby-Doo! formula. Though the gang only consists of Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy, they three do work together to solve a mystery involving a so-called haunting. Besides the absence of the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang, the other major difference between this and your typical Scooby-Doo! movie is that the gang is helped out by real ghosts. These real ghosts though are much less threatening than the fake ghosts who normally popularize the franchise. One reason is that they are "helping" (and I use that word very loosely) Scooby and friends and the other is that they are really only in the film for comedic purposes. The ghosts are a pretty obvious takeoff on The Three Stooges and while not as funny as the actual Stooges, they fulfil their comedy relief services quite well and got a few real laughs out of me. 

Scrappy-Doo is probably the most hated character in the Scooby-Doo! franchise but I have to admit in this film I like him a lot. The filmmakers toned down the characters more obnoxious aspects (don't except to hear "puppy power" mentioned anywhere here."), and the character instead comes off as smart, self-assured and determined. This movie does of course keep the ongoing joke (that is in every incarnation of Scrappy) where he simply is oblivious to the fact that Scooby and Shaggy are not exactly brave. I personally love this joke and that has helped keep me from disliking Scrappy in any of his incarnations. 

This film (like all the best Scooby-Doo! stories) has an incredible sense of atmosphere. The large empty mansion and a creepy southern swamp are just the places we like to see in a Scooby-Doo! mystery and they are handled to perfection here. The confederate ghost is creepy enough to gain suspense while still not too creepy to take away from the movie's lighthearted feel. 

On the downside the mystery is too easy to solve and some jokes are poorly timed, dragging on past the point when they stop being funny. However these faults are not enough to overcome just how fun this film is. 

This is an excellent watch for all Scooby-Doo fans. 

-Michael J. Ruhland  

Another Thin Man (1939)

Note: This post was originally posted on my Movies With Michael blog on 1/19/2020. Since this film features Shemp in a supporting role, I am posing it to this blog as well. 

The third entry in The Thin Man series is an excellent comedy-mystery. While it may not live up to the first movie (not that that is an insult in the slightest), it is very entertaining in its own right. I was lucky enough to see this movie at The Old Town Music Hall last night and seeing this with an audience proved to me how delightful this film truly is, as everybody was enjoying it just as much as I was.

This film's production was plagued by health problems for star William Powell. Filming was meant to start in early 1938, but before any filming could be done, Powell was too obviously having health problems. These health problems were later revealed to be cancer. This was a tough time for Powell in general. As if having cancer weren't bad enough, he had also recently lost his wife, actress Jean Harlow a year earlier and hadn't quite emotionally recovered yet. Powell would have operations in March 1938 and January 1939, and with the success of these he would be able to return to work in fall of 1939. Meanwhile he had to turn down some great movie roles including that of Maxim De Winter in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940). When Powell arrived for the first day of filming, he received a standing ovation from the cast and crew, which embarrassed him quite a bit. Director Woody Van Dyke (who had also directed the previous two Thin Man movies) broke up this scene by stating "what are we wasting time for? Let's get to work." Van Dyke was known for making movies extremely quickly, but he did make allowances for Powell's health with this film. Filming would only last six hours a day and crews would be doubled to compensate. Still in typical W.S. Van Dyke fashion the film was finished rather quickly and was released in November of 1939.

Another Thin Man marked the last Thin Man movie to be written by husband-and-wife team Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett (this is a rare Thin Man sequel to be based off an actual story by Dashiell Hammett (who wrote the original novel) (this was a short story entitled The Farewell Murder). Myrna Loy would later give the reason for this in her autobiography Being and Becoming stating "Do you know I never saw them at Metro? It's terrible, really, but unless they sent for the writers to get us out of a hole, we seldom saw them on the set.... I didn't meet the Hacketts until I moved to New York in the fifties. We became friends, I'm happy to say, and Albert facetiously explained one day why they didn't write the last three Thin Man pictures: 'Finally I just threw up on my typewriter. I couldn't do it again; I couldn't write another one.' Perhaps we all should have concurred; those last three never really touched the previous ones." Truth be told when you compare these first three movies to the last three, there is no doubt the ones written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett are well above the later entries. While I enjoy the later films, they lack the clever and laugh out loud funny banter between Nick and Nora that these first three have. While maybe not as memorable or quotable as the first movie, the dialogue in Another Thin Man is still full of the charm and wit that one could want from a Thin Man movie. This film is just as funny today as it was in 1939. Adding to the delightful of this banter is that William Powell and Myrna Loy have lost none of their amazing chemistry. They still play off each other perfectly and a scene in a club is a sheer delight to behold.

As did many of these sequels this movie features more slapstick involving the dog Asta (who gets the largest billing in the opening credits) than the first entry. This is hardly a problem when the slapstick is as funny as it is here. There are plenty of times when Asta steals the show, which considering the cast of this movie is no easy feat. This movie also introduced a new character, Nick and Nora's son Nick Jr. (William A. Paulson). Nick Jr. has somewhat of a baring on this movie's story but rarely provides any comedy himself, letting his adult and canine costars run the whole show. This is probably for the best. One watches The Thin Man movies for the banter between Nick and Nora Charles, not for antics from a baby, and such antics could have hurt a thing that was already working.

When released this film became one of the highest grossing movies of its year and it should come as no surprise that more sequels would be in the future.

While none of these sequels quite reach the level of the first movie, Another Thin Man stands as my second favorite in the series and never fails to delight me.

Also Stooges fans should look for Shemp in a brief uncredited role.

A hit movie never failed to send MGM to be tooting their own horn as can be seen by the advertisement from The Film Daily below or the advertisement from The Motion Picture Herald below that.

  



I love the way movie theatres advertised films back in the day and some excellent examples of that (including one for After The Thin Man) can be seen in the below two pages from The Motion Picture Herald. If you having trouble reading just click on the picture and use your touch screen to zoom in.





-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1747/Another-Thin-Man/articles.html

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031047/?ref_=hm_rvi_tt

Video Link: Three Stooges Spike TV Bumpers (Part 2)

Video Link: How To Make Turkey Stuffing with The Three Stooges

Happy Thanksgiving all. 

Happy Halloween

 

Plane Nuts (1933)

 

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