FATHER'S DAY WITH THE THREE STOOGES

It’s ironic that Shemp Howard always makes me think of my father. Though Dad is such a die-hard Curly fan, the first Three Stooges movies he ever showed me were three Shemp shorts, compiled on a late 80s VHS. I still have the VHS somewhere in my garage. Luckily, all three shorts are free on YouTube (and in pretty decent quality). 

Now I’m not going to wade into the hotly contested debate that all Stooge fans have: Curly vs. Shemp. Curly was one of the most brilliant comedians ever. Anyone with the unfortunate task of replacing him would have a rough time in comparison. Shemp was a very funny comedian, whose style is uniquely his own. Comparisons with Curly are unfair. 

Shemp-shorts get smacked down for being inferior to the Curly ones. There’s some truth to it; they’re generally not as good. But the fault doesn’t lie with Shemp. Budget cuts, a change in directors, and the advancing ages of the Stooges are really the factors contributing to some decrease in overall quality. And another factor: Shemp was dead for the making of several shorts. Shemp died unexpectedly at the age of 60 in a taxi cab with some friends. (When I lived in LA, I attempted to drive the approximate route the cab took that fateful night). 

Columbia Pictures, which produced the Stooges shorts, promised 8 shorts to exhibitors for 1956, but only 4 were completed by the time of Shemp’s demise. Studio boss Harry Cohn turned down Moe’s offer to refigure the act into “The Two Stooges”. Instead, new shorts were created by recycling old footage, mixing in new footage, and using a Shemp-lookalike, Joe Palma, to fill in the gaps. 

These shorts run the gamut from cleverly constructed to shoddy patchwork. As a lover of bizarre trash, I happen to find these recycled shorts completely fascinating. In fact, all three on the aforementioned VHS are recycled remakes of earlier films. The second half of Husbands Beware comes from the most famous Shemp short, Brideless Groom, best remembered for the immortal line, “hold hands you lovebirds.” 

In the first half, Shemp marries Moe and Larry off to his tyrannical sisters, who force the boys to make them dinner. (In order to pluck the turkey, Moe and Larry lather the bird up with shaving cream, then give it the once-over with a straight razor.) The second half pilfers from Brideless Groom completely. Moe and Larry have just a few hours to get Shemp married, so he can inherit his uncle’s fortune. While slightly bifurcated, it’s a very funny short that shows off Shemp’s very singular verbal and facial reactions. He takes several very real punches, slaps, and whacks from Stooge regular, Christine McIntyre. 

The second short on the VHS, Musty Musketeers, also recycles from an earlier film, Fiddler’s Three. Moe, Larry, and Shemp are fiddlers to Ol’ King Cole. The king forbids them from marrying their girlfriends until the Princess is wed. When an evil magician kidnaps the Princess, it’s up to the Stooges to rescue her. Upon revisiting this one, I actually found it better than I remembered. There’s some snappy wordplay and some of the most brutal Stooge violence. (Moe nails a horseshoe onto Shemp’s foot).

In Wham-Bam-Slam!, Moe and Larry try to (unsuccessfully) cure Shemp of a persistent toothache. There’s two great gags involving pancakes. In the first, Shemp mistakes his wife’s powder puff for a pancake and spends a very long and very funny take attempting to chew it. In the other, Larry makes an overly elaborate preparation of his breakfast, adding whipped cream, an entire stick of butter, and mustard to his pancake. 

Larry also gets my favorite line in the short. The boys have set up a tent in the living room, tying it down to the doorknobs. When Larry’s wife opens the door, the tent collapses on them, prompting Larry to exclaim, “Next time you come in, knock first and then don’t come in!”

Wham-Bam-Slam! apes most of its material from Pardon My Clutch, but among the new footage is a pretty good scene where a live lobster falls into Shemp’s foot-bath. Of the three on the VHS, this one is my favorite. Larry and Shemp have great reaction shots, and Moe dolls out some great Stooge slapstick of this period. 

Now don’t get things twisted. These shorts don’t show the Three Stooges firing on all cylinders; they’re not even the best Shemp shorts. But I still recommend you check them out. These were ones I enjoyed watching with my dad, maybe you will enjoy watching them with yours. 

-T.Z.