Production Information
Title: Nutty but Nice
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 47
Release Date: June 14, 1940
Running Time: 17:45
“Well, doc, I got a terrific pain right here. Every time I squeeze my Adams apple, I can taste cider.”
Short Take
In Nutty But Nice, The Three Stooges are working as singing waiters at a restaurant and meet two doctors (Vernon Dent, John Tyrrell) who ask them to cheer up Betty Williams, a little girl who is sick from grief because her father (Ned Glass), a bank cashier, has been kidnapped while delivering $300,000 worth of bonds. The Stooges pay a visit to Betty dressed up as little girls with blonde sausage curls, but they fail to cheer her up. The Stooges then volunteer to go out and find the girl’s missing father. The doctors give them a brief description of the father (middle-aged, bald-spot, an anchor tattoo, and 5’10” in his stocking feet). He and Betty like to yodel to each other, something Curly seems rather adept at.
The Stooges waste no time in stopping every suspect in sight and giving them the Stooge third degree. Frustrated, Curly starts yodeling, and after a few maladies that befall him (water, a flower pot, and a chair all crashing on his head), the boys hear a response from a radio that one of the kidnappers, Butch (Cy Schindell), has on. Butch is guarding Betty’s father who is gagged and tied to a bed. Mistaking the yodeling cowboy on the radio for the cashier, The boys follow the sounds and intercede, knock out Butch, and free Betty’s father.
Just then, three other members of the gang return. The Stooges and the father barricade the room door and use the dumbwaiter to escape to the basement. The four men follow them downstairs where a fight ensues, plunging everything into darkness, leaving only Curly fully conscious afterward to light a candle. The cashier is reunited with Betty, who recovers from her lethargy, and the pair, along with the two doctors, are serenaded at the restaurant by The Stooges.
Nutty But Nice Cast & Crew
| Directed by | Jules White |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Jules White |
| Written by | Felix Adler Clyde Bruckman |
| Starring | Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Ned Glass John Tyrrell Vernon Dent Cy Schindell Lynton Brent Johnny Kascier Harry Wilson Bert Young Lew Davis Evelyn Young Ethelreda Leopold |
| Cinematography | John Stumar |
| Edited by | Mel Thorsen |
Nutty but Nice Trivia
- Nutty But Nice was released on June 14, 1940. June 14th is Flag Day. Fly it proudly
- There is a very large supporting cast in one of the June shorts and there are some role reprisals from key supporting players
- Bert Young (Paulie in the Rocky film franchise) appeared in about half a dozen Stooge shorts
- Ned Glass and Cy Schindell introduce the Bentwood chair into Stooge comedy in this short
- It was also the first Stooges short to feature the elevated train structure, located on Skid Row at the Columbia Ranch
- Evelyn Young, the nurse, was also unforgettable as the beautiful woman in a turban in the doctor’s waiting room who is the object of Curly’s affection as he acts like a dog in From Nurse To Worse. She also appeared in Boobs In Arms and No Census No Feeling
- Jules White received a music and lyrics credit, besides those as producer and director, for the short Nutty But Nice. The song ‘yodeled’ in the short was composed by Jules White. It is titled “I’m a Cowboy From the Western Plains”
Production Notes
Nutty but Nice was filmed from April 27 to May 2, 1940