Production Information
Title: No Census, No Feeling
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 50
Release Date: October 4, 1940
Running Time: 16:29
“Good morning, sir. I’m the census taker. Are you married or happy?”
Short Take
The Stooges are chased by a shopkeeper for vandalizing his store, and quickly dash into a building’s revolving door. After exiting the building, The Stooges have clipboards in tow, having inadvertently landed jobs as census takers.
The Boys work their way into the home of a socialite and join her weekly Bridge game. Meanwhile, Curly begins to flirt with the socialite’s maid, who is in the process of preparing a large bowl of punch. Curly finds that the drink is “not sweet enough” and ends up adding Alum salt to the mix, mistaking it for powdered sugar. Almost instantly, everyone is mumbling their words as their lips become puckered.
Afterwards, The Stooges continue searching for people to interview for the census. Eventually, they come upon a nearby football game, and become thrilled at the prospect of speaking with everyone in the stadium. The trio don football players’ uniforms, enabling them to bypass the guard and storm the field. They try asking questions to the players, who end up ignoring them, and Curly finds an ice cream vendor and takes off after him, somehow hijacking his wagon.
The Stooges go into the game and, after a few bouts of hardship, get an idea. If they can get the ball away from the players, the team would have no choice but to answer their questions. With that, Larry and Moe attach chains to the pants of two players and pull them off, distracting the players enough for Curly to grab the ball and run away. However, the players notice him and give chase. Curly continues running as Larry pulls the ice cream wagon, carrying Moe behind him. Moe throws fistfuls of ice cream at the players and the referee who are chasing them, and The Stooges make it out of the stadium.
No Census, No Feeling Cast & Crew
| Directed by | Del Lord |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Del Lord Hugh McCollum |
| Written by | Harry Edwards Elwood Ullman |
| Starring | Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Vernon Dent Symona Boniface Max Davidson John Tyrrell Bruce Bennett |
| Cinematography | Lucien Ballard |
| Edited by | Art Seid |
No Census, No Feeling Trivia
- The film title is a parody on the expression “No sense, no feeling”
- In one scene, Curly believes that it is Independence Day in October, claiming that “you never can tell; look what they did to Thanksgiving!”. This is a reference to 1939 when Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to an earlier Thursday in November to lengthen the Christmas shopping season.
Production Notes
- Filming took place from May 25-29, 1940
- The football scenes were filmed at the University of Southern California