Production Information
Title: Fright Night
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 98
Release Date: March 6, 1947
Running Time: 17:41
“There goes Shemp with a left jab. There goes Shemp with a right upper-cut. There goes Shemp with a haymaker! (crash) There goes Shemp.”
Short Take
The Stooges are managers of a beefy boxer named Chopper Kane (Dick Wessel), and they bet their bankroll on his next fight. When a gangster (Tiny Brauer) tells them to have Chopper lose (as he has a lot of money bet on his opponent Gorilla Watson) or they will lose their lives, the boys decide to play along. They try to soften Chopper up by feeding him rich food and having him spend time with their friend Kitty (Claire Carleton). The fight gets canceled when Kitty dumps Chopper for Gorilla and, in a fluke accident, Gorilla gets entangled with Moe and breaks his hand against a wall. The Stooges think they have put one over on the gangsters, only to have the bad guys corner them in a deserted warehouse. Instead of being rubbed out, the boys capture the crooks and get a reward.
Cast & Crew
| Directed by | Edward Bernds |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Hugh McCollum |
| Written by | Clyde Bruckman |
| Starring | Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Dick Wessel Claire Carleton Harold Brauer Cy Schindell Heinie Conklin Sammy Stein Stanley Blystone Dave Harper Tom Kingston |
| Cinematography | Philip Tannura |
| Edited by | Paul Borofsky |
Fright Night Trivia
- Fright Night marked the return of Shemp Howard to The Stooges, who had last performed with the act 17 years prior. Shemp agreed to rejoin the act until brother Curly Howard recovered enough to return to the Stooges (Curly never did).
- Fling in the Ring is a remake of 1947’s Fright Night (Shemp’s first film with the team at Columbia), using ample stock footage from the original.
- In Fling in The Ring a remake of Fright Night, a double is used Fling in The Ring (Joe Palma, filmed from behind) for Tiny Brauer (who played the original “Big Mike” in Fright Night), who was unavailable at the time.
- It was Shemp’s favorite Stooge film.
Production Notes
- Fright Night was filmed June 5–8, 1946.
- Production commenced less than one month after Curly suffered a debilitating stroke on May 6.