Heavenly Daze

Production Information
Title: Heavenly Daze
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 109
Release Date: September 2, 1948
Running Time: 16:47

“Cheerio, Pi-Pip, and all that sort of rot, old thing, old stuff, old fishmonger, old skunk bait!”

Short Take

Shemp has died and is in Heaven, talking with his Uncle Mortimer (Moe, dressed to resemble Moses). Mortimer is on the phone checking to see if Shemp will remain in Heaven or Hell. Furthermore, it comes to light that cousins Moe and Larry have also not been on their best behavior. Seeing this as an opportunity for his deceased nephew, Uncle Mortimer gives Shemp the chance to reform Moe and Larry from their evil ways so he can gain entry to Heaven. The catch is that Shemp cannot be seen nor heard by anyone on Earth, much to his delight.

Back on Earth, Moe and Larry are crying while reading of Shemp’s will with their attorney, I. Fleecem (Vernon Dent). Seems that Shemp has left behind a grand total of $140, which is $10 less than Fleecem’s fee of $150. The boys grumble about not having much dough, but invisible Shemp swipes the money and puts it in Moe and Larry’s pockets. When they realize money has magically reappeared, they get spooked, and then remember Shemp saying he would come back to haunt them. They brush this off, but do not completely clear their heads of Shemp’s ghostly presence.

Afterwards, Moe and Larry rent a luxury apartment, complete with butler Spiffingham (Sam McDaniel), and rent tuxedos. The boys have a grand scheme that involves the conning of wealthy couple the DePuysters (Victor Travers and Symona Boniface) into buying a fountain pen that will write under whipped cream.

Shemp enters the luxurious apartment and terrorises Spiffingham the Butler into leaving. He then smacks Moe and Larry to let them know he is there. Though their butler has run off, Moe and Larry remain, but frightened. The DePuysters show up, and promptly receive dollops of cream in their face when Shemp turns the mixer to “high.” After the mixer catches fire, Shemp begins yelling. A few moments later, he awakes, realizing this was all a dream, but then, to his horror, he discovers that the bed is on fire from a cigarette he was smoking.

Heavenly Daze Cast & Crew

Heavenly Daze Trivia

• A gag in the film’s script called for a pen to be thrown into the middle of Larry’s forehead. The pen was to be thrown on a wire and into a small hole in a tin plate fastened to Larry’s head. However, due to a miscalculation on the part of the special effects department, the sharp pen point punctured Larry’s skin, leaving a gash in his forehead. In a fit of rage, Moe chased director Jules White around the set because White had promised that the gag would be harmless.
• The script originally had a musical version of the Ten Commandments but was cut by order of the Hays Office

Production Notes

• Heavenly Daze was reworked in 1955 as Bedlam In Paradise, using ample stock footage
• The working title was Heaven’s Above