Production Information
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 119
Release Date: November 3, 1949
Running Time: 16.46
“We’re known as The Fish Market Duet.” “Yeah, we sing for the halibut.”
(Larry & Shemp)
Short Take
Foreign spy Borscht has stolen some secret government documents and hidden them in watermelons. He has the Stooges bring them to a ship where he will leave the country. When they arrive at the pier, the spy has locked them aboard the ship. The Stooges later find the melons as well as the stolen documents.
Cast & Crew
Credited Production Crew
Produced & Directed by Jules White
Written by Felix Adler
Director of Photography Vincent Ferrar
Art Director Charles Clague
Film Editor Edwin Bryant
Credit Cast
Shemp Howard
Larry Fine
Moe Howard
Gene Roth – Bortch
Trivia
- Dunked in the Deep was reworked in 1956 as Commotion on the Ocean, using ample stock footage.
- The voice heard on the radio broadcast is Moe; Shemp Howard accidentally cut his hand on the lock when he rushes to the door in an effort to open it.
- Hiding microfilm in watermelons is an allusion to an actual event from the previous year. In 1948, Time managing editor Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist spy-turned government informer, accused Alger Hiss of being a member of the Communist Party and a spy for the Soviet Union. In presenting evidence against Hiss, Chambers produced the Pumpkin Papers: four rolls of microfilm of State Department documents, which Chambers had concealed in a hollowed-out pumpkin on his Maryland farm.
Production Notes
- Columbia Production Number: 4137
- Dunked in the Deep was filmed March 29-April 1, 1949 and was actually the 126th Stooge short filmed even though it was released as the 119th. The first seven Stooge shorts released the following year in 1950 had already been completed before Dunked in the Deep began production.