A SNITCH IN TIME

Production Information
Studio: ColumbiaShort Number: 128
Release Date: December 7, 1950
Running Time: 17:33

“Camel’s hair brush? Hmmmh… must be da hump.”
(Shemp)

Short Take

Moe, Larry, and Shemp are furniture makers in A Snitch In Time and Miss Scudder, a customer Moe’s sweet on, calls up and wants them to move some new furniture into her house because new boarders are arriving. At her house, The Stooges commit a series of blunders before discovering that the boarders are jewel thieves and a wild chase ensues. Will the police arrive in time?

Cast & Crew

Directed byEdward Bernds
Produced byHugh McCollum
Written byElwood Ullman
StarringMoe Howard
Larry Fine
Shemp Howard
Jean Willes
Henry Kulky
John L. Cason
John Merton
Fred F. Sears
Edited byHenry DeMond

Trivia 

A Snitch in Time has been consistently ranked as the most violent Stooge film of the Shemp era. Unlike the Curly-era equivalent They Stooge to Conga, in which all three Stooges receive their fair share of abuse, most of the violence in A Snitch in Time is directed at Moe. In its opening four minutes, Moe gets his nose and buttocks jammed into the blade of a whirling circular saw, as well as getting glue in his eye and stuck on his hands.

Production Notes

  • A Snitch in Time was filmed December 13–16, 1949, the last Stooge film produced in the 1940s. 
  • Interestingly, though Columbia short subject head/director Jules White was known for the use of excessive violence in his films, A Snitch in Time was directed by Edward Bernds, who always maintained that the violence was not to be excessive in the films he directed.
  • The title A Snitch in Time parodies the aphorism “a stitch in time saves nine.”