Production Information
Title: Sweet and Hot
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 186
Release Date: September 4, 1958
Running Time: 16:17
“Please, open your mouth… I don’t want to walk in, I just want to look!”
Short Take
Small town boy made producer Larry returns to his hometown. There, he hears and watches as his friend Joe and his sister Tiny (Muriel Landers) work on their farm. Talented Tiny is singing. As she sings, the animals in the barn move to the beat. After hearing Tiny finish her song, Larry asks them to join his New York nightclub act. However, Tiny has a fear of performing in front of a live audience, so Larry and Joe take Tiny to a German psychiatrist (Moe), who uses hypnosis to take Tiny back to the childhood origin of her problem.
At the psychiatrist’s office, Tiny, under hypnosis, reveals that she has been scared since an incident in her family’s barn. She was singing and pretending to play on a piano in front of her father (Moe) when her uncles (Larry and Joe) came inside to listen to her singing. Moe demands she sings more for them because she was so good. Tiny refuses and hides in fear. After being scared again, the psychiatrist convinces a hypnotized Tiny that she should sing because people love hearing her sing. Tiny agrees and is cured of her fear. She becomes a professional singer, making her debut on stage with Joe and Larry. Tiny sings while Larry plays a violin and Joe dances. The audience gives their applause and Tiny is happy.
Sweet and Hot Cast & Crew
| Directed by | Jules White |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Jules White |
| Written by | Archie Gottler Jerome S. Gottler Jack White |
| Starring | Moe Howard Larry Fine Joe Besser Muriel Landers |
| Cinematography | Irving Lippman |
| Edited by | Edwin H. Bryant |
Sweet and Hot Trivia
- Over the course of their 24 years at Columbia Pictures, The Stooges would occasionally be cast as separate characters. This course of action always worked against the team; author Jon Solomon concluded: “when the writing divides them, they lose their comic dynamic.” In addition to this split occurring in Sweet and Hot, the trio also played separate characters in Rockin’ in the Rockies, Cuckoo on a Choo Choo, Flying Saucer Daffy, Gypped in the Penthouse, He Cooked His Goose, and its remake Triple Crossed
- Sweet and Hot features Moe and Larry’s more “gentlemanly” haircuts, first suggested by Joe Besser. However, these had to be used sparingly, as most of the shorts with Besser were remakes of earlier films, and new footage had to be matched with old
- Read more about actress Muriel Landers
Production Notes
- The story and screenplay were written by Jerome Gottler, who also wrote the story and screenplay for their musical, Woman Haters. Thus, in Sweet and Hot, we again have a musical routine and The Stooges appearing in separate roles
- Filming took place from August 22-23, 1957