Production Information
Title: Loose Loot
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 146
Release Date: April 2, 1953
Running Time: 15:54
“Watch the master – he’ll throw faster, the faster the master …and the gentleman wins himself a small size panatela!” – (Shemp)
Loose Loot Short Take
The Stooges learn that their inheritance money is in the hands of a crooked lawyer named Ichabod Slipp. They come to his office only to be beaten up by Slipp, who runs off with the money. The Stooges wake up and find a clue that Slipp is meeting his partner-in-crime at a nearby theatre, and a backstage chase is on!
It is not what you do but how you do it
The Three Stooges Sid Caesar, the great television comedian of the 1950’s once remarked: “In comedy, it is not what you do but how you do it,” and this truism is most valid for a Stooge comedy like Loose Loot.
The Stooges rarely perform a gag exactly the say way twice, or, if they do, the gag is usually good enough to be repeated and varied still again. The ‘old comedy rule’ is that three times is the limit, but that says legions about how successful or even more successful the second and third time can be.
The most joyous, uncorrupted, uninterrupted celebration in all of Stoogedom
Even though the first half of Loose Loot uses recycled footage from Hold From That Lion it is not without its unique qualities and gags. The two extended Stooge celebrations stand out. The first occurs after the mattress scene: with Joe knocked out and Slipp immobilized because his head is locked in the Bentwood chair, The Stooges take two minutes of uninhibited pot shots at Slipp as Moe and Larry pound him with apples, tomatoes, and a beer bottle, and Shemp acts like a carnival barker, makes “applesauce” on his head, and then (“Watch the old master: he’ll throw faster, the faster the master!”) throws two pieces of “hen-fruit” at Slipp’s face.
The second is at the end of the film when they recover their money. Although Moe Hailstone lost his turkey to the painted Napoleon in I’ll Never Heil Again, he was unable to conquer, let alone enter, that elusive fourth dimension. We saw that dimension again in The Hot Scots, but now for the first time, The Stooges climb into it. Holding their inheritance in their hand, they have perhaps the most joyous, uncorrupted, uninterrupted celebration in all of Stoogedom – and they do in in a different dimension.
Cast & Crew
| Directed by | Jules White |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Jules White |
| Written by | Felix Adler Jack White |
| Starring | Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Kenneth MacDonald Tom Kennedy Emil Sitka Nanette Bordeaux Suzanne Ridgeway |
| Edited by | Edwin H. Bryant |
Loose Loot Trivia
- The Boys refer to money as lucre, moolah, and geedus. The working title of the short was Filthy Lucre, the phrase used in the song they sing in Slipp’s office (Hold That Lion).
- The assistant director was Carter DeHaven an American movie and stage actor, movie director, and writer.
- Suzanne Ridgeway plays Suzie the Showgirl. She appeared in nine other Stooge shorts. Ridgeway was in approximately 115 films between 1933 and 1959.
- Nanette Bordeaux, who appeared in 8 Stooge shorts. 7 with Shemp and 1 with Joe Besser, also plays a French Showgirl. Bordeaux’s career was cut short when she died of acute bronchopneumonia on September 20, 1956, at age 45. Her last film, A Merry Mix Up, was released six months after her death.
Production Notes
Filmed May 20 -21, 1952.