Category:

February Shorts

Triple Crossed

Title: Triple Crossed
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 1189
Release Date: February 2, 1959
Running Time: 15:48

“Now no fibs Joey. How many shots?” “None.” “None?” “Hit it with my car.”
(Angela Stevens & Joe)

Short Take

Larry is a womanizer who is having an affair with Moe’s wife Belle (Mary Ainslee). At the same time, he is also making eyes at Joe’s fiancee, Millie (Angela Stevens). However, Moe tracks down the conniving Larry at his pet shop and gives him the works before Larry calms him down. Realizing he needs to cover his tracks, Larry looks for a “fall guy” in the form of Joe. Larry then gets Joe a job as an underwear salesman and the first place he goes is Moe’s home.

While Joe is modeling his ware, Larry lies to Moe about Joe’s advances on Millie. Both of them go storming over to Moe’s, while Joe flees up the chimney. After making a quiet getaway, Joe bumps into Larry and turns him in.

Joe explains to Moe how Larry had set him up. Millie reveals how Larry had tricked her into coming there. Moe tells her Larry had tricked him, too. Millie and Joe make up while an angry Moe punishes Larry.

Cast & Crew

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Warren Wilson
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Joe Besser Angela Stevens Mary Ainslee Diana Darrin Connie Cezon
Cinematography	Fred Jackman Jr.
Edited by	Saul A. Goodkind

Triple Crossed Trivia

The Stooges play separate characters in this short and Larry has the main role.
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 Triple Crossed (as well as He Cooked His Goose, the film it originated from), the trio also played separate characters in Rockin’ in the Rockies, Cuckoo on a Choo Choo, Gypped in the Penthouse, Flying Saucer Daffy and Sweet and Hot.
This short is a remake of He Cooked His Goose, with Joe taking over Shemp’s place, but there are a few instances where they forgot to edit Shemp out: First, when Larry is walking to meet Moe’s wife, Joe is hiding in the closet wearing a Santa Claus outfit, but if you look closely at who quickly peeks around the closet door and whistles, you can tell that it’s Shemp. Also, when Moe fires the gun up the chimney at Joe, they leave in Shemp’s yell from the original scene. And finally, in the reused shot of Moe trying to pull the vase off of his head, you can see Shemp’s face in the background peeking from under the bearskin rug.
In addition, you can also see Shemp when he opens the janitor closet door and slams Moe.

Production Notes

Triple Crossed is a remake of 1952’s He Cooked His Goose, using ample stock footage. New footage was filmed on December 18, 1957, the day before shooting commenced for Flying Saucer Daffy, the last Stooge short to be filmed.

February Shorts Filmography

Creeps

Title: Creeps
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 168
Release Date: February 2, 1956
Running Time: 15:40

“Killings and murders, I want!”
(Moe)

Cast & Crew

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Felix Adler
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Phil Arnold (voice) Jules White (voice)
Cinematography	Henry Freulich
Edited by	Harold White

Short Take

The Three Stooges short, Creeps is a remake with footage from The Ghost Talks. Telling their sons a bedtime story, The Stooges weave a tall tale of themselves as moving men sent to a spooky old mansion on a rainy night to move some old furniture, including a suit of armor. The armor objects to leaving, however, as it is inhabited by the spirit of Sir Tom. Vowing to kill The Stooges if they try to remove him, the boys are soon on the run from the sword-wielding Tom.

Trivia

The storytelling convention where the film begins and ends with The Boys as babies was added by Director, Jules White to add cohesion in the exposition which was lacking in the original version of The Ghost Talks.
In the scene when Sir Tom is telling The Stooges his story, there is a brief shot added where the boys are smoking; in the next shot (a recycled clip), the boys are not smoking.
The NBC chimes are heard twice in the film, when Moe hits Shemp on his head three times, and when The Stooges hit the babies’ heads with hammers.

Production Notes

The new footage, filmed on May 16, 1955, includes the babies (also The Stooges) and a torture room scene where Moe’s trousers are sliced off.

February Shorts Filmography

Of Cash and Hash

Production Information
Title: Of Cash And Hash
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 160
Release Date: February 3, 1955
Running Time: 15:46

Short Take

Elite Cafe owners Moe, Larry & Shemp are caught in the middle of an armored car robbery. Shortly after, one of the crooks turns up as a diner customer, and the Stooges give chase with friend Gladys and her car. Trailing the crook to an old mansion, Gladys and the Stooges find themselves on the run from the thieves, and their knife-wielding henchman Angel.

Cast & Crew

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Del Lord Jack White
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Vernon Dent Christine McIntyre Kenneth MacDonald Frank Lackteen Duke York Stanley Blystone Cy Schindell
Cinematography	Ray Cory

Of Cash And Hash Trivia

Of Cash and Hash is a remake of 1948’s Shivering Sherlocks, using ample recycled footage from the original. New footage was filmed on April 26, 1954.
This was the final film featuring new footage of long-time Stooge character actress Christine McIntyre. She would appear in six additional Stooge films via stock footage. It also was the final Three Stooges film featuring long-time Columbia supporting actor Stanley Blystone.

February Shorts Filmography

Income Tax Sappy

Production Information
Title: Income Tax Sappy
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 153
Release Date: February 4, 1954
Running Time: 16:28

“That’s 11 dependents! Who are they?” “My ex-wife and 10 bartenders.”
(Larry & Shemp)

Short Take

Moe, Larry, and Shemp decide that they are natural born tax experts and decide to start a business that helps other people cheat on their income tax. Their scheme doesn’t last long when it turns out that one of their customers is an undercover agent for the income tax department!

The Boys are set to do their income taxes, which are due the next day. As they do, Moe mentions on how easy it is for people to cheat on their tax returns and not get caught, so the three of them get the idea to create their own fake deductions to ensure a hefty refund, and throughout their endeavors, Larry and Shemp come up with an idea to come up with creative deductions for other peoples’ tax returns and charging them for it. Moe finds this idea grand, and the three of them become “tax experts.”

Not long afterward, The Stooges are enjoying a life of luxury, having made lots of money from profits and their own tax returns. On one particular day, they host a dinner party for one of their clients, a German man who obsessively strokes his beard, but as the meal commences, strange happenings and the boys’ own incompetence anger their guest. He then removes his beard (which Larry had accidentally cut off), exposes himself as a sleeper agent for the IRS, and calls in his fellow agents to arrest the Stooges for tax fraud. With nothing left to lose, the boys make a mad dash away and attempt to fight off the agents, but end up being busted and sent away in handcuffs.

Cast & Crew

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Felix Adler
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Benny Rubin Margie Liszt Nanette Bordeaux Vernon Dent Joe Palma
Cinematography	Ray Cory
Edited by	Edwin Bryant

Income Tax Sappy Trivia

Coming soon

February Shorts Filmography

Up In Daisy’s Penthouse

Production Information
Title: Up In Daisy’s Penthouse
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 144
Release Date: February 5, 1953
Running Time: 16:32

“Oh, a screwdriver!” “Nah, that’s a sledgehammer.”
(Shemp & Moe)

Short Take

The Three Stooges awake one morning to their mother’s cry, “Now that I’m old your father has divorced me!” The letter states that their father (Shemp Howard, pulling double duty as both himself and his father) has just become rich via an oil well and is planning to leave their mother and marry a young gold digging blonde named Daisy (Connie Cezon). The Three Stooges set off to try and stop the wedding. But since Shemp and his father look exactly alike, Daisy ends up marrying the wrong man. In the finale of the short, The Three Stooges manage to escape the clutches of the criminals trying to kill them for their father’s oil money and rescue their father.

Cast & Crew

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Clyde Bruckman Jack White
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Connie Cezon Blackie Whiteford Jack Kenny John Merton Curly Howard
Cinematography	Henry Freulich
Edited by	Edwin H. Bryant

Up In Daisy’s Penthouse Trivia

Connie Cezon played Daisy, the gangster moll, in Up In Daisy’s Penthouse. Lucille Lund played the Daisy the gold digger in 3 Dumb Cluck.
The newspaper article that The Three Stooges mom shows them has nothing to do with their father; it is from the financial pages. As usual, only the headlines are relevant to the plot.
Shemp plays his aged version of himself as the two-timing father. Curly did the same in 3 Dumb Clucks.

Production Notes

Up in Daisy’s Penthouse is a remake of 3 Dumb Clucks, using minimal footage from the original film. This is noticeable when the trio is on the flagpole, as audio of Curly’s “woo woo”s can be heard.

February Shorts Filmography

Baby Sitter Jitters

Production Information
Title: Baby Sitter Jitters
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 130
Release Date: February 1, 1951
Running Time: 16:08

“There’s a thousand reasons why I shouldn’t drink… but I can’t think of one right now.”
(Shemp)

Cast & Crew

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Felix Adler
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Lynn Davis David Windsor Myron Healey Margie Liszt
Edited by	Edwin H. Bryant

Short Take:

In Baby Sitter Jitters, The Three Stooges need to pay the rent so they decide to pay it off by becoming babysitters. Their first job is to sit for a troubled mother who just broke up with her husband. After some of their antics, they fall asleep. The mother comes home and sees that the baby is gone and sends the boys to her ex-husband’s apartment to find her son.

Baby Sitter Jitters Long Take:

There is an old saying in show business: never act with animals or children. The reasoning is sound because audiences by nature tend to find children and animals to be cuter, funnier, and more attractive than the adult star who accompanies them. But an exception to this rule would be when the ‘adult ‘ stars happen to be three imbecilic, childish, and ignorant Stooges who are no more mature than the kid.

In fact, a parallel between their levels of maturity is established right from the outset: the first thing we see the kiddo is playing mindlessly with a gun, and minutes later Shemp mindlessly shoots a strip off of Moe’s scalp.

So who is more childish – Shemp or the child? Not surprisingly, Shemp is throughout the film characterized as child-like: he has the reading skills of a child, sleeps in the crib like a baby, cries at the end of the film, and look who turns Shemp’s infantile tears to laughter – the kid, by standing on his head, the same trick Shemp used to stop the kid from crying earlier. What makes all this even sillier is that Mrs. Lloyd, a ‘normal’ adult, laughs, too, when Shemp stands on his head, a clear sign that this film takes us into a topsy-turvy universe in which the difference between maturity and immaturity seems to depend on which direction your head is pointing.

The Three Stooges – The Perfect Babysitters

The Stooges have babysat before, and the plot is similar to Mutts to You and Sock-A-Bye Baby in that all three films end with the married couple reuniting around The Stooges and the child. But there is a significant difference: in Mutts to You and Sock-A-Bye Baby The Stooges find the child on a stoop; here they are hired and, amazingly, recommended as babysitters. They have studied the subject in Davenport Seats’ book, “How to Become a Baby Sitter,” so they should know what they are doing. But one of the quintessential qualities of being a Stooge is genuinely thinking you know what you are doing even when you do not, and one of the narrative requirements for Stooge films is that someone is negligent enough to hire them to do an important job.

Long before we know how unqualified the Stooges really are, the film opens with the Stooges feeding, diapering, and cuddling three babies. Although Larry is using the window shade to diaper his, this all looks perfectly normal and differs from the openings of several previous films which begin with extended slapstick routines. But then in one of the most extraordinary opening surprises in all of Stoogedom, the Stooges throw their babies to each other, Shemp trips and squashes one, and Moe (“Butt out of this, porcupine!”) hits Larry over the head with his. In a kind of infantile yet symmetrical justice later in the film, the child in their care, more capable than the infants in Mutts to You, Sock-A-Bye Baby, and Three Loan Wolves, bites Larry’s hand, throws a coke bottle at his head, smashes all Three Stooges and his father with a hammer, and then imitates Shemp by standing on his head to make everyone laugh. You see, the old warning was right: never act with animals or children because they always win out in the end.

Visual Humor

Several slapstick routines are particularly well placed in the narrative of Baby Sitter Jitters. Larry begins to shadow box Moe, but Moe ignores him, turns, and kicks Larry through the door across the hall – where they find the kid. In the same scene, Moe kicks Shemp in the rear, and more bubbles come out of his mouth, a reminiscence of the previous scene. Although most of the physical gags are derivative, they are nicely varied.

Shemp’s boxing steps, for instance. are typically intricate, but he interrupts them in the middle of the routine to amuse the child. And, although The Stooges had trouble with a transom in Dutiful but Dumb, Moe gets a surprise punch from this one. Similarly, although Curly shot ink through a keyhole in Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb, Shemp now gets a key in the eye and nostril as he peeks into this keyhole. An excellent variation of this sort of paraclausithuron [‘outside the door’] comedy is Shemp peeking under the door just as the occupant is sweeping dust out the bottom.

Motifs and Routines

Speaking of varying old motifs: Moe uses a handwave for the first time; Moe pounds Shemp and banks Larry to grab them both by their open mouths (Sing a Song of Six Pants); Moe reaches back to bank both of them without looking (a variation on Studio Stoops, Shemp takes a swig of liquor and Moe pounds him in the belly, making Shemp spit it out on Moe (We Want Our Mummy). The best extended slapstick sequence in the film comes after Moe discovers Shemp has stolen silver. A more subtle Shemp moment is when he looks under the crib mattress for the baby. The bubble blowing borrows several motifs from All Gummed Up. Larry puts a nipple on a coke bottle as Curly did with a beer bottle in Sock-a-Bye Baby; this is the first Coca-Cola bottle we have seen, and it is put to two good uses. Other variations: christening Shemp over the head (Pop Goes the Easel); fly paper (So Long, Mr. Chumps); the gun in the child’s mouth (Three Loan Wolves); cutting a diaper (Sock-a-Bye Baby); the tray stuffed in Shemp’s rear (Slaphappy Sleuths); knocking on a head instead of a door (Calling All Curs); shooting off a stripe of Moe’s hair (Disorder in the Court); Moe smashing an apple on Shemp’s forehead (Love at First Bite); Shemp stealing silverware (Hoi Polloi); Larry saluting (“Aye, aye, captain!”) while slapping Moe (Uncivil Warriors); and eating walnut shells and not the ‘stuffing’ (Dizzy Detectives).

Baby Sitter Jitters Trivia

The correct title of this film has no apostrophe and consists of three words, not two.
Baby Sitter Jitters was the only Three Stooges short in which actress Lynn Davis appeared. Very little is known about the actress.
Margie Liszt also appears in The Tooth Will Out, Pest Man Wins, and Income Tax Sappy.
This is the third consecutive film to omit credit for the Director of Photography. but the first to show the producer/ director credit on a fourth title screen.
Recent films have not been using wipes; this film contains one.
A landlady will be a stock character in several subsequent films.
George Lloyd [Myron Healey] was the actual name of the actor who played in Pardon My Clutch and Crime on Their Hands.
The Lloyd’s address was the Folger Apartments at 212 Tenth Street’.

Production Notes

Baby Sitters Jitters was filmed over four days on January 23–26, 1950.

February Shorts Filmography

Hugs and Mugs

Title: Hugs and Mugs
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 121
Release Date: February 2, 1950
Running Time: 15:57

“I’ve been asked to get married lots o’times.” “Who asked you?” “My father and mother.”
(Shemp & Larry)

Cast & Crew

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Clyde Bruckman
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Christine McIntyre Nanette Bordeaux Kathleen O’Malley Emil Sitka Joe Palma Pat Moran Wally Rose
Cinematography	Vincent J. Farrar
Edited by	Edwin H. Bryant

Short Take

After a prison stretch for a jewel robbery, three beautiful women search for a pearl necklace the police never found. Unfortunately for them, the warehouse where they hid it sold the pearls for back storage fees to three furniture repairman, Moe, Larry & Shemp. The girls follow The Stooges to their shop and pretend to flirt with them as a distraction, so they can search the shop for the necklace. But the molls’ gangster ex-boyfriends are hot on their trail, and slapstick mayhem ensues when the Stooges come to the girls’ defense.

Hugs and Mugs Trivia

The only short not to be filmed inside the Columbia studios. It was actually shot at Darmour Studios.
Hugs and Mugs is one of several Stooge shorts in which a sofa spring manages to become attached to someone’s backside. This gag was also used in Hoi Polloi, Three Little Sew and Sews, An Ache in Every Stake and Have Rocket, Will Travel.
Who plays Fifi in Hugs And Mugs, Fifi in Pest Man Wins and a French showgirl in Loose Loot? Her name even sounds like a French wine. (A: Nanette Bordeaux).
This supporting actor appeared in 25 shorts from 1936 to 1956, and played Pinto in both Out West and Hugs and Mugs. Who is he? (A: Blackie Whiteford).

February Shorts Filmography

The Ghost Talks

Production Information
Title: The Ghost Talks
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 113
Release Date: February 3, 1949
Running Time: 16:07

“Me? I’m Red.” “Oh … Red Skeleton!”
(Skeleton & Shemp)

Short Take

In The Ghost Talks, The Three Stooges are moving men assigned to move furniture out of the haunted Smorgasbord Castle. All goes well at first, outside of a few scares, until a clanking suit of armor inhabited by the ghost of Peeping Tom (voiced by Phil Arnold) scares the hapless Stooges until he convinces them that he is, in fact, a friendly spirit. After finally gaining their trust, Tom tells the trio the story of his watching Lady Godiva (Nancy Saunders), only to get a pie in the face. In turn, his ghost is cursed and trapped inside the suit of armor, having been trapped for a thousand years.

The Stooges, however, still have a job to do and tell Tom that they have to move everything in the castle, including him. He instructs the boys to leave him be, as “bad luck” will be upon them if they ever try to take him away. Shemp, Larry and Moe all take turns trying to move Tom, but a series of various shenanigans, such as a frog jumping down Shemp’s shirt and an owl entering a skull and assuming the role of a death’s head spirit, spooks the Stooges. As they run into another room to escape, Lady Godiva rides up on a horse and takes Tom away. The Stooges rush over to the window to watch them depart, only to be pelted with three successive pies amidst a cheering crowd.

Cast & Crew

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Felix Adler
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Phil Arnold Don Brodie Nancy Saunders
Cinematography	M.A. Anderson
Edited by	Edwin H. Bryant

The Ghost Talks Trivia

The Ghost Talks was remade in 1956 as Creeps, using ample stock footage.
Director Jules White voiced the skeleton identifying himself as Red Skeleton, a reference to comedian Red Skelton.
The NBC chimes are heard when Moe hits Shemp three times on his head.
The Ghost Talks includes what famous lady’s horse ride? (A: Lady Godiva’s).

February Shorts Filmography

Pardon My Clutch

Production Information
Title: Pardon My Clutch
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 105
Release Date: February 26, 1948
Running Time: 15:16

“You know fish is great brain food.” “You know you should fish for a whale.”
(Larry and Moe)

Short Take

Shemp has been ill with a toothache. The Stooges’ friend Claude (Matt McHugh), a self-proclaimed Kevin Trudeau-ish doctor, gives Moe and Larry some specific instructions on how to cure the toothache, which, of course, they misinterpret every which way possible. After finally yanking the troublesome tooth, Claude suggests they take Shemp on a camping trip for a little R&R. Since the Stooges do not own a car, Claude offers to sell them a car that turns out to be a “lemon.”

The trio runs into a series of mishaps trying to get the car to work, including a flat tire that gets them into trouble with a local gas station attendant (George Lloyd). Finally, things improve via a car collector (Emil Sitka) who wants to buy the clunker at a premium. Claude gets wind of this, quickly gives his money back to the Stooges, and hands it to the collector. Within minutes, two men in white coats from the local insane asylum come to retrieve the supposed car collector, with Claude following right behind.

By the way, how much do we love Moe’s sweater in the above scene!

Cast & Crew

Directed by	Edward Bernds
Produced by	Hugh McCollum
Written by	Clyde Bruckman
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Matt McHugh Wanda Perry George Lloyd Stanley Blystone Alyn Lockwood Doria Revier Emil Sitka
Cinematography	Allen G. Siegler
Edited by	Henry DeMond

Pardon My Clutch Trivia

Shemp is unable to convince the gas station attendant that the tire he is removing from the tire display actually came off his car and rolled into the gas station by accident. This was a stock routine that had been used in prior comedies. It had been performed by Joe Murphy and Bud Jamison in I’m the Sheriff (1927) and Edgar Kennedy and Charlie Hall in Slightly at Sea (1940).
A different variation of “Three Blind Mice” introductory theme is used in this entry. This version would be used again for Crime on Their Hands and The Ghost Talks.
When Shemp and Larry are throwing suitcases in the car which slide out and hit Moe on the head, the second suitcase didn’t hit Moe when it was supposed to.
During the 1947 production season, Ed Bernds noticed, while strolling across the backlot, a castle built for Columbia’s 1946 feature The Bandit of Sherwood Forest. Inspired, he obtained permission to write several scripts to shoot in the castle. The next three films Squareheads of the Round Table, Fiddlers Three, and The Hot Scots are the result – not to mention the three 1954 refurbished versions, Knutzy Knights, Musty Musketeers, and Scotched in Scotland. Sets were rarely of paramount importance in Stooge comedies because the focus was on the trio itself. But they always fill a room with energy, and here they have a whole castle in which to romp.

Stooge Firsts

‘Tell-him, Tex’ routine – to be used as late as in 4 For Texas (1963) – although Moe shoving Shemp towards a fight dates back to Ted Healy in Beer and Pretzels, the rope catching Larry by the throat, and pulling the window shade down onto Claude’s head. Mo walks into the door jamb. Klinking each tooth until the bad one makes a different sound; Larry’s ringing the service station attendant with a tire; Shemp and Larry tossing their stuff beyond the car on Moe, Shemp’s feet on the pillow and his head a the bottom of the bed, and Shemp thinking the doorknob is his tooth.

Production Notes

Pardon My Clutch was filmed on May 19-21, 1947.
The short would be remade in 1955 as Wham-Bam-Slam!, using ample stock footage.
Both films borrow plot elements from the Laurel and Hardy shorts Perfect Day (1929) and Them Thar Hills (1934).

February Shorts Filmography

A Bird In The Head

Production Information
Title: A Bird In The Head
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 53
Release Date: February 28, 1946
Running Time: 16:54

“It’s silly to be scared.” “Yeah.” “Boy! Am I silly!”
(Curly and Moe)

Short Take

The Stooges are mediocre paperhangers. Their client Mr. Beedle (Robert Williams) advises the boys to do a good job, but the end result looks like it was quickly cluttered with paper towels. Beedle is fuming and threatens the boys, who make a quick escape across the hallway into the laboratory of the insane Professor Panzer (Vernon Dent) and his assistant Nikko (Frank Lackteen). Panzer is searching for a human brain puny enough to place in the head of his gorilla Igor (Art Miles). Curly becomes the prime candidate, and Panzer locks the boys in his lab in order to secure Curly’s “contribution.” Then Igor gets loose but takes a liking to Curly, which the feeble-minded Stooge reciprocates. Eventually, the boys destroy Panzer’s lab and quickly depart, taking Igor with them.

Curly Howard Performance Deteriorates & Bernds First Shot At Directing

41-year-old Curly Howard had suffered a series of minor strokes prior to filming A Bird in the Head. As a result, his performance was marred by slurred speech and slower timing. This film was the first directing effort for former Columbia sound man Edward Bernds. Bernds was thrilled that he was being given a shot at directing, but was horrified when he realized that Curly was in such bad shape (something Columbia short subject head/director Jules White failed to alert Bernds of). Years later, Bernds discussed his trying experience during the filming of A Bird in the Head:

“It was an awful tough deal for a novice rookie director to have a Curly who wasn’t himself. I had seen Curly at his greatest and his work in this film was far from great. The wallpaper scene was agony to direct because of the physical movements required to roll up the wallpaper and to react when it curled up in him. It just didn’t work. As a fledgling director, my plans were based on doing everything in one nice neat shot. But when I saw the scenes were not playing, I had to improvise and use other angles to make it play. It was the wallpaper scene that we shot first, and during the first two hours of filming, I became aware that we had a problem with Curly.”

Bernds devised ways to cover Curly’s illness

Realizing that Curly was no longer able to perform in the same capacity as before, Bernds devised ways to cover his illness; Curly could still be the star, but the action was shifted away from the ailing Stooge. In A Bird in the Head, the action focuses more on crazy Professor Panzer and Igor. This allowed Curly to maintain a healthy amount of screen time without being required to contribute a great deal.

Bernds often commented that he and Jules White never really got along. Bernds feared that his directing days would be over as soon as they began if he released A Bird in the Head with a weak Curly as his first entry. Producer Hugh McCollum reshuffled the release order, and the superior Micro-Phonies was released first, securing Bernds directing position.

Cast & Crew

Directed by	Edward Bernds
Produced by	Hugh McCollum
Written by	Edward Bernds
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Vernon Dent Robert Williams Frank Lackteen Art Miles
Cinematography	Burnett Guffey
Edited by	Henry Batista

A Bird In The Head Trivia

A Bird In The Head was Edward Bernd’s second Stooge release, but his directorial debut.
Although the film was copyrighted in 945, producer Hugh McCollum held release until February 28, 1946, so that Micro-Phonies could be released first; he wanted Bernd’s first directorial release to be well received and could see that Micro-Phonies was the superior product.
The title A Bird in the Head is a pun on the phrase “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Curly is chased by what in Three Missing Links and A Bird In The Head? (A: A gorilla)
The drinking scene is sometimes edited out for television broadcast.
Art Miles who played the gorilla also played in the Ritz Brothers’ film The Gorilla (1939).
Bernds had the gorilla take special care of Curly while filming due to his deteriorating health.

Production Notes

A Bird in the Head was filmed over a period of five days (April 9-13, 1945), which was longer than usual. Due to the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12, filming ended early out of respect for the deceased Commander-in-chief.