Category:

November Shorts

Blunder Boys

Production Information
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 166
Release Date: November 3, 1955
Running Time: 15:54

“I’m Halliday.” “I’m Terraday.” “I’m St. Patrick’s Day! Hee hee hee!”
(Moe, Larry & Shemp)

Short Take

In Blunder Boys, After serving in the Army, the stooges decide to go to college and major in criminology. Graduating with the lowest possible honors, they receive their first case, stop a bandit called the Eel who is going to rob the Biltless Hotel.

Cast & Crew

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Felix Adler
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Kenneth MacDonald Benny Rubin Frank Sully Barbara Bartay Angela Stevens
Cinematography	Ray Cory
Edited by	Anthony DiMarco

larry Trivia

Blunder Boys was the last Stooge film featuring Shemp Howard that was not a remake. In addition, it would also be the last film released during his lifetime; Howard died of a heart attack 19 days after its release. Filming was completed on January 24–26, 1955.

Production Notes

The premise of Blunder Boys is a parody of the television series Dragnet. The ending was also a parody of the company that ran Dragnet, (Mark VII Limited), as Moe stamps the logo, “VII 1/2 The End” on Larry’s head similar to how it’s done in the logo.

Filmography November Shorts

Scotched in Scotland

Production Information
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 158
Release Date: November 4, 1954
Running Time: 15.31

“Hi Lorna, how ya doone?” (Shemp)

Short Take

Detective school Dean Gonga sends his bumbling graduates Moe, Larry & Shemp to Glenheather Castle in Scotland, to investigate the disappearance of valuable artifacts.

Cast & Crew

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Elwood Ullman Jack White
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Philip Van Zandt Christine McIntyre Herbert Evans Charles Knight Ted Lorch
Cinematography	Ray Cory
Edited by	Jules White

Trivia

The final short to feature the “swing” rendition of the “Three Blind Mice” theme in the end.
What is the name of the castle in both The Hot Scots and Scotched In Scotland? (A: Glenheather Castle)

Production Notes

Scotched in Scotland is a remake of 1948’s The Hot Scots, using ample recycled footage from the original film. A whistling, howling wind-like sound is added to the soundtrack to give the film a more “spooky” effect; this was not done in The Hot Scots.

Filmography November Shorts

Slaphappy Sleuths

Production Information
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 127
Release Date: November 9, 1950
Running Time: 16.09

“You, are you a good detective?” “Am I? You see this heel?… I ran that down.”
(Gene Roth & Shemp)

Short Take

The Stooges are hired as detectives to investigate repeated robberies at Onion Oil Company gas stations. The Stooges impersonate attendants – and they make some pretty strange gas station attendants, even putting popcorn into a car’s radiator! They eventually catch the crooks after some following a trail of oil leaking from the gangters getaway car – right into the crooks’ apartment.

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

Credited Cast
Shemp Howard
Larry Fine
Moe Howard
Stanley Blystone – head crook
Emil Sitka – customer
Gene Roth – Fuller Grimes

Uncredited Cast
Nanette Bordeaux – crook (Louise)
Joe Palma – crook
Blackie Whiteford – crook

Filmography November Shorts

Dunked in the Deep

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.

Filmography Holiday Classics November Shorts

Mummy’s Dummies

Production Information
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 111
Release Date: November 4, 1948
Running Time: 15.49

“I’m Honest Moe, that’s Honest Shemp and that’s……well that’s Larry.”
(Moe)

Short Take

The Stooges are “used chariot” salesmen in ancient Egypt, and try to gyp a customer who turns out to be the captain of the Pharaoh’s guard. He drags them to the palace to demand their execution, but the boys become royal chamberlains instead when Shemp cures the Pharaoh’s toothache. Enjoying their new duties, the Stooges overhear a conversation between the Captain and a corrupt tax collector, and discover a plot to steal the Pharaoh’s gold!

Cast & Crew

Credited Production Crew
Produced by Hugh McCollum
Directed by Edwards Bernds
Story & Screenplay by Elwood Ullman
Director of Photography Charles Clague
Film Editor Henry DeMond

Credited Cast
Shemp Howard
Larry Fine
Moe Howard
Vernon Dent – King Rootentooten
Ralph Dunn – Radames, Chief of the Palace Guard
Phil Van Zandt – Tutamon
Dee Green – Princess

Uncredited Cast
Suzanne Ridgeway – female attendant
Virginia Ellsworth – female attendant
Wanda Perry – princess

Trivia

Every Three Stooges short produced in the 1940s featuring Shemp Howard as the third Stooge was remade in the 1950s except for Mummy’s Dummies.
Mummy’s Dummies takes place during the reign of King Rootentootin, played by the rather tall and rotund Vernon Dent, but in the film, We Want Our Mummy, Rootintootin is said to be a midget

Production Notes

Columbia production number: 4105
Shot over 4 days from August 19, 1947, to August 22, 1947.

Filmography November Shorts

Micro-Phonies

Production Information
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 87
Release Date: November 15, 1945
Running Time: 16.54

“Oh, a microphon-ey.” “And a phony at the mike.”
(Moe & Curly)

Short Take

The boys are radio station janitors being chewed out by their boss. Fleeing from him after a disastrous attempt to repair a radiator, they end up in a recording studio. There, Curly (in drag) is mistaken for an opera singer by a woman who sees the boys lip-synching to a recording made earlier in the day by Alice Andrews (Christine McIntyre). Alice, against her father’s wishes, wants a career as a radio singer. Hired to sing at a party that night, the Stooges bump into Signor Spumoni, who recognizes them as fakes. With Alice’s help, the boys continue the masquerade… but not if Spumoni has anything to say about it!

Cast & Crew

Credited Production Crew
Producer Hugh McCollum
Directed & Written by Edward Bernds
Director of Photography Henry Batista
Art Director Charles Clague

Credited Cast
Curly Howard
Larry Fine
Moe Howard
Christine McIntyre – Alice Van Doren
Symona Boniface – Mrs. Bixby
Gino Corrado – Signor Spumoni

Uncredited Cast
Sam Flint – Mr. Bixby
Fred Kelsey – Boss Dugan
Chester Conklin – drunk pianist
Bess Flowers – party guest
Lynton Brent – Don Allen
Ted Lorch – Bixby butler (“Masters”)
Heine Conklin – studio pianist
John Tyrell – recording engineer
Judy Malcolm – woman in hallway

Trivia

Though Micro-Phonies was the first film released that was directed by novice director Edward Bernds, it was not his first attempt (that honor goes to the lackluster A Bird in the Head). Understandably, Bernds was excited at his big chance to direct but was shocked when he saw how ill Curly had become. Years later, Bernds discussed his trying experience during the filming of A Bird in the Head:

Production Notes

Micro-Phonies was filmed on June 4-7, 1945, several months after Curly Howard suffered a mild stroke. His performances were marred by slurred speech and slower timing.

Filmography November Shorts

No Dough Boys

Production Information
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 82
Release Date: November 24, 1944
Running Time: 16.54

“Read that sign!” “Hey, you, no smokin’!” “Well?” “It says you, not me! N’yuk, n’yuk, n’yuk!”
(Moe & Curly)

Short Take

A “war years” short. We open on the boys dressed as Japanese soldiers for an advertising photo shoot. Sent out to lunch in uniform by the photographer, they are mistaken for real Japanese soldiers by the cafe owner. Fleeing, they inadvertently land in a house full of Axis sympathizers, who mistake them for fugitives from a destroyed Jap submarine. Mayhem ensues when the REAL Japanese soldiers arrive to keep a scheduled parlay with their comrades. Can the Stooges foil the bad guys in typical Stooge manner?

Cast & Crew

Credited Production Crew
Produced & Directed by Jules White
Story & Screenplay by Felix Adler
Director of Photography George Meehan
Film Editor Charles Hochberg
Art Direction Charles Clague

Credited Cast
Curly Howard
Larry Fine
Moe Howard
Vernon Dent – Hugo, Nazi spy
Christine McIntyre – Delia Zwieback

Uncredited Cast
Kelly Flint – Amelia Schwarzbrot
Judy Malcolm – Celia Pumpernickel
John Tyrell – director
Brian O’Hara – restauranteur

Trivia

During World War II, the Stooges made a few comedies that engaged in propaganda against the then-enemy Japanese, including Spook Louder, Booby Dupes, No Dough Boys and The Yoke’s on Me.
The gag of smoking an imaginary pipe was used twice by Laurel and Hardy: 1937’s Way Out West and 1938’s Block-Heads.

Production Notes

No Dough Boys was filmed on April 25-28, 1944.
The film title is a play on “No-No Boys,” Japanese-Americans who answered “no” to a two-part loyalty question that asked them to renounce the Japanese emperor and agree to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Filmography November Shorts

Phony Express

Production Information
Title: Phony Express
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 75
Release Date: November 18, 1943
Running Time: 17:09

“Buy me some of that stuff. I can’t sleep.” “You sleep 12 hours a night.” “Yeh, but I’m wide awake all day!”
(Curly and Moe)

Short Take

When Red Morgan and his gang invade Peaceful Gulch, the local editor prints a picture of the Stooges (who are wanted for vagrancy) as three famous marshals coming to clean up the town. When the Stooges show up in town, Red and his gang are worried until they find out the Stooges are just tramps, but when the gang tries to get them the Stooges manage to knock them out instead. The boys get hired to guard the bank, but when Morgan and his gang rob it anyway, it’s up to the Stooges to get the gold back!

Cast & Crew

Credited Production Crew
Produced by Del Lord & Hugh McCollum
Directed by Del Lord
Story & Screenplay Elwood Ullman & Monty Collins
Director of Photography John Star
Film Editor Paul Borofsky
Art Direction Victor Greene

Credited Cast
Curly Howard
Larry Fine
Moe Howard – Lola
Bud Jamison – Red Morgan

Uncredited Cast
Victor Travers – newspaper editor
Snub Pollard – sheriff
Chester Conklin – bartender
John Merton – Red’s assistant
Blackie Whiteford – gang member
Joel Friedkin – Doctor Abdul
Sally Cleaves – dancing partner
Gwen Seger – dancing partner

Trivia

This was the last Three Stooges short co-written by Monte Collins

Routines

And lay you right down, too!
When Moe gives a drink that the Stooges made themselves to a man, Moe says “This oughta pick you up”. Then Curly adds in “…and lay you right down, too!”
Bloodhound Stooge
A Stooge acts like a bloodhound and tries to sniff out the tracks of enemies that they’re looking for.
Falling chandelier
Somebody accidentally fires a gun or throws a knife at a chandelier wire, causing the chandelier to fall and crash on somebody’s head.
Liquor after-effects
After a Stooge or supporting character drinks some strong liquor, it causes loud ringing and horn noises and/or him to blow smoke from his mouth.
Missing toupee
A man’s toupee gets removed somehow, usually by a shooting bullet.
Moe getting hit by swinging door
When the Stooges are going through a Western-style swinging door, Curly and Larry go first. After they push the door in and walk inside, the door swings back and hits Moe in the face.
Swishing branch
The Stooges are crawling through some bushes in the woods and when one of the Stooges pushes a big branch in front of him, then ducks and lets the branch go, it swishes back and hits the Stooge behind him (usually Moe) in the face.

Production Notes

- Phony Express was filmed on March 27–31, 1943.
- The film title is a parody of the “Pony Express,” a fast mail service that crossed the North American continent from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California from April 1860 to October 1861. Some of the plot and minimal stock footage would be recycled in Merry Mavericks.

November Shorts

Sock-A-Bye Baby

Production Information
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 66
Release Date: November 13, 1942
Running Time: 17:45

“What did you eat when you were a baby?” “Weeds.”
(Moe and Curly)

Short Take

A woman leaves a baby on the Stooges’ doorstep. Taking the baby in, the boys learn the hard way the responsibilities of fatherhood… having a hard time changing the baby’s diaper (they test how big the diaper should be on Curly) and trying to feed it things like an artichoke and spaghetti. Reading in the newspaper that a baby was kidnapped, just as the police arrive with their baby’s distraught mother, our heroes incorrectly assume they have the kidnapped child. And the chase is on!

Cast & Crew

Credited Production Crew
Produced & Directed by Jules White
Story & Screenplay by Clyde Bruckman
Director of Photography Benjamin Kline
Film Editor Jerome Thoms

Credited Cast
Curly Howard
Larry Fine
Moe Howard

Uncredited Cast
Bud Jamison – policeman
Julie Gibson – Mrs. Collins
Clarence Straight – Mr. Collins
Baby Joyce Gardner – Jimmy
Dudley Dickerson – road worker

Trivia

This short is one of the rare few that contains explicit racial humor. Specifically, after Curly begins singing a song about Japanese people, he catches himself and says “What am I sayin’? [spits Pew!] on the Japanese.” The U.S. was at war with Japan during World War II at the time and jingoism was a presence in the media.
While washing the celery being prepared for Jimmie’s meal, Curly sings an a cappella “nonsense song” with lyrics imagining he was a Brazilian coffee bean: “I was a boy in Brazil and I grew on a tree. / When they shook the tree then I fell down. / Then they put me in a bag / and they fastened on a tag / and they shipped me off to New York town.”

Production Notes

Filming for Sock-a-Bye Baby commenced between April 28 and May 1, 1942.
The film title is a parody of the lullaby “Rock-a-bye Baby,” likely shared by the similarly-named Popeye cartoon Sock-a-Bye, Baby from 1934.

Filmography November Shorts

CooKoo Cavaliers

Production Information
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 51
Release Date: November 15, 1940
Running Time: 17.5

“Yeah, we know. 1410 South American Way. No cover charge anytime. Glad to meet me.”
(Curly, Larry and Moe)

Short Take

The Stooges sell fish and are getting nowhere, so they quit for another business… running a bar. Falling to the charm of a shady real estate man (“You give me the money, I give you the business”), they buy a saloon in Mexico only to learn they’re now the owners of a beauty salon. Making the best of the situation, the Stooges have nothing to lose and become beauticians. Their first customers are four beautiful local girls. Yes, beautiful. But, for how long?

Cast & Crew

Credited Production Crew:
Produced & Directed by Jules White
Story & Screenplay by Ewart Adamson
Director of Photography Henry Freulich
Film Editor Arther Seid

Credited Cast:
Curly Howard
Larry Fine
Moe Howard

Uncredited Cast:
Lynton Brent – Pedro Ruiz
Dorothy Appleby – Rosita
Bob O’Connor – Manuel Gonzalez
Blanche Payson – fish customer in window
Anita Garvin

Trivia

On their fish truck in Cookoo Cavaliers, we see Hook, Line & Sinker. Match up the first names to these. (A: Larry Hook – Moe Line – Curly Sinker)

Production Notes

Filmed on June 6–10, 1940
The working title of Cookoo Cavaliers was Beauty á la Mud
Columbia Production Number 455