Category:

September Shorts

G.I. Wanna Go Home

Production Information
Title: G.I. Wanna Home
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 94
Release Date: September 5, 1946
Running Time: 15:44

“If I’m going to work like a horse, I’m gonna eat like one.”

Short Take

At the end of World War II, the Stooges are discharged from the service and return home. They are prepared to marry their fiancées (Judy Malcolm, Ethelreda Leopold, and Doris Houck), but are dispossessed. The Boys search around for a room to rent, and hit blind alley after blind alley until finally settling for an open-lot-turned living quarters. All goes well with the unusual setup until a farmer on a tractor plows down their domicile.

Afterwards, The Stooges build a pathetically small apartment from “their own little hands”, with the living room, dining room, and kitchen cramped into the space of a den.

G.I. Wanna Home Cast & Crew

Directed by	Jules Whjite
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Felix Adler
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Judy Malcolm Ethelreda Leopold Doris Houck Symona Boniface Al Thompson
Cinematography	George F. Kelley
Edited by	Edwin H. Bryant

G.I. Wanna Home Trivia

G.I. Wanna Home is often inadvertently referred to as ‘G.I. Wanna Go Home’

Production Notes

Filming took place from March 22-26, 1946, just months after Curly suffered a series of strokes that affected his performances

Filmography September Shorts Spotlight

Gents Without Cents – “Niagara Falls!”

Production Information
Title: Gents Without Cents
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 81
Release Date: September 22, 1944
Running Time: 18:58

“I don’t understand it. Every time we get to that inch by inch part something always happens.”

Short Take

The Stooges are small-time song-and-dance performers who are having trouble rehearsing due to loud tapping that is going on upstairs. When they go to give the rowdies a piece of their mind, three lovely ladies named Flo (Lindsay Bourquin), Mary (Laverne Thompson) and Shirley (Betty Phares) come to the door. It turns out the girls are performing their tap dance routine. The six become friends and go to a talent agent, Manny Weeks (John Tyrrell), to show off their stuff. However, he is at first unimpressed with The Stooges’ act but hires them anyway to perform at the Noazark Shipbuilding Company to entertain defense workers.

The Stooges, as “Two Souls and a Heel”, slay the audience with their hilarious “Niagara Falls” routine (“slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch…”). When the boys receive word that the headliners (The Castor and Earl Review) have to bail, they and the girls offer to take their place. Weeks is so enthralled with The Boys’ performance that he offers to send the trio to Broadway.

The Stooges nearly leave their ladies, but end up getting married first with a honeymoon planned for — where else? — Niagara Falls.

Gents Without Cents Cast & Crew

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Felix Adler
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Lindsay Bourquin Laverne Thompson Betty Phares Judy Malcolm John Tyrrell Lew Davis Lynton Brent
Cinematography	Benjamin H. Kline
Edited by	Charles Hochberg

Gents Without Cents Trivia

The working title was Tenderized Hams
This short premieres a swing rendition of “Three Blind Mice” as The Stooges’ theme music
The theatrical agent’s sign lists business locations as “New York, Chicago, London … Berlin soon.” This film was released just a few months after D-Day, at a time when Allied forces were making steady advances
The famous “Niagara Falls” is in Gents Without Cents. Now a piece of Americana pop culture, read how the ‘Slowly I Turned’ routine evolved from a vaudeville sketch.

Production Notes

Filming took place from June 14-16, 1944
The Stooges filmed the “Niagara Falls” routine in 1943 for the feature film Good Luck, Mr. Yates, but the scene was cut at the last minute. Instead of wasting the footage, Columbia built Gents Without Cents around it

Filmography September Shorts Spotlight

Dizzy Pilots

Production Information
Title: Dizzy Pilots
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 74
Release Date: September 24, 1943
Running Time: 16:45

“We’re great inventors… Robert Fulton, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Don Ameche, and us!”

Short Take

The Three Stooges play the Wrong brothers, a trio of aviators in the “Republic of Cannabeer, P.U.” They receive an army draft notice stating the brothers have been granted a 30-day deferment of duty on account of their claims that the plane they are inventing, the “Buzzard”, will revolutionize flying. Curly proudly announces that their plane has put them among other “great inventors” like Robert Fulton, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Don Ameche.

The Boys get to work, but a series of mishaps sidetrack them. First, Moe gets knocked into a tub of rubber cement. Larry and Curly try to get the rubber off Moe by expanding the rubber with hydrogen by turning him into a human balloon. Unfortunately, Moe floats to the top of the airplane hangar and into the sky, and Larry and Curly take aim with a shotgun and blast him to safety, resulting in Moe falling down in his long johns into a nearby well.

They eventually begin a test flight of the plane for a pair of aircraft company official. However, things begin to go awry. Curly accidentally breaks the rudder cable. Moe orders him to throw out the clutch, and unable to find it, Curly throws out the gear shift lever instead. Moe attempts to repair the rudder cable but fails and the plane turns upside down, causing the three to fall right back into the same well as before, dousing the aircraft officials with water as they splash into the well’s bottom. As expected, The Stooges are drafted into the army, where they run afoul with their drill sergeant (Richard Fiske), disrupting marching and weapons handling drills.

Dizzy Pilots Cast & Crew

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Clyde Bruckman
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Richard Fiske Harry Semels Al Thompson
Cinematography	Benjamin H. Kline
Edited by	Charles Hochberg

Dizzy Pilots Trivia

This is the third and final Stooge short with the word “dizzy” in the title
This is the last appearance of supporting actor Richard Fiske, who was killed in the war in France

Production Notes

Filming took place from April 6-9, 1943
The army segment in the last scene is stock footage from Boobs in Arms

Filmography September Shorts

Even As IOU

Production Information
Title: Even As IOU
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 65
Release Date: September 18, 1942
Running Time: 15:37

“Give me Ripley! Yeah, believe it or not!”

Short Take

A destitute mother and child move into The Stooge’s vacant lot home and The Boys decide to help them. They steal the kids piggy bank and sneak into the race track. They bet on a long shot that wins and then are gypped out of their winnings by two con men who sell them a washed up race horse. However, everything turns out happily when Curly swallows horse vitamins and gives birth to a colt!

Even As IOU Cast & Crew

Directed by	Del Lord
Produced by	Del Lord Hugh McCollum
Written by	Felix Adler
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Stanley Blystone Ruth Skinner Vernon Dent Bud Jamison
Cinematography	L. William O’Connell
Edited by	Paul Borofsky

Even As IOU Trivia

The idea of Curly swallowing Vitamin Z and hatching a colt generates from the use of synthetic vitamins as dietary supplements, which was both popular and experimental in the early 1940s
Moe requesting an operator patch him through to “Ripley, yeah, believe it or not” is one of the earliest mentions of Ripley’s in popular media

Production Notes

The previous film, Three Smart Saps, ended with The Stooges getting married. This film ends with them having a “child”, and the next film, Sock-A-Bye Baby, will feature The Stooges as parents, thus completing a domestic trilogy
Filming took place from April 18-22, 1942

Filmography September Shorts Spotlight

Cash and Carry

Production Information
Title: Cash and Carry
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 25
Release Date: September 3, 1937
Running Time: 18:21

“Five hundred dollars!? Hmmm… that’s almost a million!”

Short Take

The Stooges return home to their shack in the city dump after six months of unsuccessful prospecting. They arrive home to find it inhabited by a young orphaned woman and her younger brother, Jimmy. At first, they want Jimmy and his sister to leave until they see Jimmy is crippled.

Taking pity on the pair, The Boys decide to help raise some money needed for Jimmy’s operation. They first try the bank to see if by just depositing the canned coins into an account, the interest would raise the necessary funds. Unfortunately the banker explains that it would take years of waiting before it would grow to $500. It is then that two confidence men (Nick Copeland, Lew Davis) cheat The Stooges out of the $62 and their car for a map they claim will lead to a treasure.

The Stooges take the map and tools and go to the house on the map. Inside, they look for the “X” spot marked on the map called Walla Walla. After trying a couple walls, Curly finds an “X” marked on a wall in the basement. Mistaking a coin he dropped for the hidden treasure, he thinks he’s found the correct spot. Following the map, they dig down several feet and find another wall. This is the wall they think will lead to the treasure, but they accidentally drill into the United States Treasury.

At first, they think they have hit the jackpot. They are removing stacks of money when they are arrested. The Stooges end up meeting President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who has learned of Jimmy’s plight. The President then pardons The Stooges and pays for Jimmy’s operation.

Cash and Carry Cast & Crew

Directed by	Del Lord
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Clyde Bruckman Elwood Ullman
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Sonny Bupp Nick Copeland Lew Davis Lester Dorr John Ince Eddie Laughton Al Richardson Cy Schindell Harlene Wood
Cinematography	Lucien Ballard
Edited by	Charles Nelson

Cash and Carry Trivia

When Screen Gems re-released the film in the 1950s, the title was modified to CA$H AND CARRY
The plot was later adapted for comedian Andy Clyde in his short films A Miner Affair (1945) and Two April Fools (1954)

Production Notes

Filming took place from May 4-8, 1937
The working title was Golddigging in the Treasury

https://youtu.be/EKsnBI29mXk

Filmography September Shorts

Whoops, I’m an Indian!

Production Information
Title: Whoops, I’m an Indian!
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 18
Release Date: September 11, 1936
Running Time: 17:12

“You keep my wigwam?” “You keep your own wig warm!”

Short Take

The Stooges are cheating gamblers in the Old Western town of Lobo City. Eventually, the residents (including an evil, tough, muscular woodcutter named Pierre) of the frontier town catch on when they see Larry hiding a horseshoe magnet inside his boot. The Boys sprint off into the woods. Now as fugitives, The Stooges elude the sheriff by disguising themselves as Indians.

Things start to go wrong when Pierre takes a liking to Curly, who is disguised as an Indian squaw. The two soon get married. Several minutes later, Curly’s wig slips off and the trio has to make another run for it. They find what they believe to be a safe place to hide, only to find that they have accidentally locked themselves right in the Lobo City Jail.

Whoops, I’m an Indian! Cast & Crew

Directed by	Del Lord
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Herman Boxer Clyde Bruckman Searle Kramer
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Bud Jamison Beatrice Blinn Al Thompson Lew Davis Eddie Laughton Blackie Whiteford

Whoops, I’m an Indian! Trivia

The working title was Frontier Daze
The fast-motion canoe footage would later be reused in Back to the Woods (1937)

Production Notes

Filming took place from June 2-6, 1936

Filmography September Shorts Spotlight

Men In Black

Production Information
Studio: Columbia
Production Number: 3
Release Date: September 28, 1934
Running Time: 18:02

“For Duty and Humanity.” – Larry, Moe and Curly

“Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard!” – P.A. loudspeaker

“We graduated with the highest temperatures in our class.” – Larry

Men In Black Cast & Crew:
The large cast included Bud Jamison and several terrific supporting actresses as nurses including Ruth Hiatt as the ‘Whispering Nurse’ and Jeanie Roberts as the ‘Hiccupping Nurse’, and the wonderful Billy Gilbert as D.T. patient. In addition to Larry, Curly and Moe, Dell Henderson – Dr. Graves, Phyllis Crane – Anna Conda, Hank Mann – window glass installer, ‘Little’ Billy Rhodes – midget in bed.

The short’s story was by Felix Adler and directed by Raymond McCarey who would also direct The Boys next short, Three Little Pigskins again collaborating with writer Felix Adler. As we mentioned, Phyllis Crane was also in Three Little Pigskins with another up-and-coming actress you may recognize by the name of Lucille Ball.

A parody of MGM’s Clark Cable movie Men in White. “For Duty and Humanity” is the pledge the Stooges made when they play medical students who have graduated with the “highest temperatures in their class.” At Los Arms Hospital, three brainless interns – Doctors Howard, Fine and Howard – promise Dr. Graves, the hospital superintendent, that they will devote the rest of their lives to “duty and humanity!” Instructed to rush to any room whenever “Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard” is heard over the loudspeaker, call after call features an assortment of surreal, oddball doctors, nurses, and patients. An emergency leads them to operate on Dr. Graves himself after he accidentally swallows the combination to a safe containing life-saving radium.

A perennial fan favorite, Men In Black spawned three lines (quoted above) that have become ingrained in Stooge lore. Other memorable lines from the short include Billy Gilbert exclaiming: “Look!… Great big, giant, green canaries!!!” Larry remarking: “Let’s pluck ‘im and see if he’s ripe!” And, of course, The Boys mixing a concoction using special ingredients including Anapanaca.

Men In Black Trivia:

Men in Black was the only Stooge film to receive an Oscar nomination.
The opening title music is “I Thought I Wanted You,” by Archie Gottler and Edward Eliscu.
The first use of mallet as anesthesia. During an operation, the Stooges knock out a patient with a mallet. This routine is used in five other shorts and a feature film. Can you name them?
Phyllis Crane played a patient, not a nurse. Her role as Anna Conda is one of the most memorable of all the female supporting players. She made 61 films in an eleven-year span including several with The Boys (besides Men In Black): Three Little Pigskins, Uncivil Warriors, Hoi Polloi, Ants In The Pantry and A Pain In The Pullman.
This was the first use of several popular Stooge routines. One we call ‘I’ll do it when I’m ready!’ where Moe orders one of the other Stooges to do something, but they bravely yell back “I’ll do it when I’m ready!” Moe then asks “Are ya ready?”, and then the Stooge meekly says “Yeah, I’m ready…” Also used in Three Dumb Clucks, We Want Our Mummy, I Can Hardly Wait, Who Done it? Plane Nuts, and the feature film The Three Stooges in Orbit.
Stooge Goof: As the short begins, the clock in the upper left corner of the loudspeaker call board starts off at 1:50 pm, goes to 2:40 pm quickly, then back to 1:50 pm for the rest of the short, where it’s still seen at the end as the boys destroy the call board.
The ‘Los Arms Hospital’ is the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, now a Church of Scientology. Moe’s daughter Joan Maurer gave birth to Moe’s grandchildren there.