Two More Stooges Shorts

First was Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise: 

(Short # 42 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

What a delightful short this was. The first third we see the villains swindle people out of their land; the heels know but those poor innocent folks don’t know their land holds oil. The trio are down on their luck and a farmer agrees to allow them to work on his farm for a meal. If only he knew they would screw up sawing wood then couldn’t handle the trap door on the bottom of the wagon holding those pieces of wood. Curly has a literal temper tantrum as his hard head causes problems and he can’t close that door.

However, the rest has a miracle… Curly makes wishes that sound preposterous for the scenario, yet they keep on coming true. They help an older lady on another farm, meet her lovely daughters April, May, and June… and oh yeah, discover a geyser gushing out oil. The good luck continues as they then encounter the crooks.

Besides the novelty of seeing all the positive sunlight shine on the Stooges, there were many new routines to experience, including a big stunt involving the geyser which was impressive work by the dude who was doubling for Curly. Plenty of laughs were had as the dialogue was on-point also. I’m sure Moe wasn’t chuckling when an oil-related gag when the substance they used got stuck in his eye… that’s horrifying to me as someone who gets queasy at eye trauma.

By the by, Linda Winters portrayed June; she also acted under the name Dorothy Comingore; yes, Susan Alexander Kane in Citizen Kane.

Second was Three Sappy People: 

(Short # 43 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

So… once again I’ve had Internet issues! A certain John McClane quote from Die Hard 2 is in my mind now—it’s one too vulgar to say in polite company. It went out a little after 4 PM yesterday and did not return until after midnight. This time the cable stayed on so it wasn’t total misery. That doesn’t mean I am not incredibly salty over this happening again.

These past few months, there’s been some bad moments, both mentioned and not mentioned here. It’s not anything serious; at the same time, deciding to revisit The Three Stooges and view them chronologically through the first half of ’25 has been a wise idea as the laughs have been needed.

Three Sappy People was one of their shorts featuring a pastry fight. In fact, lore suggests that lead girl Lorna Gray (later known as Adrian Booth) choked after food landed in her mouth and went down her throat. Those rumors were exaggerated but I’ll explain later. Gray portrayed Sheri (or Sherri, or Sherry; I’ve seen all three on different sites), the flightiest of screwball comedy women, a woman whose introduction is driving her car into the living room at her mansion while arriving late to her birthday party! No wonder her husband finally decides to call psychiatrists Dr. Z. Ziller, Dr. X. Zeller and Dr. Y. Zoller to try and immediately cure her.

The Stooges are telephone repairmen who are at those offices; of course the expected mix-up occurs and off they go to that soiree. After the expected calamity at the office (which included lines heard before in previous shorts; they still made me laugh), their arrival and subsequent buffoonery immediately entertained Sheri. After creating the worst version of the jungle juice you’d ever find at a college apartment party and a test of reflexes gone wrong, dinner was served.

The pastry fight was as amusing as you’d expect. Yes, Lorna Gray was surprised by the projectile going right in her mouth (phrasing) but the food did not cause her to choke or was the source of any other emergency. Ann Doran-best known as James Dean’s mom in Rebel Without a Cause-was a delight as the prim and proper countess who remained staid no matter what buffoonery she witnessed. A shame this was the only short she did with the boys.