Three Little Twerps

(Short # 71 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

The Stooges in the world of a circus was not as spectacular as you might expect; that said, the short was still good. Perhaps they were handicapped that this was the second (and last) short directed by Harry Edwards. The first (Matri-Phony) was fraught with issues and took 3 weeks to film when shoots typically were only a few days. This also had its issues; the boys refused to work with him ever again. They never had those problems with the likes of Jules White, Edward Bernds, or Del Lord.

In any case, while a minor effort in their canon to me that’s still good, my criticisms are mild. The boys hang posters advertising the circus in town; like clockwork that simple task was bungled. Note that in an ironic moment, they put their poster over a movie poster for the long-forgotten 1942 Columbia picture The Man Who Returned to Life, co-starring Kenneth MacDonald, who did appear in many films and TV shows for decades but appeared in one short w/ Curly then more than a dozen Shemp shorts, almost always the heel.

They cause more havoc at the circus itself, including Curly’s interaction w/ Anita Sharp-Bolster, who portrayed a bearded lady a year after playing another bearded lady in Hitchcock’s Saboteur. There’s also Larry & Curly in a horse costume interacting w/ real horses, then the trio becoming targets of a spear-thrower… regrettably, the white Duke York in an ethnic role.

As there are several silly sight gags, I can’t get too mad at Three Little Twerps, even if not all the iconography of a circus (such as elephants, clowns, etc.) make an appearance here.