Finally, Two More Stooge Shorts

Three Pests in a Mess: 

(Short # 83 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

“A Rube Goldberg Fly-Catching Device” is the engine that drives the plot. Everything is built around misunderstandings. The trio bring their absurd device to the patent office and because they’re victims of circumstance, Christine McIntyre is part of a nefarious gang that thinks Curly has $100,000, which leads to the trio thinking that a mannequin is a person they committed involuntary manslaughter against, which leads to them attempting to bury the mannequin in a pet cemetery (!) which results in caretaker Snub Pollard calling his bosses about them… as they’re at a masquerade party, they happen to arrive wearing Halloween costumes, leading to the expected chicanery.

Pests has a different feel from typical for the Stooges; there are also plenty of new gags and routines. Not all of them are successful yet there were enough laughs where I was entertained—even if the first half is better than the second half which includes the wackiness in the pet cemetery. There’s an Al Jolson joke which isn’t as offensive as it sounds-Moe has ink over his face and Larry singing “Mammy” is a silly reference to Jolson in blackface which isn’t a “yikes” in 2025. As mentioned in an earlier review, there is another short (it will be reviewed soon) where the trio ARE in blackface and it was just unfortunate.

Booby Dupes

(Short # 84 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

I was thankful to return to the Stooges after a few days away and the day I had yesterday. Sunday wasn’t a great day for me in terms of mental health. Among other issues, I had to spend too much time attempting to fix someone else’s old Windows 10 computer… when I finally decided to do a simple power cycle, problem fixed. It was better than telling this person that they suddenly needed to spend hundreds of dollars on a replacement (although they should get a new Windows 11 machine anyhow) but at least today has been an improvement.

Anyhow, the trio are selling fish from a truck; this isn’t the first time that’s happened (the first was 1940’s Cookoo Cavaliers) but on this occasion, after failure, Curly concocts a scheme to cut out the middleman via the boys catching fish themselves. This results in them wearing Naval officers’ uniforms (to help them find a boat… somehow), then purchasing a glorified canoe, which results in the expected calamities.

There appeared to be some flubs, there for certain was an obvious boom mic shadow in the background of one scene and the water tank they used for the final few minutes was rather obvious—among other things, the studio lights blatantly reflected off the water. Those details noted, I laughed a decent amount so that helped mitigate the flaws in this short. New gags were present, along with fine modifications of old ones.

The segment with Vernon Dent and Rebel Randall was disconnected from the rest but was at least funny. Randall was a pin-up girl who acted for a time and later became a popular radio DJ in Hollywood. She led quite the life outside of Hollywood; some Stooge fans are big fans in terms of appearance-she is a striking brunette. Booby Dupes helped make today better than the shambolic Sunday I had.