Gents Without Cents

(Short # 81 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

NIAGARA FALLS! Slowly I turned… step by step… inch by inch. This is based on a vaudeville routine that has been on screen from the likes of Abbot & Costello, The Danny Thomas Show, I Love Lucy, and other programs… but many people seem to cite this iteration of the routine whenever it is brought up online.

In short, the routine is that character one tells character two a story of how he got revenge on someone, and character two utters a word that’s triggering (that is the best way to describe the scenario); in this case, it was NIAGARA FALLS, as Moe was looking for revenge on Larry for stealing his girl, and found him at Niagara Falls. Curly is the brunt of Moe’s rage at his utterance of the phrase.

The trio are performers who presented this sketch as the centerpiece of the short. That is bookended by the boys being thwarted by fate whenever practicing the routine, which resulted in meeting a trio of acrobatic ladies. They were random dames who were only billed by their first names in the intro (Lindsay, Laverne, and Betty) even though their fame was limited to performing for the troops overseas and at factories at home during World War II. After NIAGARA FALLS, another sketch was done before a happy ending and a nice callback as the conclusion.

Gents Without Cents was atypical for the Stooges but was typical for WWII & Hollywood. They made some musicals featuring both big stars and up-and-comers doing routines. In fact, the big routine was actually filmed for a 1943 Columbia feature film-Good Luck, Mr. Yates-but for reasons unknown was excised at the last minute. That footage was used for Gents and the rest was built around that centerpiece.

There’s singing, dancing, and general good vibes around some slapstick outside of the big scene. Gents is one appreciated more now than in the past; those that have heard of NIAGARA FALLS before yet never seen it or would like to revisit that bit, finding this on YouTube… would make cents.