(Three Little Pirates)
You can’t go wrong with Moe.
Some Stooge fans really like Pirates. I can’t go that far, although at least there were laughs and it was nice to see both Vernon Dent and Christine McIntyre. For this being the next-to-last Curly short released, at least Pirates was fine.
The boys work on a New York City garbage scowl; somehow, Palpatine retur… er, I mean somehow, their boat ends up in a fictitious country where people dress like 200 years in the past. Whether they went through a time warp or the country is way behind the times is never addressed nor is it really the point. There are some amusing juxtapositions and the main setpiece is Curly impersonating a Maharajah. I read somewhere that they did a similar routine in a 1941 Columbia wartime musical variety picture called Time Out for Rhythm. I haven’t viewed that but both the full movie and isolated clips of the Stooges are on YouTube.
IMO, that segment does feel quite lengthy and they do stretch out a stereotype that some may object to. Be that as it may, there are still some moments reminiscent of the “good old days” and various laughs along the way; it was nice to see this particular combination one last time both the “stuck in a confined space so they end up accidentally hitting each other” bit and “they fight a large throng of goons & dispatch them.”
This would be the best of a weak 1946.
(Short # 97 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)
(Half-Wits Holiday)
Curly’s
last short—aside from a cameo in an early Shemp effort. His health had
deteriorated for awhile and while filming Holiday, he suffered a stroke
during a break. Only Moe, Larry and director Jules White knew why he
didn’t appear during the climatic pie fight climax. Many people like
Shemp (me included) but at least as a kid, the Curly shorts were seen
more often on TV, VHS, etc. He is also the favorite of millions due to
his childlike demeanor, facial expressions, sounds, malapropisms, and
puns.
Holiday was a remake of 1935’s Hoi Polloi, a great early effort involving the trio. This was not that. Some moments felt lethargic; a Curly of the past could have added some facial expressions or done other things to liven up those moments. Like Polloi, this is a riff on Pygmalion where a pair of professors argue over if hereditary or environmental factors determine someone’s disposition.
There still are laughs present so this was far from the worst during the Curly run. Despite being days then hours away from a stroke, he didn’t seem that bad on screen, although he apparently was obviously not well during filming. The pie fight was used as stock footage in the future. Another distinction is that this was the debut of Emil Sitka in this universe. He was a familiar face in the Shemp era. Film nerds in general will know him for “Hold hands, you lovebirds!” because that moment was shown in Pulp Fiction; I’ll elaborate on that when I review Brideless Groom soon.
Shemp replacing Curly was originally planned as a temporary move; his health never improved and in fact declined until the man born Jerome Horwitz passed away in early 1952. It is upsetting that he passed away at the age of 48 and he was never given sufficient time off from Columbia after his health struggles began & he had his first stroke. I could also get mad over the studio never paying the Stooges what they were worth.
Instead, I’ll be happy that in 2025, this revisit of Curly Howard happened—the growth and maturation of him as an all-timer comedic performer has been a delight, especially with all the chaos and upsetting moments that have happened in the United States. In the future I likely will review one of the Moe-Larry-Curly appearances as guest stars in a Columbia movie so my take on Half-Wits Holiday won’t be the last time I talk about him. However, I’ll wish him a goodbye now.
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