Gypped in the Penthouse:
(Short # 161 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)
This was one of only two original shorts in 1955; while using the idea of a “woman haters club” that was presented in the very first short the Stooges did at Columbia over 2 decades ago (Woman Haters) and this wasn’t the first time either that the boys dealt with a gold digger stereotype, part of my enjoyment was that this was full of new gags, jokes, & routines. That’s a breath of fresh air especially now.
Larry & Shemp meet each other at the club; first, Larry regales Shemp w/ how Jean Willes’ Jane dumped him because Moe gave her a bigger ring. Then, Shemp regales Larry w/ Jane inviting him to her house despite now being married to Moe. Along the way, a piano gets wrecked, a mirror cracks, Shemp impersonates Liberace while wearing her robe, and Shemp using a washing machine goes awry.
The rare occasions the Stooges don’t portray their archetypal characters, the results are mixed. Thankfully, Gypped in the Penthouse was refreshing, providing me with a good amount of laughs. Mix in a funny breaking the 4th wall & Gypped was a delight.
Bedlam in Paradise:
(Short # 162 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)
This time, the Stooges remade Heavenly Daze; this has an atypical premise of Shemp in Heaven; to avoid going to Hell, he has to reform his cousins Moe & Larry without them seeing or hearing him. As I said in the review for Daze, while the set for Heaven looks like just that & there’s suggestive humor, it was still a nice change of pace in terms of concept. Moe & Larry still attempt to rip off a rich couple w/ a preposterous invention.
Thankfully, there isn’t as much stock footage used from Heavenly Daze as typical; Satan appears, and in a dual role where he also portrays a businessman helping Moe & Larry… a literal devil in disguise. Also, Satan as a minion, a dame known as HELEN BLAZES; as Sylvia Lewis was a dancer who later became a choreographer for decades and danced in everything from The Conqueror to Singin’ in the Rain, that’s what she did w/ Shemp, who was almost tempted by her. BTW, Lewis is apparently still alive in her 90’s.
Bedlam was a remake which wasn’t too much worse than the original, w/ new footage that was amusing. Shemp still punishes his cousins for bad behavior while assisting them against the shyster attorney I. Fleecem. Still present is a wild stunt, at least for the era; there’s a rather blatant overdub where Shemp says a new final line, but that was more amusing than a detriment.
Stone Age Romeos:
(Short # 163 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)
You wouldn’t believe how they incorporated old stock footage. Romeos is based on 1948’s I’m a Monkey’s Uncle, where our trio are cavemen back in the prehistoric days.
In Romeos, the Stooges sport beards and meet museum curator B. BOPPER, played by Emil Sitka. He wishes the prove… that modern cavemen still exist?! Yeah, it is absurd. After antics in his office, we briefly see them out in the field w/ a 16mm camera, then suddenly appears the footage from Uncle, purportedly filmed by the Stooges. The conclusion is probably what you’d expect, although it does raises questions, such as who filmed Moe, Larry and Shemp…
Of course, it's foolish to apply logic to a short as silly as Stone Age Romeos. My apologies for imitating a broken record here, but the original I’m a Monkey’s Uncle is better and is preferable to seeing an edited version. That said, the new footage is fine, albeit with familiar gags of the past. The wacky attempt to incorporate what was filmed before was at least more creative than typical—explaining the passing grade.
Wham-Bam-Slam!
(Short # 164 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)
No, I don’t know either why this is entitled “Wham-Bam-Slam!” That’s really a minor point and not that relevant when it comes to this new version of 1948’s Pardon My Clutch, where Shemp has a bad case of nerves, exasperated by a bad toothache. Their pal Claude cares for him despite his lack of proper medical training. He then offers the trio a jalopy to use for a camping trip… but it goes so awry that they never leave the house.
Clutch was fine, with a decent amount of laughs and the rare detail that all three Stooges are happily married. Slam’s new footage isn’t bad—that said, it arguably does not match particularly well with Clutch’s scenes and like typical, the OG effort was just better. My apologies for not having the wordiest, most in-depth reviews during this late Shemp era. He only has half a dozen more shorts to go, then there’s the four Fake Shemp entries that every Stooge fan despises, then the short Joe Besser era that most of them despise. Those will at least give me more to discuss...
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