SUMMARY: Running Time: Approx. 18:00 Min. (Black & White)
Directed by Jack White (under the pseudonym of Preston Black), the story is supplied by Ewart Adamson. Ruining an ultra-pricey Chinese wooden box, inept carpenters Larry, Moe, & Curly hastily flee their woodworking job. The police are already after the Stooges – as they’re the lost heirs to an uncle’s high-society French fashion salon.
Indulging their newfound careers as snooty dress designers, the Stooges bumble-and-stumble their way into a chaotic fashion show. It gets gooey fast when payback time shifts into a cream puff melee!
Moe: Moe Howard
Larry: Larry Fine
Curly: Curly Howard
Morgan Morgan: Vernon Dent
Mrs. Morgan Morgan: Symona Boniface
Shop Manager: Eddie Laughton
Romani: William J. Irving
Cops: Bert Young & Blackie Whiteford
Bureau Officer: Jack Lipson
Dress Customer: Elinor Vanderveer
Model Assistants: Hilda Title & Gertrude Messenger
Mrs. Morgan’s Friend: June Gittelson
Models: Loretta Andrews, Mary Lou Dix, & Gale Arnold
Mrs. Morgan’s Associates: Beatrice Blinn, Elaine Waters, Beatrice Curtis, & Martha Tibbetts
REVIEW:
The Stooges’ woodshop hijinks don’t add much to the story, but this segment is still amusing. Destined to be a long-time Stooge foil, Vernon Dent’s guest spot is the woodshop’s best asset. Despite the script’s contrivances, the shift towards dress shop gags spoofing pretentious high fashion deliver vintage Stooge mayhem.
The only caveat are a pair of nasty scissors-related gags that should be condemned as utterly tasteless. Also, Curly’s unprovoked fat joke late in the game aimed at a female customer comes off as unnecessarily cruel rather than funny. Yet, the screwball cream puff-fest is worth waiting for, as Curly’s zany facial reactions deliver dynamite laughs.
As this series is prone to do, the script abruptly resorts to a familiar last chuckle. Let’s just say this same formulaic gag is used, for instance, in an earlier Stooge high society hijinks caper: 1935’s “Hoi Polloi.” Despite a clunky finish, “Slippery Silks” still rates among the better efforts from the Stooges during that era.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 7 Stars
Note: For a Three Stooges high-society hat trick of 1935-36, try also watching “Hoi Polloi,” and “Ants in the Pantry.”
