SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: 16:00 Min. (Black & White)
Director/Producer Jules White collaborated with his brother, screenwriter Jack White, on one of Shemp Howard’s last capers with the Stooges. Purely by accident, the Stooges (employees of The Elite Café) are eyewitnesses to a brazen armored car heist. As bad luck would further have it, both the two guards and the police deem Larry, Moe, & Shemp the prime suspects.
Forced to clear their names, the Stooges and their boss, Gladys, chase after the crooks to find the necessary proof. With a virtually identical plot, much of this Stooges episode is actually recycled footage from 1948’s “Shivering Sherlocks.”
Moe: Moe Howard
Larry: Larry Fine
Shemp: Shemp Howard
Gladys Harmon: Christine McIntyre (both new and archived footage)
Police Capt. Mullins: Vernon Dent (archived footage)
Jackson: Cy Schindell (archived footage)
Cop – Lie Detector Technician: Joe Palma (archived footage)
Lefty Loomis: Kenneth MacDonald (archived footage)
Red Watkins: Frank Lackteen (archived footage)
Angel: Duke York (archived footage)
Armored Car Guards: Joe Palma & Tom Kingston
Café Customer: Stanley Blystone (archived footage)
Various Cops: Uncredited
Note: This film was McIntyre’s last new appearance in a Stooges comedy. Specifically, she briefly reprises her same role from “Shivering Sherlocks.”
REVIEW:
Like so many Stooge cut-and-paste retreads of the mid-1950’s, “Of Cash and Hash” is new solely in name only. For such a lazy rip-off, the two sequences worth viewing are the rudimentary polygraph gags and a bright finish for Shemp & retiring co-star Christine McIntyre. It’s decent compensation against yet another Stooges caper where Duke York plays a monstrous thug chasing the trio through a ‘haunted house.’
Otherwise, “Of Cash and Hash” is unnecessary déjà vu, especially if “Shivering Sherlocks” is readily available.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 3 Stars
