SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: 16:45 Min. (Black & White)
Produced and directed by Jules White off Felix Adler’s script, this episode represents the final Shemp-era caper (as it’s also the last of the four ‘Fake Shemp’ episodes). At a newspaper office, staff janitors Shemp, Larry, and Moe stumble into an international espionage racket having taken a hot tip meant for their absent boss.
Seeking future careers as investigative journalists, the trio pursue a nebulous foreign spy stealing U.S. atomic secrets. Stowed away aboard a cruise ship, the Stooges soon match wits at sea with their dangerous quarry, who is far closer at hand than they realize.
The plot cuts and pastes 1949’s “Dunked in the Deep” together with 1948’s “Crime on Their Hands.” The only new footage is mostly a sequence where a scrounging Larry & Moe attempt to swipe a passenger’s fish dinner.
Moe: Moe Howard
Larry: Larry Fine
Shemp: Shemp Howard (archived footage)
Emma Blake: Harriette Tarler
Bortch: Gene Roth (archived footage)
J.L. Cameron: Charles Wilson (archived footage)
Smitty: Emil Sitka (cameo)
Fake Shemp: Joe Palma (cameo)
REVIEW:
Given how Columbia Pictures assembled this episode on the cheap, “Commotion on the Ocean” plays better than expected. Even the notorious presence of Joe Palma’s ‘Fake Shemp’ (covering for Shemp, who had passed away in late 1955) is near-undetectable. The only strain comes from inserting Larry & Moe’s new footage, as they appear obviously older some seven years later.
As for a predictable assortment of gags, they generally fall between dull and okay. However, there’s an unfunny sequence where a smoking Shemp inadvertently ignites his hammock on fire (how such a dangerous fire in the ship’s combustible hold is extinguished isn’t revealed). That poorly-conceived joke really ought to have been deleted and/or replaced with other appropriate Shemp footage.
“Commotion on the Ocean,” overall, isn’t among the worst Stooge cut-and-paste jobs from that era. It just isn’t close to necessary viewing, either.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 3½ Stars
