SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: 18:07 Min. (Black & White)
Directed by Del Lord, this early Three Stooges comedy for Columbia Pictures was scripted by Felix Adler. Desperate for work, the vagrant Stooges borrow a store’s brooms to try advertising their services. Mistaking them for thieves, the shop owner sends a plainclothes policeman in hot pursuit of the fleeing Stooges.
Chased into an upscale art class, the trio is forced to play several rounds of duck-and-dodge with the tenacious cop. Impersonating artists, the Stooges ultimately incite a clay-flinging melee inside the studio.
Moe: Moe Howard
Larry: Larry Fine
Curly: Jerry “Curly” Howard
Plainclothes Cop: Louis Mason
Professor Fuller: Bobby Burns
Artistic Models: Phyllis Crane & Geneva Mitchell
French Artist: Leo White
Shop Keeper: Billy Engle
Bearded Man: Jack Duffy
Motorist # 1 (with Larry): Al Thompson
Panhandled Pedestrian (with Curly): William Irving
Motorist # 2: Grace Goodall
Female Motorist Seeking Social Secretary (with Moe): Uncredited
Rival Vagrant (with Moe): Uncredited
Hopscotch Girls: Joan Howard & Phyllis Fine (cameos)
Art Students & Patrons: Ernie Young, Blanche Payson, Elinor Vanderveer, George Ovey, Delo Jewkes, Jack Kenney, Art Rowlands, Lew Davis, Neal Burns, Harold Breen, & Bob Callahan
Note: Larry’s daughter & Moe’s daughter make their only film appearances.
REVIEW:
Making the most of its simplistic premise, this episode serves up a vintage Stooges caper. More specifically, the gags often come off as more humorously clever than hilarious (i.e. the hopscotch sequence). Substituting globs of clay (resembling Play-Doh) for cream puffs and pies, the messy finale is well worth waiting for. Well-played!
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 7½ Stars
